9 Jul 2026
The Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill has passed through Parliament and, at the time of writing, is awaiting formal sign-off by the Governor-General. Parts of the Bill have been improved, but our core concern has not been addressed: that health and safety duties should be driven by the nature of the risk, not the size of the organisation managing it.
In our February 2026 submission, we were strongly critical of the Bill’s move to a two-tier workplace risk management regime based on firm size. We opposed settings that would allow smaller firms – formally called persons conducting a business or undertaking, or PCBUs – to comply with key duties only in relation to “critical risks.” We were particularly concerned that this approach could weaken prevention-through-design and create inconsistent expectations across project supply chains.
While there remain issues, there have been some improvements since we submitted where the Select Committee has:
- clarified the critical-risk test
- added an express reference to ‘psychosocial risks’
- narrowed the overlap rule with other enactments
- added a new large and small PCBU co-operation rule
- strengthened review requirements for Approved Codes of Practice
- added safeguards for changes to Schedule 1A.
These changes are useful and should help with workability, but they do not resolve our underlying concern: a two-tier system where small PCBUs have narrower duties than larger PCBUs. That means the same engineering risk could be approached under different legal expectations depending on the size of the firm involved. For our members, this matters because engineers often work across complex project supply chains where design decisions, legal duties, client expectations and practical risk controls must line up.
The Bill has also attracted strong criticism from opposition parties, unions, workplace safety advocates and others, including concerns that the reforms could shift responsibility and increase risk rather than improve safety outcomes.
The changes are set to come into force on 1 April 2027, giving government, regulators, PCBUs and the engineering profession time to prepare for the new settings.
Engineering New Zealand will continue to advocate for clear, workable health and safety settings that support good engineering practice, maintain credible enforcement, and keep the focus where it belongs: preventing harm to workers and the public.
