The Government has launched a three-month-long consultation period to seek feedback on its planned reform to workplace health and safety.
With some regulations more than 40 years old, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway is seeking to update, refresh and bring New Zealand’s health and safety laws up to the standard found in Australia, Europe and the UK.
In December 2018, Lees-Galloway released the Government’s Health and Safety at Work Strategy 2018-2028, a plan to improve health and safety at work over the next 10 years.
The consultation would focus on work involving equipment, tools, machinery and structures, which were involved in around 58 fatalities every year and 76% of workplace deaths.
The news comes as deaths in the construction sector are at the highest in a decade, with 11 deaths already this year.
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