Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Health and Safety at Work Act 2015

Worker engagement, participation, and representation - Right to cease or direct cessation of unsafe work

84: Health and safety representative may direct unsafe work to cease

You could also call this:

“Safety rep can stop dangerous work to prevent serious harm”

You can ask a health and safety representative to tell workers to stop working if they think the work is very dangerous. This can happen if the representative believes that doing the work might seriously hurt the worker or someone else because of a danger that’s about to happen.

Before telling workers to stop, the representative should try to fix the problem by talking to the person or company in charge of the work. But if the danger is really bad and about to happen right away, the representative can tell workers to stop without talking to anyone first. If this happens, they need to talk to the person in charge as soon as they can afterwards.

The representative must tell the person or company in charge right away when they’ve told workers to stop working.

Sometimes work is always a bit dangerous, and everyone knows this. In these cases, the representative can’t tell workers to stop unless the danger has gotten much worse than usual.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM5977018.

Topics:
Work and jobs > Worker rights
Work and jobs > Workplace safety
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83: Right of worker to cease or refuse to carry out unsafe work, or

“You can stop working if you believe it's seriously dangerous”

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85: Training requirements relating to giving direction to cease work, or

“Training needed before a health and safety rep can stop work”

Part 3 Worker engagement, participation, and representation
Right to cease or direct cessation of unsafe work

84Health and safety representative may direct unsafe work to cease

  1. A health and safety representative may direct a worker who is in a work group represented by the representative to cease work if the representative reasonably believes that carrying out the work would expose the worker, or any other person, to a serious risk to the worker's or other person's health or safety, arising from an immediate or imminent exposure to a hazard.

  2. The health and safety representative must not give a direction under subsection (1) unless the matter is not resolved within a reasonable time after consultation about the matter with the PCBU for whom the workers are carrying out work.

  3. Despite subsection (2), the health and safety representative may direct the worker to cease work without carrying out that consultation if the risk is so serious and immediate or imminent that it is not reasonable to consult before giving the direction.

  4. The health and safety representative must carry out the consultation as soon as practicable after giving a direction under subsection (3).

  5. The health and safety representative must immediately inform the PCBU of any direction given by the health and safety representative to a worker under subsection (1).

  6. Subsection (1) does not authorise a health and safety representative to give a direction to a worker to cease work that, because of its nature, inherently or usually carries an understood risk to health and safety unless the risk has materially increased beyond the understood risk.

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