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Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990

Smoking and vaping prohibited in workplaces and public areas

16: Complaints to Director-General

You could also call this:

"Telling the Director-General about smoking or vaping rule breaks"

Illustration for Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990

You can make a complaint to the Director-General if you think someone has broken a rule about smoking or vaping in a workplace or public area. The Director-General will look at your complaint and decide what to do next. If the complaint is about something that happened at work, the Director-General will send it to the employer to deal with.

If you make a complaint, someone will investigate it to find out what happened. They can ask questions and gather more information to help them decide what to do. If they think the complaint is not serious or was not made honestly, they might not do anything else about it.

The person investigating your complaint might try to resolve the issue by talking to the people involved. If they cannot resolve the issue, they might take further action, such as filing a charging document under section 14 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011. You will be told why no further action is being taken if the complaint is not pursued.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM223964.

Topics:
Health and wellbeing > Public healthCrime and justice > Criminal law
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"What to do if someone is smoking or vaping at work when they shouldn't be"

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"Breaking smoking and vaping rules is against the law"

Part 1Smoking and vaping prohibited in workplaces and public areas

16Complaints to Director-General

  1. Any person may make a complaint to the Director-General concerning a contravention by any person of any provision of this Part.

  2. When the Director-General receives any complaint alleging contravention of this Part, the following provisions shall apply:

  3. where—the complaint shall be forwarded by the Director-General to the employer to be dealt with under that section:
    1. the contravention allegedly occurred in any workplace; and
      1. the person who is the subject of the complaint is the employer for that workplace, or an employee or volunteer of that employer; and
        1. the complaint was not referred to the Director-General by the employer under subsection (6) of section 15,—
        2. in all other cases, the matter shall be dealt with as though it were a complaint to which subsection (3) applied.

          1. On receipt by the Director-General of a complaint under this Part, a person appointed under section 91 may make further inquiries by way of investigation in respect of the complaint.

          2. The person who investigates the complaint may take no further action if the complaint is trivial, frivolous, vexatious, or not made in good faith, or if, during the investigation, the person receives a satisfactory assurance that there will be no repetition of the cause for the complaint; and in any such case the person who made the complaint shall be advised of the reasons why no further action is being taken.

          3. The person investigating the complaint may, on investigation, try to settle the cause of the complaint and obtain a satisfactory assurance against repetition of the cause of the complaint.

          4. Where no such settlement and assurance can be obtained, or if the cause of complaint is in breach of a previously given assurance, a charging document may be filed under section 14 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 in respect of the relevant offence.

          Notes
          • Section 16 heading: substituted, on , by section 4 of the Smoke-free Environments Amendment Act 1997 (1997 No 32).
          • Section 16(1): amended, on , by section 32 of the Health Sector (Transfers) Act 1993 (1993 No 23).
          • Section 16(2): amended, on , by section 32 of the Health Sector (Transfers) Act 1993 (1993 No 23).
          • Section 16(2)(a): amended, on , by section 32 of the Health Sector (Transfers) Act 1993 (1993 No 23).
          • Section 16(2)(a)(ii): amended, on , by section 11 of the Smoke-free Environments Amendment Act 2003 (2003 No 127).
          • Section 16(2)(a)(iii): amended, on , by section 4 of the Smoke-free Environments Amendment Act 1997 (1997 No 32).
          • Section 16(3): amended, on , by section 11 of the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022 (2022 No 79).
          • Section 16(3): amended, on , by section 32 of the Health Sector (Transfers) Act 1993 (1993 No 23).
          • Section 16(6): amended, on , by section 413 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81).