Last updated: October 2026
New Zealand’s Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 is changing. The Health and Safety at Work Amendment Act 2026 passed in mid-2026, and the changes take effect on 1 April 2027.
The aim is to focus effort on the risks most likely to cause serious harm, and to give businesses more certainty about what their duties cover. The guiding principle stays the same: workers are owed the highest level of protection that is reasonably practicable.
This article looks at four of the main changes and what they may mean for transport, logistics, warehousing and other operational businesses.
1. A clearer focus on critical risk
The updated Act puts critical risk at the centre. A critical risk is one likely to result in death, a notifiable injury or illness, a notifiable incident, or a specified occupational disease. Risks covered by regulations under the Act are also included.
The test is about the consequences if something goes wrong, not how often it happens. In operational settings, that tends to mean vehicle and pedestrian movements, loading and unloading, working at height, mobile plant, machinery and hazardous substances.
Critical risk isn’t limited to physical hazards. Psychosocial hazards, including fatigue, can also be critical risks where they’re likely to lead to death, a notifiable injury or illness, or a notifiable incident, such as a fatigue-related vehicle crash.
2. Small and large businesses
From April 2027, the law treats small and larger PCBUs (persons conducting a business or undertaking) differently.
A small PCBU is one with fewer than 20 workers. Where worker numbers fluctuate during the year because of the nature of the business, such as seasonal work, a business is small if it expects to have fewer than 20 workers for at least nine months of the financial year.
“Worker” has a broad meaning under the Act. Contractors, subcontractors, labour hire workers and self-employed contractors such as owner-drivers can all count, not just people on the payroll.
For small PCBUs, the main risk management duties now cover critical risks only. That changes the scope of the duties, not just the order of priorities. Some duties still apply whatever the size of the business, including toilets, drinking water, hand washing facilities, first aid, emergency planning, and working together with other businesses that share a duty.
Larger PCBUs must still manage all risks, while giving priority to critical risks, including in how time, money and resources are allocated.
Contracts can still ask a small business to meet higher standards. Clients and head contractors may continue to set their own requirements through prequalification and site rules.
3. Officers: a focus on governance
The changes clarify the due diligence duty for directors and other officers. Where one person is both an officer and a worker, which is common in smaller businesses, the law now separates the two roles. The officer duty is about governance, leadership and oversight rather than day-to-day tasks.
Officers are still expected to understand the operation and its hazards, make sure the right resources and processes are in place and used, and check that critical controls work in practice.
4. Where other laws already cover the risk
Some risks are also managed under other legislation, such as the Land Transport Act 1998, the Maritime Transport Act 1994 or the Building Act 2004. Under the amended Act, complying with a requirement under another law can meet the matching health and safety duty, where both deal with the same risk.
For transport operators, the overlap between land transport rules and health and safety duties is likely to be one of the more relevant parts of the change. Complying with one law doesn’t remove every other health and safety responsibility.
Before April 2027
There’s time to look at how current arrangements line up with the changes. Some questions that may help:
Which work carries critical risk, and are the controls for it working in practice?
Is the business likely to be small or large under the new definition, once contractors are counted?
Where one person holds both roles, is the officer side being covered?
Which risks are already managed under other laws?
WorkSafe is releasing guidance in stages, so more detail will follow before the changes take effect.
The work comes first
The changes adjust the legal framework. Health, safety and wellbeing still come down to how the work is done each day: the people, the work and the controls that prevent serious harm.
Sources and further reading
WorkSafe New Zealand: Understanding the changes to health and safety law
WorkSafe New Zealand: Managing critical risks for small PCBUs
WorkSafe New Zealand: Am I a small or large PCBU?
MBIE: Health and safety reform
Health and Safety at Work Amendment Act 2026