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Health and Safety at Work Act 2015

Health and safety duties - Offences relating to duties

49: Offence of failing to comply with duty

You could also call this:

“Penalties for not meeting workplace health and safety responsibilities”

You can get in trouble if you don’t follow your health and safety duties at work. If you have a duty under subpart 2 or subpart 3 and you don’t do what you’re supposed to, you’re breaking the law.

If you’re found guilty, the punishment depends on who you are. If you’re just a regular worker, you might have to pay up to $50,000. If you’re a boss or in charge of a business, you could be fined up to $100,000. For bigger companies or organisations, the fine can be as much as $500,000.

Sometimes, if you’re a boss, your duties might come from other parts of the law, not just subpart 2 or subpart 3. In these cases, if you don’t follow these duties, the most you can be fined is whatever the law says for that specific duty.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM5976919.

Topics:
Work and jobs > Workplace safety
Work and jobs > Worker rights
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48: Offence of failing to comply with duty that exposes individual to risk of death or serious injury or serious illness, or

“Penalties for not following health and safety duties that risk lives or cause serious harm”

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50: Liability of officers, or

“Officers can be held responsible for breaching their duties, even if their organisation isn't”

Part 2 Health and safety duties
Offences relating to duties

49Offence of failing to comply with duty

  1. A person commits an offence against this section if the person—

  2. has a duty under subpart 2 or 3; and
    1. fails to comply with that duty.

      1. A person who commits an offence against subsection (1) is liable on conviction,—

      2. for an individual who is not a PCBU or an officer of a PCBU, to a fine not exceeding $50,000:
        1. for an individual who is a PCBU or an officer of a PCBU, to a fine not exceeding $100,000:
          1. for any other person, to a fine not exceeding $500,000.

            1. Despite subsection (2), if the duty or obligation of a PCBU is imposed under a provision other than a provision of subpart 2 or 3, the maximum penalty under subsection (2) for an offence by an officer against subsection (1) in relation to the duty or obligation is the maximum penalty fixed under the provision creating the duty or obligation for an individual who fails to comply with the duty or obligation.

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