The four most dangerous industries in New Zealand are construction, forestry, agriculture and manufacturing. (File photo) Photo: 123RF
Proposed health and safety law changes for businesses will not make workers any safer, experts are warning, and could lead to more confusion.
A promise to reform the laws and regulations formed part of National's coalition agreement with ACT and Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden introduced the health and safety at work amendment bill to Parliament this week. It passed its first reading on Thursday.
Van Velden said the changes would make it easier to run a business by "increasing certainty and removing fear", to help ease the costs of compliance and improve safety outcomes.
It would increase available guidance and support by giving businesses access to guidance that is tailored to their own industries and easier to keep up to date than regulations and clarifying WorkSafe's functions, she said.
Mike Cosman, who had almost 50 years of experience in occupational safety and health and risk management, told Nine to Noon, the changes would increase confusion for businesses and workers.
"Businesses aren't going to be looking at the law and analysing those regulations... the four most dangerous industries are construction, forestry, agriculture and manufacturing, none of those industries have industry specific regulations that will be governing them which will be on the list."
Cosman said small businesses of under 20 people, would only have a duty on things that were a critical risk, and they would not have a legal duty to provide training, supervision or personal safety equipment to workers.
"It's removing fundamental protection from what are often some of the most vulnerable workers.
"I believe, for companies who deliberately want to apply the minimum standard, this provides them with major opt-outs where they will no longer have to invest in their people, in their systems, in order to look after workers."
He said there was nothing in the bill that explained what a business should do differently if something was classed as a "critical risk".
Dave Tilton, the founder of Parallaxx, a road safety and traffic management company, told Nine to Noon, good safety was not the same as more paperwork.
"I think this bill just confuses administration with safety. The floor you need to meet is now set at a more basic standard."
Cosman also pushed back on van Velden's comment about businesses feeling fearful of current laws.
"The number of prosecutions taken by WorkSafe last year was 39. There were 600,000 businesses, 70 acute deaths, 750 to 900 premature deaths due to occupational disease and there were 39 prosecutions. That does not suggest there is a climate of fear."
Van Velden said she was looking forward to hearing feedback around whether the changes were clear and workable once the bill opened for submissions at Select Committee.
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