NZ New Company Health and Safety Obligations Guide (2026)

When you incorporate a company in New Zealand, you immediately become a Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBU) under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA 2015). This applies even before you hire anyone, and even if you are the only person working in the business. Understanding your obligations from day one avoids penalties, WorkSafe investigations, and preventable incidents.

What Is a PCBU?

A PCBU is any person or organisation that conducts a business or undertaking. As a newly incorporated company, you are automatically a PCBU. Your primary duty of care under HSWA 2015 is to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers and others affected by your business.

The standard is not perfection. It is what a reasonable business in your situation would do to manage risks. However, "we did not know" is rarely accepted as a defence by WorkSafe if a notifiable event occurs and basic safety systems were not in place.

Your Core Obligations as a New Company

1. Identify Your Workers

Your health and safety obligations extend to all workers, including employees, contractors, labour hire workers, and volunteers. From your first hire, you have obligations to that person. Even as a sole director with no employees, you have obligations to yourself as a worker in the business.

2. Manage Risks

Identify hazards in your work environment and put controls in place. For an office-based business, this is relatively straightforward (ergonomics, emergency evacuation, slip/trip hazards). For construction, manufacturing, hospitality, or healthcare businesses, the risks are more significant and the required controls more involved.

The hierarchy of controls is: eliminate the risk, then substitute, then isolate, then engineer, then use administrative controls, then provide personal protective equipment (PPE). PPE is the last resort, not the first response.

3. Notify WorkSafe of Notifiable Events

Some events must be notified to WorkSafe immediately (as soon as practicable after becoming aware): a worker death, a notifiable injury or illness, or a notifiable incident (a serious near-miss or unplanned event that exposed people to serious risk). Failing to notify WorkSafe of a notifiable event is a breach of HSWA 2015.

Notifiable injuries include fractures (excluding fingers, toes), amputations, serious head or eye injuries, burns, serious infections, and any injury requiring admission to hospital. If in doubt, notify. WorkSafes contact: 0800 030 040.

4. Engage Workers

Workers must have reasonable opportunities to participate in health and safety decisions. For a new company with one or two people, this might simply mean regular check-ins about what is working and what is not. For larger teams, formal health and safety committees and worker representation become relevant.

5. Manage Workplace Facilities

Provide adequate first aid, toilets, drinking water, and washing facilities for your workers. The specific requirements depend on the nature of your work and number of workers.

ACC Levies: What New Companies Pay

All NZ businesses pay ACC levies to fund the accident compensation scheme. As a new company, you will pay:

• Work levy: Based on your industry classification (liable earnings x industry rate). For a low-risk office-based business, this is around 0.5-1.5% of liable earnings. For high-risk industries (construction, forestry, fishing), it can be 3-10% or more.
• Earners levy: A flat rate applied to all employees earnings (currently around 1.39% of liable earnings).
• Working safer levy: A small flat component (currently $0.08 per $100 of liable earnings).

ACC invoices new employers after their first year of operation, based on the payroll information filed with IRD. If you are unsure which industry classification applies to your business, ACC can advise. The classification determines your work levy rate, so it is worth confirming this is correct, especially for businesses at the boundary between high and low risk.

First Employee: Additional Obligations

When you bring on your first employee, your health and safety obligations expand. You must:

• Have a written health and safety policy (for businesses with 5+ workers this is mandatory; good practice from the first hire)
• Carry out a workplace induction covering emergency procedures, hazard identification, and PPE requirements
• Ensure any machinery, plant, or equipment used by the worker is safe and properly maintained
• Provide adequate training for the role
• Have a system for reporting and investigating incidents and near-misses

Sector-Specific Requirements

Some industries have additional, sector-specific health and safety requirements:

• Construction: Sites with a project value over $100,000 must have a health and safety plan. Specific rules apply to working at height, trenching, and demolition.
• Hospitality: Food safety management plans under the Food Act 2014 overlap with H&S requirements. Manual handling, cuts, burns, and slip hazards are the most common risks.
• Healthcare: Clinical waste disposal, infection control protocols, manual handling of patients.
• Manufacturing and trades: Machine guarding, lockout/tagout procedures, chemical management, PPE.
• Transport: Chain of responsibility for load security, fatigue management, vehicle maintenance.

Practical First Steps for a New Company

1. Register with WorkSafe: While not formally required just by incorporating, WorkSafe has guidance and resources for new businesses at worksafe.govt.nz. Their sector-specific guidance is a good starting point.
2. Get ACC sorted: ACC will contact you after your first year. If you have employees, ensure your payroll system (Xero, MYOB) is recording liable earnings correctly from the start.
3. Write a simple H&S policy: Even a one-page statement of your commitment to health and safety, with the key contacts and emergency procedures, is a meaningful foundation.
4. Identify your top three risks: What are the most likely things to go wrong in your specific work environment? Address those first.
5. Set up incident reporting: A simple shared document or folder where incidents and near-misses are recorded, with a note of what was done in response.

Resources

• WorkSafe NZ: worksafe.govt.nz
• ACC for business: acc.co.nz/business
• Employment NZ (MBIE): employment.govt.nz
• HSWA 2015 full text: legislation.govt.nz

Getting H&S right from the start is far easier than retrofitting it after an incident. WorkSafe takes a supportive approach to new businesses that are genuinely trying to comply. The risk, financial and reputational, of a serious incident without adequate systems in place is significant.

Need help with accounting, tax, and business setup for your new company? See freshfirms.nz/blog for guides covering GST registration, Xero setup, tax obligations, and more.