Small business exempt from some health and safety rules

Monday, 31 March 2025

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at the post-Cabinet press conference on Monday.

Small businesses will be excused from complying with some of the requirements of health and safety legislation, the Government has announced.

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden said the Cabinet had agreed to system-wide changes to cut through “unnecessary red tape” holding businesses back.

“The first change will be a carve-out for small, low-risk businesses from general Health and Safety at Work Act requirements. These businesses will only have to manage critical risks and provide basic facilities to ensure worker welfare,” she said.

“For example, a small clothing shop would still need to provide first aid, emergency plans, and basic facilities, such as suitable lighting, but wouldn’t need to have a psychosocial harm policy in place,” she said.

The changes would reduce “tick-box health and safety activities” that did not protect workers from harm, van Velden said.

Only “significant” workplace events would need to be reported.

The changes were the start of the Government’s reform programme, she said.

“I will be seeking Cabinet decisions in the coming months that will further improve WorkSafe and address sector-specific pain points.

“Workers can be assured that their employers will prioritise the right actions to protect them from harm, and they know where their attention should be to keep themselves and their workmates safe.”

Van Velden said the Cabinet had agreed to system-wide changes to cut through “unnecessary red tape” holding businesses back.

The National Party’s coalition agreement with the ACT Party commits the Government to reforming the Health and Safety Act.

BusinessNZ, the Council of Trade Unions (CTU), the Health and Safety Association and the Institute of Safety Management said in an open letter in October that they viewed the act as “fundamentally fit for purpose” and advised against a substantial overhaul.

The letter, which was supported by more than a dozen other organisations, including the Forestry Industry Safety Council and mining industry safety body MinEx, effectively called on the Government to double-down on the existing legislation.

It advocated for more investment and inspectors at WorkSafe and against radical change.

Van Velden responded to those appeals in November by saying that she was “not here to try and strip away laws and make our country less safe”.

The Institute of Safety Management said today the Government had “missed an opportunity to save lives”.

The institute’s members are health and safety practitioners.

Chairperson Mike Cosman described the reforms the Government announced today as “underwhelming and unambitious”.

Between 50 and 70 people a year died in workplace accidents, double the rate of Australia and four times that of the UK when adjusted for their populations, he said.

Another 700 to 1000 died from workplace diseases and many thousands of others suffered significant harm, he said.

“We want to see all workers come home to their families healthy and safe; we can’t see these reforms improving these dismal numbers.”

New Zealand has a worse track record than the UK or Australia on health and safety and ACC, which picks up the bill, is billions of dollars in deficit.

Van Velden responded that the reforms would help workers by helping “focus everybody on critical risks in workplaces; those risks that end up with death, serious illness and injury”.

“I'll be seeking Cabinet decisions on further issues in the coming months, which will include improvements to WorkSafe,” she also said.

Cosman said the institute was “deeply worried” about the proposal to exempt small businesses from some rules.

“Small businesses are less safe than big ones so this change is backwards.”

He questioned why workers should face more risks if they work for smaller companies.

The reforms were focused on “costs to businesses of prevention and not the much greater costs of harm”, he said.

“This seems to be looking through the wrong end of the telescope to us because the cost of our poor health and safety record is north of $4.9 billion per year to say nothing of the impact on workers and their families.”

Simon Arcus, chief executive of Business Central, which represents 3500 businesses in the lower North Island and Nelson, was more supportive.

“Safety is essential to every workplace, but our current health and safety laws don’t reflect levels of actual risk,” he said.

“A retail shop or small office is a very different environment to a construction site, yet our current laws require small business to address their risks in similar ways.”

Council of Trade Unions president Richard Wagstaff said van Velden’s proposals were driven by ACT Party ideology, noting there was on average a workplace fatality every week.

“The Government seems to think the biggest obstacle to our poor productivity and health and safety outcomes is too many road cones.

“It’s no wonder New Zealand can’t get ahead when our leaders in Government seem so out of touch and have no credible responses to these challenges,” he said.