Dear WorkSafe New Zealand,

1.Please provide the policy on Worksafe officers investigating incidents under HSWA where the victim/complainant is a friend to the officer. Ie if the victim visited the officer in the weekend, outside office hours at their private house to complain. Would this be considered a conflict of interest and how would this be managed? (For the avoidance of doubt the example did not involve a Worksafe employee doing this).

2. Worksafe NZ have a number of agencies with authority to investigate under the HSWA, please provide any policies around conflicts of interest as above and if those agencies are bound by any policies they need to adhere to for the integrity in enforcing HSWA and the associated reputation of Worksafe NZ.

3. Please provide the policy documents regards notifying a company that they are under investigation. Ie any policy to actually notify the company. Or are Worksafe officers allowed to call employees without notifying the company over an incident not deemed Worksafe related by those involved. ie not at a place of work or undertaking work, not in work hours and in the case of Maritime Transport Act 1994 has no business anywhere near water or ports. Would Worksafe expect other agencies to maintain consistency in these procedures.

4. Under HSWA 2015 s198 Requirement of other regulator to notify WorkSafe of notifiable event. This relates to an incident being reported under HSWA s57. S198,(2)(a)(b) requires the duty of the other regulator to advise Worksafe if they intend to carry out an investigation under HSWA. Please provide the expectation that Worksafe be notified of an investigation under HSWA if an incident was reported under Maritime Transport Act 1994 s31 as a recreational incident and through a disgruntled worker/victim complains to his MNZ officer friend that it is work related. This resulting in MNZ investigating under HSWA and MTA. Would Worksafe expect to be notified of this HSWA investigation just because it was reported under MTA s31 (deemed recreational) and not HSWA s57.

5. Please provide the prosecution policy procedures to ensure that a prosecution is fair, unbiased. Would an officer whose victim/friend is the complainant against his workplace be allowed to investigate (lead investigator), and also be part of the prosecution team?

These questions are not directed, implied or otherwise at the conduct of any Worksafe NZ employee.

Yours faithfully,

Marie