We know how hard it is to keep up-to-date with the Government’s changes that impact employers, so we asked Christie McGregor – Partner at Copeland Ashcroft – to give you a summary of the employment law and H&S changes that the Government is considering (as at 1 July 2024):

Holidays Act Changes – an Overview

On 5 June 2024, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden announced that an exposure draft Bill to reform the Holidays Act 2003 will be publicly released in September 2024.

The Bill proposes a suite of changes to the current system. Indications are that the Bill will:

• Pro-rate sick leave for part-time employees, seeing a reduction from the standard entitlement of 10 days per annum;
• Change annual holiday calculations from an entitlement system to an accrual system;
• Implement a simpler methodology for calculating leave; and
• Simplifying criteria for pay-as-you-go annual holidays.

Businesses and stakeholders may register their interest for targeted consultation. Registration closes on 8 July 2024.

Health and Safety Reforms

On 14 June 2024, the Minister also announced that the government will initiate consultation on significant proposed reforms to the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.

At nearly 10 years old, the current Act is, as MBIE puts it, “an outdated and incomplete regulatory framework”. MBIE has previously identified key areas where reform is most needed, those being where workers operate machinery and use equipment or work at heights, which together account for almost 80% of New Zealand’s work-related deaths (roughly double the Australian rates).

While specific details have not yet been announced, the government has identified five key areas of interest:

1. Ensuring businesses are in the best position to identify health and safety issues;
2. Investigating whether the law strikes the right balance between flexibility and certainty;
3. Improving worker engagement and participation in health and safety issues;
4. Ensuring the effective operation of health and safety regulators; and
5. Determining whether the holistic health and safety system is meeting its objectives.

Submissions are currently open to the public, closing on 31 October 2024. A consultation roadshow will take place over the coming months.

WorkSafe also released a refreshed strategy on 7 June 2024. The strategy puts three types of harm at the forefront of WorkSafe’s health and safety investigations, these being:

1. Acute harm – serious injury, illness or death from a single event;
2. Chronic harm – serious injury, illness or death from continuous work or repeated events; and
3. Catastrophic harm – serious illness, injury or death affecting multiple people.

The strategy marks a move away from a focus on mental harm and psychosocial risks. It concentrates WorkSafe’s resources on harm that is more readily recognisable. Given that mental health notifications accounted for 29% of WorkSafe notifications in 2022-2023, this is potentially a significant departure from WorkSafe’s current focus.

2024 certainly may be an interesting year of change in the Workplace Law space.  Our team is well placed to assist your business adapt to and optimise for the recent and upcoming changes.