Health and safety

Last Revised: 23 May 2023

New Zealand National Party Health and Safety Policy Statement

The Board and Management of the New Zealand National Party take the health and safety of themselves, staff, volunteers, contractors, suppliers and the public very seriously and are committed to providing a healthy and safe work environment. A health and safety management system has been implemented to assist us in meeting this commitment.

At all times, management will:

Demonstrate leadership and commitment to health and safety
Ensure that specific health and safety roles are designated at Senior Management level, and that objectives and performance criteria are set for all line managers
Comply with all relevant legislation, regulations, standards, safe operating procedures and codes of practice
Ensure that all workers (including volunteers) are aware of, understand and accept their responsibility to maintain his/her own safety and the safety of others in the workplace
Develop interest and enthusiasm in safety by engaging with workers (including appropriate unions and nominated worker representatives) and encouraging all workers to participate and be involved in health and safety initiatives
Effectively manage hazards and risks within the workplace, so far as is reasonably practicable, through hazard identification, risk assessment, risk control and ongoing monitoring.
Provide appropriate and well-maintained plant, machinery and tools, to ensure workers have the equipment to carry out their job safely
Develop health and safety awareness through effective induction, training and supervision, to ensure that staff can carry out all aspects of their role safely
Actively encourage the accurate and immediate reporting of all accident, incidents and near hits, so that corrective actions can be undertaken. Where injury or illness occurs, support workers to achieve full recovery through prompt treatment and active rehabilitation, to ensure a safe return to work
Promote a system of continual improvement through regular planning, monitoring and review of our workers and our work practices, including an annual review of the health and safety management system
In conjunction with the Health and Safety Committee, review the health and safety management system annually and allocate resources to meet the commitments of this Policy.

All workers are expected to help maintain a safe working environment by:

Taking reasonable care of their own health and safety
Ensuring that their actions do not negatively affect the health and safety of others
Complying with all health and safety policies and procedures
Reporting all hazards, unsafe conditions, near hits, accidents and incidents.

We adopt health, safety and welfare as a fundamental business objective.

“We believe every job can be done safely and the safety is everyone’s responsibility”

You can find our Code of Conduct here

You can find a copy of our Health & Safety induction booklet here

Introduction

The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (the Act) provides a framework to secure the health and safety of workers and workplaces. This includes protecting workers against harm by eliminating or minimising risk, providing fair and effective worker representation, and promoting the provision of information, education and training. The Act also strengthens the regulatory provisions for ensuring that actions or inactions in the workplace do not result in harm to other people, including members of the public.

The Board and Management of the New Zealand National Party take the health and safety of our workers very seriously and are committed to providing a healthy and safe work environment. This health and safety manual has been developed to assist us in meeting this commitment.

Key Terminology

Person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU):

A business (for profit), undertaking (not for profit). A PCBU is not an individual, unless they are conducting the business in their own name as a sole trader or partner.

Company “Officers”

A person who holds a very senior leadership position and has the ability to significantly influence the management of a business or undertaking. A business or undertaking can have more than one officer. Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, the “Officers” of the business are:

The Board of Directors

The General Manager | Party Secretary

Any other person who exercises ‘significant influence’ over the management of the business or participates in decision that affects a substantial part of the business.

Officers are required to take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure that the organisation complies with its ‘Due Diligence’ obligations.

Due Diligence

An Officer of the PCBU must exercise due diligence to ensure that the PCBU complies with their duties and obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act. The due diligence obligations include taking reasonable steps to:

(a) Acquire, and keep up to date, knowledge of work health and safety matters; and

(b) Gain an understanding of the nature of the operations of the business or undertaking of the PCBU and generally of the hazards and risks associated with those operations; and

(c) Ensure that the PCBU has available for use, and uses, appropriate resources and processes to eliminate or minimise risks to health and safety from work carried out as part of the conduct of the business or undertaking; and

(d) Ensure that the PCBU has appropriate processes for receiving and considering information regarding incidents, hazards, and risks and for responding in a timely way to that information; and

(e) Ensure that the PCBU has, and implements, processes for complying with any duty or obligation of the PCBU under the Act; and

(f) Verify the provision and use of the resources and processes referred to in paragraphs (c) to (e).

Worker

The term “worker” includes:

Employees
Contractors and their staff
Subcontractors and their staff
Outworkers, trainees and apprentices
Students on work experience
Interns
Volunteers

Health and exposure monitoring

Exposure monitoring is the measurement and evaluation of exposure to a health hazard (including monitoring the conditions of a workplace and biological monitoring or people). E.g. blood tests, workplace noise level monitoring.

Health monitoring is monitoring of an individual to identify early signs of harm to their health arising from work and any changes to their health status, on an ongoing basis. E.g. hearing tests.

Notifiable event

Death, notifiable injury or illness, or a notifiable incident.

Notifiable injury or illness

As defined in the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015:

(a) Any of the following injuries or illnesses that require the person to have immediate treatment (other than first aid):

Amputation (of any part of the body), serious head injury, serious eye injury, serious burn, separation of skin from underlying tissue (e.g. de-gloving or scalping), spinal injury, loss of a bodily function or serious lacerations
(b) An injury or illness that requires or would usually require admission to hospital for immediate treatment

(c) An injury or illness that requires or would usually require the person to have medical treatment within 48 hours of exposure to a substance

(d) Any serious infection to which carrying out work is a significant contributing factor, including any carrying out any work:

With micro-organisms, or that involves providing treatment or care to a person, or involves contact with human blood or bodily substances, or that involves handling or contact with animals, animal hides, skin, wool, hair carcasses, or animal waste product, or that involves handling or contact with fish or marine mammals.

(e) Any other injury or illness declared by regulations to be a notifiable injury or illness.

Notifiable incident

An unplanned or uncontrolled workplace incident that exposes a serious risk to someone's health and safety, arising from immediate or imminent exposure to:

Escape, spillage or leakage of a substance
Implosion or explosion of fire
Escape of gas, steam or a pressurized substance
Electric shock
Fall or release from a height of any plant, substance or thing
Collapse, overturning, failure or malfunction of, or damage to any plant
Collapse or partial collapse of a structure
Collapse or failure of an excavation or shoring supporting an excavation
Inrush of water, mud or gas in workings in an underground excavation or tunnel
Interruption of the main ventilation system in an underground excavation or tunnel
Collision between two vessels, vessel capsize, or inrush of water into a vessel

An accident/incident investigation form can be found here.

Reasonably practicable

An action is considered to be 'reasonably practicable' if it is, or was, at a particular time reasonably able to be done. It takes into account:

The likelihood of the hazard or risk concerned occurring
The degree of harm or damage that might result from the hazard or risk
What the person concerned knows (or reasonably ought to know) about
The hazard or risk; and
Ways of eliminating or minimising it.
The availability and suitability of ways to eliminate or minimise the risk
The costs associated with available ways of eliminating or minimising the risk - including whether the cost is grossly disproportionate to the risk. Note: this step must be done after assessing the extent of the risk and the available ways of eliminating or minimising the risk).

The higher the risk, the more reasonable it would be to invest more resources in reducing the risk

Note: A duty holder's obligation to manage risk is limited to doing what is in their ability to control and manage, along with what is 'reasonably practicable' for them to do to manage the risk.

Volunteer

Some volunteers are classified as volunteer workers and are treated as ‘workers’ under the Health and Safety at Work Act (except for worker engagement, participation and representation purposes). You are a volunteer worker if:

you are doing work for a PCBU that has knowledge you are doing the work or has given consent for you to do the work
you work for the PCBU on an ongoing and regular basis
the work is an integral part of the business or undertaking
the work is not:
participating in fund raising
assisting with sports or recreation for an educational institute sports club or recreation club
assisting with activities for an educational institute outside its premises or
providing care for another person in the volunteers’ home.

Workplace

A place where work is being carried out, or is customarily carried out, for a business or undertaking. It includes any place where a worker goes, or is likely to be, while at work. This includes motor vehicles.

Key legislation

Acts

Accident Compensation Act 2001
Health and Safety at Work Act 2015
Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996
Privacy Act 1993

Regulations

Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016
Health and Safety at Work (Infringement Offences and Fees) Regulations 2016
Health and Safety at Work (Worker Engagement, Participation and Representation) Regulations 2016

Health and Safety Roles and Responsibilities

Health and Safety is Everyone's Responsibility

The National Party is a ‘PCBU’ (Person Conducting Business or Undertaking). All PCBUs are legally required to provide a safe and healthy work environment and protect workers and visitors from harm in the workplace. All PCBUs must consult, cooperate and coordinate on health and safety matters where there is more than one PCBU in the work environment. Workers includes: employees (permanent, temporary, part time, full time and casual), contractors and volunteer workers

General Manager and the Board

Demonstrate leadership and personal commitment to health and safety
Provide governance and oversight over all health and safety matters across the organisation
Promote and encourage a positive health and safety culture across the organisation and incorporate health and safety into all aspects of the business
Exercise due diligence to ensure that the organisation meets its ‘Primary duty of care’
Be sufficiently informed about the health and safety system to ensure it is fit for purpose, effectively implemented and reviewed on a regular basis
Keep up to date with health and safety matters - have health and safety as a key agenda items at meetings
Understand the nature of the business and its hazards and risks
Ensure appropriate resources are provided to manage health and safety and achieve goals and objectives
Provide a safe work environment (buildings, facilities, equipment) and promote safe work methods
Establish health and safety targets and implement monitoring regimes to track the organisations effectiveness in implementing the health and safety strategy and objectives
Set health and safety objectives and expectations for all workers at all levels within the organisation
Include health and safety in performance reviews and ensure a similar process applies to all management roles
Make sure workers have a mix of operational and health and safety expertise to operate the business safely and effectively
Ensure appropriate hazard, risk, incident reporting and investigation processes are in place and specify clear requirements regarding reporting timeframes

All Managers and Leaders

Health and safety duties should be included in the performance reviews of all management roles.

Demonstrate safe performance - be a role model
Promote health and safety as a part of standard business practice to encourage a proactive health and safety culture
Recognize and encourage innovation and excellence in health and safety by providing positive feedback – give praise
Lead the implementation of health and safety management systems
Have an in-depth understanding of the hazards and risks in their area of work and encourage hazard and near hit reporting
Ensure compliance with health and safety policies and procedures and monitor to ensure they are effective by carrying out workplace inspections and observations
Plan and set health and safety targets
Specify worker’s health and safety expectations in the performance management process and provide feedback on performance
Provide training and supervision when required and ensure workers attend relevant health and safety training
Attend and/or facilitate meetings and ensure health and safety is an agenda item
Work with the area Health and Safety Committee and provide support
Identify resource requirements, obtain approval for their provision and allocate funds accordingly
Recruit safe, qualified and experienced workers
Review hazard, near hit, accident and incident reports and follow up with corrective actions, aimed at identifying the underlying causes
Ensure that all contractors are procured in accordance with the organisations policy and procedures, and carry out monitoring and auditing of their health and safety performance

Health and Safety Manager / Driver

Ensure that staff members are safe in their roles and actions.
Ensures that the organisation attains compliance with legislation
Manage the administrative side of Health and Safety
Drive the annual review of Health and Safety Policies / documentation and the Hazard Register
Complete an annual review of statistics (hazards, near hits, accidents and incidents)

All Workers

Ensure that your actions do not cause potential injury to yourself or other people in the workplace - look after yourselves and others
Have a positive and proactive attitude to health and safety in the workplace
Adopt safe work practices and encourage others to do the same
Report unsafe conditions, hazards, potential hazards, near hits, accidents and incidents to your Supervisor/ Manager immediately
Advise all workers of any new hazards or safety issues that are identified, and report these hazards using the ‘Hazard Identification Form’
Participate in planning – hazard identification and management etc.
Attend all health and safety meetings and participate in health and safety training programmes
Take advantage of the support available to you – e.g. workplace and staff support programme and health monitoring
Comply and cooperate with all policies, procedures and instructions, including the use of personal protective equipment and all appropriate safeguards, safety equipment provided
Be aware of your local health and safety support - health and safety representative, health and safety committee, first aider and fire/evacuation warden
Allow audits and inspections to be completed
Participate in return to work programmes (if applicable)

Fire Wardens

Pro-actively lead emergency evacuations (including six monthly practice drills) and ensure the safety of others
Continuously be on the look-out for issues are ignition sources and evacuations - e.g. blocked exits/passageways or stairwells, locked doors or new combustible materials coming to site (carry out regular inspections)
Effectively carry out evacuation duties and ensure that everyone in the work area is safely evacuated to assembly points in the event of a fire or civil defence emergency situations and report to the head fire warden.
Provide for the safety of people who are disabled and require particular assistance to leave a building in the event of a fire
Undertake warden training on an annual basis
First Aiders
Keep first aid certificate current by undertaking training (or refresher training) every two years
Work with investigators to ensure that accidents are investigated to reduce the likelihood of re-occurrence
Check first aid kits on a regular basis to ensure first aid kits remain well stocked

Health and Safety Team / Representatives

The Health and Safety Team will usually consist of one person from every department or area

Represents workers on health and safety matters
Promotes interests of workers who have raised health and safety risks/concerns
Work with the departmental managers and the Health & Safety driver to ensure health and safety compliance within the business
Monitors hazards and risk controls
Investigate worker complaints
Consults with the Board if risks are not managed appropriately
Proactively work to engage the other people on site to make the place safer

Health and Safety Committee

Facilitate cooperation between Board and workers in developing and implementing measures designed to improve workplace health and safety
Assist in developing policies and procedures relating to health and safety
Makes recommendations to the Board on health and safety improvements

External Consultants

External consultants may be used to ensure that we keep up with developments in Health and Safety. External consultants may also be used to provide health and safety training, carry out audits and assist with accident and incident investigations. Any external consultants must have a proven track record and be able to provide evidence of their skills and or experience.