Source: Business Central
Changes to health and safety laws announced today will allow small businesses to focus on the most critical risks, says Business Central CEO Simon Arcus.
“Safety is essential to every workplace, but our current health and safety laws don’t reflect levels of actual risk.
“A retail shop or small office is a very different environment to a construction site, yet our current laws require small business to address their risks in similar ways.
“Small businesses can easily be overwhelmed by the breadth of our health and safety laws, which add unnecessary complexity and cost.
“This change will not only reduce costs to business – it will make low-risk environments safer by focusing on the most critical risks.
“It also frees up the regulator, WorkSafe, to focus on areas where it can have the most impact on reducing harm.
“Today’s announcement is the first in a series of changes designed to reduce red tape for business.
“Reducing compliance for small, low risk businesses is a proportionate, sensible step.”
Business Central is the largest business membership organisation in Central New Zealand, representing more than 3500 businesses across the lower North Island and Nelson and providing a voice to many thousands of stakeholders in business. It is part of the BusinessNZ Network, alongside the EMA, Business Canterbury and Business South.
The organisation supports a number of regional business membership groups – Business Central, Wellington Chamber of Commerce, Porirua Chamber of Commerce and ExportNZ (Central, Hawke’s Bay, and Wellington).
