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Health and Safety at Work Act 2015

Worker engagement, participation, and representation - Prohibition of adverse, coercive, or misleading conduct - Civil proceedings in relation to adverse or coercive conduct

95: Civil proceedings in relation to engaging in or inducing adverse or coercive conduct

You could also call this:

“Legal action for unfair treatment over health and safety matters”

If someone does something bad to you because of health and safety reasons, or if they tell someone else to do something bad to you for those reasons, you can ask the District Court for help. You can also ask for help if someone tries to force you to do something unsafe.

You can ask the court to make the person stop doing these bad things. If they’ve already done something bad to you, you can ask the court to make them pay you money to make up for it. The court can also make other orders to help you.

If you need quick help, you can ask the court to stop the person right away, even before the full case is heard.

For the court to say someone did something bad to you for health and safety reasons, that reason needs to be a big part of why they did it.

You can ask the court for help if you’re the person who was treated badly, or if you’re speaking for that person. But if you’re an employee, you can’t use this law to complain about your current or old employer.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM5977038.

Topics:
Work and jobs > Worker rights
Work and jobs > Workplace safety
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94: Proof of adverse conduct, or

“How to prove unfair treatment due to health and safety concerns at work”

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96: Procedure for civil proceedings for adverse conduct, or

“How to start a legal case about unfair treatment at work due to health and safety concerns”

Part 3 Worker engagement, participation, and representation
Prohibition of adverse, coercive, or misleading conduct: Civil proceedings in relation to adverse or coercive conduct

95Civil proceedings in relation to engaging in or inducing adverse or coercive conduct

  1. An eligible person may apply to the District Court for 1 or more orders specified in subsection (2) in relation to a person who has—

  2. engaged in adverse conduct for a prohibited health and safety reason; or
    1. requested, instructed, induced, encouraged, authorised, or assisted another person to engage in adverse conduct for a prohibited health and safety reason; or
      1. breached section 92 (which relates to the prohibition on coercion or inducement).

        1. The orders are—

        2. an injunction restraining the person from engaging in conduct described in subsection (1):
          1. for conduct referred to in subsection (1)(a) or (b), an order that the person pay compensation that the court considers appropriate to the person who was the subject of the adverse conduct:
            1. any other order that the court considers appropriate.

              1. The court may grant an interim injunction restraining a person from engaging in conduct described in subsection (1) if, in its opinion, it is desirable to do so.

              2. For the purposes of this section, a person may be found to have engaged in adverse conduct for a prohibited health and safety reason only if a prohibited health and safety reason was a substantial reason for the conduct.

              3. For the purposes of this section, eligible person means—

              4. a person affected by conduct described in subsection (1), or the person's representative; but
                1. does not include an employee (or that employee's representative) in relation to conduct of that employee's employer or former employer.

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                    Notes
                    • Section 95(1): amended, on , by section 261 of the District Court Act 2016 (2016 No 49).