‍What’s changing – the short version

The Government is changing the Health and Safety at Work Act so if there are 20 or fewer people working in an organisation the employer will only have to take responsibility for “critical risks”. Workers and their families (and our health system) will be left to carry the cost of all other risks and injuries.

What are “critical risks” and what would this mean?

It’s a pretty high bar. “Critical risks” is a list of specific risks (e.g. asbestos) and risks that likely cause death or physical harm requiring immediate treatment or hospitalisation.

For all other risks like minor injuries, falls, back strain, harassment, infections, bullying, excessive workload, abuse from clients etc, the employer doesn't have to take steps to eliminate it, or provide training, instruction, supervision or personal protective equipment (PPE) to the workers. Workplace health and safety reps couldn't issue an improvement or a stop work notice. Employers won’t have to take responsibility and workers and their families, and our health system, will carry the cost.

What you can do – take action now!

Whether you or your family and friends work for a small organisation or a big one, we can stand together for all workers’ right to healthy and safe work. Tell Parliament all workers have a right to come home safe.  

• Submit on the Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill before the consultation deadline 18 March. You can submit as an individual or with friends, colleagues, or family. 

• Sign up to get active on health and safety through your union, or join our HSR network if you’re already an official health and safety rep. 

Suggested points to include in your submission

• I don’t support reducing employers’ health and safety responsibilities for small organisations to just “critical risks.” 

• All workers have a right to healthy and safe work and to go home safe. 

• Noncritical risks can still seriously affect people’s work and life outside work. 

• Workers and their families should not have to carry the cost of unsafe work. 

Other key changes in the bill – quick facts

• Prioritising critical risks for larger organisations is proposed, but the Bill includes no penalty if they fail to do so. 

• Approved Codes of Practice (ACOPs) would become “safe harbours of deemed compliance”: organisations that follow an ACOP for a given risk would be treated as having met their duties and largely protected from regulatory enforcement for that risk. Industries would be able to propose codes for government approval rather than WorkSafe leading development. 

• The reforms also create rules to reduce overlap with other regulatory regimes, for example, meeting obligations under the Building Act for e.g. earthquake standards could be taken as having met related health and safety duties, even if the earlier health and safety standard was higher. This effectively reduces duties in some circumstances.