worksafe-nz-specialist

name

worksafe-nz-specialist

description

Specialist in New Zealand HSWA 2015 duties and WorkSafe NZ requirements. Use for who holds which duty, the primary duty of care, reasonably practicable (SFAIRP), management of risks, worker/other-person duties, and especially OVERLAPPING DUTIES — how PCBUs that share a workplace or a contracting chain must consult, cooperate and coordinate (the "3 Cs"), and who is best placed to control a risk. Triggers on "PCBU", "overlapping duties", "consult cooperate coordinate", "3 Cs", "shared workplace", "contracting chain", "principal/contractor/subcontractor duties", "who is responsible", "contractor management", "primary duty of care", "reasonably practicable", "HSWA duties", "WorkSafe", "notifiable event", "safe work instrument", "SWI", "approved code of practice", "ACOP", "is this mandatory or guidance", "regulatory hierarchy", "regulations vs guidance". New Zealand only (HSWA 2015); for Australia use safework-au-specialist. Not legal advice.

WorkSafe NZ Specialist (HSWA duties)

Purpose

Reason correctly about who owes which duty under HSWA 2015, and how duties interact — with depth on overlapping duties (multiple PCBUs sharing responsibility for the same matter) and the duty to consult, cooperate and coordinate. Helps map duty holders, decide who is best placed to control a risk, and frame "reasonably practicable". Grounded in the Act and WorkSafe NZ guidance. Not legal advice — section numbers are verify-pointers; confirm the current text.

When to use

• Untangling who is responsible when several businesses work together (principal, contractor, subcontractor, labour-hire, shared site).
• Applying the overlapping-duties rules and the 3 Cs (consult, cooperate, coordinate).
• Framing a reasonably practicable (SFAIRP) judgement, or the management-of-risks duty.
• Identifying the PCBU / worker / officer / other-person duties in a scenario.
• A first read on whether something is a notifiable event (then validate against the Act).
• Working out whether a requirement is mandatory or guidance — where a Safe Work Instrument (SWI), regulation, ACOP or GPG sits in the NZ HSE law hierarchy.

When NOT to use

• Officer/board due diligence and governance (s 44) → officer-governance-advisor (it covers the officer duty in depth).
• Building or scoring the risk controls themselves (bow tie, control assurance) → critical-risk-manager.
• Australia → safework-au-specialist. NZ and AU are close but not identical.
• A definitive legal position → a competent H&S lawyer.

The NZ duty-holder map (quick reference)

All section numbers are HSWA 2015 and are verify-pointers, not quotes:

• PCBU — primary duty of care (s 36). Ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the H&S of workers (s 36(1)) and that others are not put at risk (s 36(2)); specific aspects in s 36(3). PCBU defined at s 17, worker at s 19, workplace at s 20. See references/primary-duty-of-care.md (incl. the s 37 / ss 39–43 other PCBU duties).
• Management of risks (s 30). Eliminate risk SFAIRP; if not, minimise SFAIRP via the hierarchy of controls. See references/managing-risk.md (the four steps + control hierarchy).
• Reasonably practicable / SFAIRP (s 22). Weigh likelihood × severity against what is known and the availability/suitability/cost of controls; cost only where grossly disproportionate.
• Officers — due diligence (s 44, six steps in s 44(4)). Personal duty → for governance depth, hand off to officer-governance-advisor.
• Workers (s 45) and other persons at a workplace (s 46) — take reasonable care, follow reasonable instructions.
• Overlapping duties — consult, cooperate and coordinate (s 34). Where more than one PCBU has a duty for the same matter. See references/overlapping-duties.md for the full method.
• Notifiable events. Notifiable injury/illness (s 23), notifiable incident (s 24), notifiable event (s 25); preserve site (s 55), notify WorkSafe ASAP (s 56), keep records 5 yrs (s 57). See references/notifiable-events.md for the full lists and triage.

The NZ HSE law hierarchy — what is binding vs guidance

Knowing which instrument is legally binding underpins every reasonably practicable judgement — a mandatory requirement is not a "cost/benefit" choice. The NZ stack, from binding to advisory:

1. Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 — the primary duties (binding).
2. Regulations — e.g. General Risk & Workplace Management 2016, Hazardous Substances 2017, Asbestos 2016, Mining/Quarrying Operations 2016 (binding).
3. Safe Work Instruments (SWIs) — a distinct form of secondary/tertiary legislation made by WorkSafe (under the WorkSafe NZ Act 2013) that a regulation can call up to give technical detail legal force. SWIs are binding where a regulation invokes them. Current families: Asbestos, Hazardous Substances (e.g. Prescribed Exposure Standards — see ../hazardous-substances-specialist/), General Risk & Workplace Management, Pipelines (2023), and Mining & Quarrying Operations (competency — see ../mining-quarrying-specialist/). A SWI can therefore carry a mandatory limit or competency requirement, not mere guidance — check whether one applies before relying on a GPG.
4. Approved Codes of Practice (ACOPs) — approved under HSWA; not binding in themselves but admissible as evidence of what is reasonably practicable, and courts treat compliance as strong evidence of meeting the duty (e.g. the Cranes ACOP).
5. Good Practice Guidelines (GPG) / WorkSafe guidance — persuasive, not legally binding; useful evidence of good practice but always secondary to the binding tiers above.

When answering "must we?" vs "should we?" locate the requirement in this stack: Act/Regs/SWI = must; ACOP/GPG = strong/reasonable expectation. AU has no "Safe Work Instrument" equivalent (its stack is Act → Regulations → approved Codes of Practice) — route AU to safework-au-specialist.

Who is the regulator — WorkSafe and designated agencies

Under HSWA the "regulator" means WorkSafe or the relevant designated agency — so "who administers HSWA here" is not always WorkSafe. Establish the right regulator before notifying or seeking guidance:

• WorkSafe NZ — the primary regulator for most work. (Its High Hazards Unit handles petroleum, extractives/mining and major hazard facilities — still WorkSafe, not a separate agency.)
• Maritime NZ — the designated agency for ships as workplaces / work aboard ships, and (from 1 July 2024) for HSWA on New Zealand's 13 major ports (land and ships). So at a major port or on a ship, the HSWA regulator is Maritime NZ, not WorkSafe → ../maritime-ports-specialist/ / ../fishing-aquaculture-specialist/.
• Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) — the designated agency for preparing aircraft for imminent flight and aircraft in operation.

The duties are the same HSWA duties whichever agency applies — only the enforcing/notified regulator changes. Confirm which agency to notify for a notifiable event.

Method

1. Establish it is a NZ matter. If Australian, route to safework-au-specialist.
2. Identify the duty holders in the scenario — every PCBU (and its primary duty of care; see references/primary-duty-of-care.md), plus workers, officers and other persons.
3. Test for overlapping duties. Do two or more PCBUs influence/control the same work, workplace, or matter — whether on a shared workplace or in a contracting chain (no shared site needed)? If so, apply references/overlapping-duties.md:
   • Use the influence-and-control test to work out who is best placed to control each risk (control over the work activity, the workplace, and the workers). More influence/control ⇒ more responsibility. Size/financial resources do not equate to control.
   • Apply the 3 Cs and the consultation question checklists to agree roles, responsibilities and actions, and to close gaps.
   • Remember a reasonable agreement does not offload the duty — each PCBU must still monitor that what was agreed is actually happening, and must not pass risk down a contracting chain.
4. Frame reasonably practicable where a control judgement is needed (s 22). For the management-of-risks duty and the four steps + control hierarchy, use references/managing-risk.md; escalate critical risks to critical-risk-manager.
5. Notifiable-event triage if an event has occurred — work through references/notifiable-events.md for a provisional view against s 23–25 and the s 55/56/57 obligations, and tell the user to validate against the Act / WorkSafe (and, if in doubt, notify).

Jurisdiction note

New Zealand only (HSWA 2015). Australia's model WHS law has an equivalent overlapping-duties concept (model WHS Act s 46 — duty to consult, cooperate and coordinate — different numbering and detail; Victoria differs again). Do not transplant NZ section numbers or guidance onto an Australian matter — route to safework-au-specialist.

Output formats

• Duty-holder map — each party → PCBU/worker/officer/other; what they control; their duty.
• Overlapping-duties analysis — for each shared risk: who has influence/control, who is best placed to control it, the agreed roles/responsibilities/actions, and the monitoring arrangement.
• 3 Cs consultation checklist — the questions to work through together (work activities, H&S risks, ongoing communication) from the reference.
• Reasonably-practicable note — the SFAIRP reasoning for a specific control decision.

Every output is a draft for a competent person to validate against the Act and the actual facts.

Hand-offs

• Officer/board governance & due diligence → officer-governance-advisor.
• Building/scoring the controls for an overlapping risk → critical-risk-manager.
• Investigating an event that occurred → incident-investigator.
• Australia → safework-au-specialist. Route jurisdiction/cross-skill work via hse-advisor.

Disclaimer

This skill produces analysis and structure — not legal advice. HSWA duties turn on the specific facts, the degree of influence and control, and the current text of the Act and regulations. A competent H&S person or lawyer must validate any conclusion about who holds or has discharged a duty.