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Health and Safety at Work Act now Law

Issue date

The Health and Safety at Work Act came into law on the 4th of April 2016 and with it there are changes which will affect clubs. Now is the time to become familiar with the changes and ensure your club is up to scratch in the health and safety department.

Clubs with strong health and safety practices will not need to make significant changes, however all clubs should take this opportunity to review and improve their training, policies and practices.

The aim is to change New Zealand's health and safety culture, and for leaders to drive that change. It is about keeping people safe and a shift in thinking from 'do I have a duty to this person?' to 'what can I reasonably do to keep them safe?'

The act has introduced PCBU's - Person Conducting or a Business Undertaking. Clubs will either fall in to the category of a PCBU or a Volunteer Organisation.

PBCU's have a primary duty of care, and it's Officers have due diligence duty to ensure the PBCU complies with it's duty. Officers are people who are able to exercise significant influence over the organisation, which can include Commodores, committee members and key staff.

PCBU's and it's paid officers are liable under the new Act. Volunteer Officers (i.e. unpaid Commodores and committee members) have duty but are not liable.

Health and safety needs to be a regular agenda item, actively and visibly managed by clubs. All clubs should be reviewing their processes and documentation including , policies, Risk Assessment and Management System (RAMS), Safe Operating Procedures (SOP), training requirements and implementation, reporting methods and monitoring periods.

There will be a workshop on the new Act and club health and safety management at the Yachting New Zealand Commodores Conference, June 25th at the Bucklands Beach Yacht Club in Auckland. For more information on your club attending, please contact Yachting New Zealand at mail@yachtingnz.org.nz.

Yachting New Zealand has a dedicated page on its website to help clubs and committees understand the new Act and what it means for them. There are also resources in the Yachting New Zealand Club Manual.  Links to both pages are below.

Health and Safety Reform - http://www.yachtingnz.org.nz/clubs/health-safety-reform

Club Manual - http://www.yachtingnz.org.nz/clubs/club-manual