Fully tailored workplace safety systems for Whangarei and Northland businesses

It is a legal requirement for every PCBU to provide a safe place of work for the people who work for the PCBU. This is done by managing (eliminating or minimising) the hazards and risks workers are exposed to, ensuring that all workers are suitably trained to carry out their work, ensure that workers are provided with a means to discuss Health and Safety at work (via Health and Safety representation and/or committees and staff meetings), monitor the effectiveness of the hazard and risk controls, assess the training and abilities of workers, put in place changes to improve safety based on information gathered from staff meetings, employee representation, monitoring and assessment.

A Health and Safety Management System is a collection of documents that assist a business with managing their Health and Safety obligations. It will include policies for various business operations e.g. overall Health and Safety, rehabilitation of injured workers, Health and Safety meetings, working alone, visitors to the business. Procedural documents list how the policies are managed and directed e.g. hazard and risk management, accident and incident reporting and investigation, emergency management, contractor management. Forms are used to record various events e.g. Health and Safety meetings, toolbox meetings, accidents and incidents, inspections, new hazards and risks.

Yes, the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) requires all PCBU’s (Person in Control of a Business or Undertaking) to provide a safe place of work for their workers. Using a Health and Safety management system centralises the documents and forms used to manage and provide this safe place of work.

Yes, all PCBU’s have the same obligations under the HSWA. It doesn’t matter if you are a sole trader with no staff or a large company employing hundreds of staff. The scale of the plan will differ of course.

Yes, the obligation of every PCBU is to provide a safe workplace for its workers. This must be done as far as is reasonably practicable. E.g. in a workers house the PCBU can provide an ergonomic desk and chair and suitable computer equipment, but it wouldn’t be reasonable for the PCBU to control the layout of the house. Workers who work remotely can be provided with a safe vehicle suitable for the work being carried but the PCBU cannot control the condition of the roads or the abilities of other drivers on the road. These are hazards and risks that must be minimised.

A notifiable event is any of the following events that arise from work:

1. The death of a person
2. A notifiable injury or illness
3. A notifiable incident

The full meaning of a notifiable injury, illness or incident can be found on the WorkSafe website.

NOTE: The definition of notifiable injuries, illnesses and incidents can be grey and NorthSafe will always err on the side of caution and advise a business to notify WorkSafe if it is not totally certain. It is better to notify WorkSafe of an event that isn’t necessarily notifiable than to not report an event that is.