Health and Safety Representatives

All Staff

We are committed to engaging with our staff and other people working in the business about health and safety in the workplace, including when:

Identifying hazards and assessing risks.
Making decisions about ways to eliminate or minimise those risks.
Making decisions about facilities for the welfare of workers.
Proposing changes that may affect the health or safety of workers.
Making decisions about the procedures for engaging with workers, monitoring their health and safety, monitoring the conditions at a workplace, providing information and training for workers and developing worker participation practices.

Our approach is to:

Share relevant information with workers.
Provide reasonable opportunities for workers to express views and to raise health and safety issues in relation to the matter.
Allow workers to contribute to the decision-making process relating to the matter.
Take their views into account.
Advise workers of the outcome in a timely manner.

Functions

The functions of Health and Safety Representatives are to:

Represent their work groups on health and safety matters.
Undertake workplace inspections.
Promote the reporting of hazards and the follow up of hazards to ensure controls are developed, put in place, used, reviewed and maintained.
Take action where appropriate to prevent unsafe acts by issuing provisional improvement notices or directing the cessation of unsafe work (refer below).
Act in an advisory capacity on health and safety issues relevant to the business.
Assist with health and safety training, health and safety education and awareness programmes.
Recommend accident prevention initiatives.
Overview internal compliance with work procedures and special methods.

You can access our Health and Safety Representatives here.

Health and Safety Representatives will be appointed for a term of up to three years and are then eligible for reappointment.

All representatives will be trained to NZQA unit standard 29315.

Provisional Improvement Notices

If a health and safety representative reasonably believes a person is contravening the legislation or is about to do so, they may issue a provisional improvement notice to that person requiring them to:

Remedy the contravention; or
Prevent a likely contravention from occurring; or
Remedy the things or activities causing the contravention or likely to cause a contravention.

However, the health and safety representative must not issue a provisional improvement notice to a person unless he or she has first consulted the person.

A health and safety representative must not issue a provisional improvement notice if an inspector has already issued an improvement notice or a prohibition notice in relation to the same matter.

Right to Cease or Carry Out Unsafe Work

A worker may cease, or refuse to carry out, work if he/she believes that carrying out the work would expose the worker, or any other person, to a serious risk to health or safety arising from an immediate or imminent exposure to a hazard.

A health and safety representative may direct a worker from the work group he/she represents to cease work if the representative reasonably believes that carrying out the work would expose the worker, or any other person, to a serious risk to health or safety, arising from an immediate or imminent exposure to a hazard.

Such direction must not be given unless the matter remains unresolved within a reasonable time after consultation about the matter with the HR Coordinator or Head of Support Services. However, the health and safety representative may direct the worker to cease work without consulting with the HR Coordinator or Head of Support Services if the risk is so serious and immediate or imminent that it is not reasonable to consult before giving the direction.

Note: Only Health and Safety Representatives who have completed NZQA unit standard 29315 may issue a provisional improvement notice or direct unsafe work to cease.