LEGAL
A focus on Health and Safety
Amesha Rama, In-house lawyer, REINZ
I think we can all agree that given the last six months, we can appreciate that we all have a part in keeping ourselves and those around us safe.
Have you ever imagined that your loved one will never be returning home? Or you get a call that he/she is in the hospital due to some incident that has occurred? These thoughts give us goose bumps, and this is one of the reasons why it is important to create a safe working environment.
carried out or where someone goes to carry out work. In practical terms, this means a workplace is any place you conduct your business. This can mean a client’s property, your office, your vehicle and can include an open home viewing.
Managing health and safety is crucial, considering the nature of real estate and property management work, both involving moving around from one place to another, most of the time.
Duty holders
By way of background, as a response to the 2012 recommendations by the Royal Commission on the Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy, in 2013, the Independent Taskforce on Workplace Health and Safety reported that New Zealand’s work health and safety system was failing. As a result, New Zealand underwent its most significant workplace health and safety reform in 20 years, resulting in the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (“the Act”) and the creation of WorkSafe New Zealand, the Government regulator of health and safety at the workplace. The clear intent of the Act is the principle that workers and other persons should be given the highest level of protection against harm to their health, safety and welfare from hazards and risks arising from work. A hazard is something that might cause harm. A risk is a combination of the chance that the hazard will cause harm, and if it does, how bad that harm will be. A ‘workplace’ is defined under section 20 of the Act and is a place where work is
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The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand
A duty holder is someone who has duties under the Act. You may have seen the word ‘PCBU’ on WorkSafe’s website and throughout the Act. PCBU stands for a person conducting a business or undertaking. It refers to the various working arrangements in New Zealand. The ‘business’ part relates to an activity that creates profit while an ‘undertaking’ relates to an activity that is non-commercial in nature for example, a charity. PCBUs have certain duties under the Act. The next duty holder is an officer. An officer holds a specific position and exercises significant influence over the management of a business, for example, the CEO or a company director. Workers are another duty holder and they are individuals who carry out work in any capacity for a PCBU. In the real estate/property management context, PCBUs will include the company, franchisor, franchisee, agents engaged as independent contractors, property management companies and selfemployed property managers. Workers will include, agents engaged as independent contractors, property managers, employees (including apprentices/trainees), contractors and volunteers.
