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1 week ago | 
hcamag.com | Bronwyn Heenan |Mike Mercer
The first change proposed is a carve out for small, low risk businesses from general requirements under the Health & Safety at Work Act (HSWA).
Those businesses will only have to manage critical risks and provide basic facilities to ensure worker welfare.
What defines a “small business” and more importantly what defines a “low-risk business” (along with which obligations they will be exempt from), will be critical to understand.
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3 weeks ago | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Bronwyn Heenan |Maria Slade
Last August, I posed the question: Is it all really about the road cones? in response to Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden commencing consultation on work health and safety reforms in July 2024. Road cones featured highly on van Velden’s list of issues, and that was borne out in a raft of announcements the minister made this week about a number of health and safety reforms that are coming.
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1 month ago | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Greg Hurrell |Bronwyn Heenan |Mike Mercer |Pattrick Smellie
The Building Research Association of New Zealand has launched a 10-year strategy reset to try and stem the never-ending flow of building failures in NZ.
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1 month ago | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Bronwyn Heenan |Mike Mercer |Pattrick Smellie
We have written in this column before about the tragic loss of life and serious injuries suffered by guides and visitors to Whakaari White Island on Dec 9, 2019.
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1 month ago | 
lexology.com | Bronwyn Heenan |Mike Mercer
The High Court (Court) has ruled that Whakaari Management Ltd(WML) did not have a duty under section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 to ensure the safety of the walking tour workplace on Whakaari / White Island. As a result, WML’s conviction in the District Court for a breach of section 37 has been quashed. This decision significantly clarifies the health and safety obligations of landowners who allow third parties to access their land for commercial activities.
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2 months ago | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Bronwyn Heenan |Ian Llewellyn |Oliver Lewis |Ben Moore
Many employers find themselves in situations in the workplace, causing them significant frustration. However, employers need to be aware that while frustration levels might be high, relying on frustration as a reason to terminate an employment agreement will not end well. In a judgment released last week, the chief judge in the Employment Court in DQJ v The Commissioner of Inland Revenue (IRD) highlighted this.
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Nov 24, 2024 | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Maria Slade |Denise McNabb |Bronwyn Heenan
Life’s tough for your average small business at the moment.After lurching through the covid years and straight into the headwinds of a protracted economic downturn, many are simply running out of puff.Some 2,300 companies hit the wall in the first 10 months of this year alone, compared with under 2,000 in the whole of 2023.A quick look at the weekly High Court liquidation list shows the petitioning creditor is often the Commissioner of Inland Revenue, as the taxperson (IRD once told me off...
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Nov 21, 2024 | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Bronwyn Heenan |Maria Slade |Ben Moore |Ian Llewellyn
There has been much talk recently about obligations on an employer to manage psychosocial risks at work and to ensure staff have mentally healthy work. These conversations are important, as is ensuring a safe and healthy place for all to work in. WorkSafe is currently consulting on guidelines for all businesses in managing psychosocial risks at work. It has set an extremely tight deadline for that consultation, which is very unfortunate given the importance of the issues, of November 11 to 29.
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Nov 11, 2024 | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Paul McBeth |Maria Slade |Simon Robertson |Bronwyn Heenan
In the world of banking, boring is good. Boring means stable profits in the door and a manageably small number of bad debts on the books. If you were to scan the annual results from three of the big four last week – Westpac, BNZ and ANZ – you would probably conclude that things are pretty boring in banking land.
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Nov 11, 2024 | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Maria Slade |Simon Robertson |Bronwyn Heenan |Peter Griffin
A few weeks ago, concerned representatives of the Balmoral Residents Association met with their new(ish) MP, National’s Carlos Cheung.These good citizens are worried about the fate of Auckland’s ‘special character’ areas, the protective overlay the city’s Unitary Plan puts over certain areas where original turn-of-the-century villas and bungalows still dominate.The northern end of Cheung’s Mt Roskill electorate has a small cluster of these streets, and his response to the association did not...
