'Corporate homicide': New bill wants employers liable for preventable workplace deaths

A new bill has been introduced in New Zealand seeking to hold employers responsible for preventable workplace deaths.

Camilla Belich, Labour Party's workplace relations and safety spokesperson, introduced the Crimes (Corporate Homicide) Amendment Bill saying it will hold accountable the companies that are knowingly reckless with health and safety.

"The bill would introduce a criminal offence of corporate homicide for employers that do not prioritise health and safety at work," Belich said in a statement.

"The purpose of the Bill is to encourage a good health and safety culture but also to bring accountability and justice to individuals and the families of those wrongly killed at work."

Under the proposal, an offence is committed if employers that have a legal duty to ensure safety engage in conduct that puts individuals at risk of death or serious injury.

If employers act recklessly regarding this risk and someone dies as a result, they are deemed to have committed an offence, according to the bill.

"My Member's Bill is targeted at employers who know there are risks in their workplaces, fail to address these, and this failure results in a workplace death," Belich said. "Good employers with robust health and safety measures will not be affected."

Calls to support new bill

Belich called on the government and other political parties to support the bill - a statement echoed by the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU).

"This Bill would bring us in line with international best practice, but most importantly, it would save workers' lives," NZCTU president Richard Wagstaff said in a statement.

"The NZCTU are calling on the government and all political parties to do the right thing and help ensure everyone is safe at work by supporting this bill."

There were 57 workplace fatalities in 2023 and three fatalities in the first two weeks of 2024 in New Zealand, according to data from the NZCTU.

Every week there are also 17 workers killed because of their work, it added.

"It's a record we should be ashamed of, but it doesn't have to be this way," Wagstaff said. "This bill is one of the most effective ways of preventing workplace deaths, as it holds employers accountable if they do not prioritise health and safety at work."

The new bill comes as the former chief executive of Port of Auckland faces court in a first-ever trial where he is accused of being responsible for the workplace death of a stevedore in 2020.