Health & Safety

REASONABLY PRACTICABLE

The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 talks about ‘reasonably practicable’. These are the steps required to manage hazards and risks.

The definition of reasonably practicable is: (a) How likely is it that harm will occur? (b) How severe can the harm be? (c) What you know, or ought reasonably to know, about –i. The hazard or risk; and ii. Ways of eliminating or minimising the risk (d) The availability and suitability of ways to eliminate or minimise the risk (e) The cost associated with available ways of eliminating or minimising the risk, including whether the cost is grossly disproportionate to the risk.

Part (c) is essential. It refers to what the person knows or ought reasonably to know. Ignorance is no excuse. For example, a person who buys a going concern but has no experience in that type of business is still expected to know the hazards, risks and controls.

Reasonably practicable means you don’t have to do everything humanly possible; you do what is suitable in the circumstances to try to eliminate the risk. If the risk can’t be eliminated, then you minimise it. Just because something is possible doesn’t mean it is reasonably practicable under the circumstances.

If you follow industry standards or commonly accepted guidelines for carrying out a task (e.g. common controls), then it’s likely you are already taking suitable actions to ensure health and safety. Where these are available, WorkSafe expects people to follow them under most circumstances (WorkSafe NZ, 2016).

Cost is an important variable. It does not enable you to ignore a hazard or risk because you consider the cost too expensive or more than you want to spend. You must consider the level of risk in relation to the cost. It is not necessary to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a minor risk such as lifting a box of paper. However, lifting a pallet of goods is a much higher risk and will require a greater spend.

It also recognises that different sizes of business have different financial abilities: a large workshop may have an extraction system while a one-man workshop will open the roller door and, maybe, use a fan.

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More information can be found on the business.govt.nz website under WorkSafe information guidance.

Tracey Murphy is the owner and director of Safewise Ltd, a health and safety consultancy. She has more than 12 years’ experience working with organisations from many different industries. Tracey holds a diploma in health and safety management and a graduate diploma in occupational safety and health. She is a professional member of the New Zealand Institute of Safety Management and is on the HASANZ register.

How can Safewise help?

We work with organisations that need more health and safety knowledge or more time to address these issues than they have in-house. We also have free Covid19 resources available.

For more information, check the website safewise.co.nz

Danielle L. Beston

Barrister At Law

Transport Specialist Work Licences Nationwide Road User Charges

Log Book & Driving Hours

Contributor to New Zealand Trucking ‘Legal Lines’ Column

Telephone: 64 9 379 7658 mobile: 021 326 642 danielle.beston@hobsonchambers.co.nz