New Zealand Legislation: Acts
Acts are laws made by Parliament
The object of this Act is to promote the prevention of harm to all persons at work and other persons in, or in the vicinity of, a place of work by—
(a) promoting excellence in health and safety management, in particular through promoting the systematic management of health and safety; and
(b) defining hazards and harm in a comprehensive way so that all hazards and harm are covered, including harm caused by work-related stress and hazardous behaviour caused by certain temporary conditions; and
(c) imposing various duties on persons who are responsible for work and those who do the work; and
(d) setting requirements that—
(i) relate to taking all practicable steps to ensure health and safety; and
(ii) are flexible to cover different circumstances; and
(e) recognising that volunteers doing work activities for other persons should have their health and safety protected because their well-being and work are as important as the well-being and work of employees; and
(f) recognising that successful management of health and safety issues is best achieved through good faith co-operation in the place of work and, in particular, through the input of the persons doing the work; and
(g) providing a range of enforcement methods, including various notices and prosecution, so as to enable an appropriate response to a failure to comply with the Act depending on its nature and gravity; and
(h) prohibiting persons from being indemnified or from indemnifying others against the cost of fines and infringement fees for failing to comply with the Act.
Section 5 was substituted, as from 5 May 2003, by section 7 Health and Safety in Employment Amendment Act 2002 (2002 No 86). See section 31 of that Act as to the general transitional provision.