Refusing unsafe work in New Zealand, your health and safety rights

Last updated 4 July 2026. This is general information, not legal advice. If someone could be seriously hurt right now, call 111.

In 2024, 70 New Zealanders died from work-related injuries, about one a week, and our workplace fatality rate runs well above Australia’s. Behind the statistics is a right most workers do not know they have, the right to stop dangerous work without being punished for it. This guide explains that right under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, how to use it properly, and what protects you afterwards.

Your right to stop unsafe work

Under section 83 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, a worker may cease, or refuse to carry out, work if the worker believes that doing it would expose them, or anyone else, to a serious risk to health or safety arising from an immediate or imminent exposure to a hazard.

The test works in two stages, and the difference matters:

• To stop in the first place, you only need to genuinely believe the work is seriously dangerous. That is a low bar on purpose, the law wants people to stop first and argue later when lives are at stake. You do not have to be provably right in the moment.
• To keep refusing after you have raised it and had a chance to sort it out, you need reasonable grounds, meaning a reasonable person in your shoes would also see the danger. The law says you automatically have reasonable grounds if a health and safety representative has advised that the work is unsafe.

How to do it properly

1. Stop the work. You do not have to keep going while you raise the alarm.
2. Tell your employer or the business in charge as soon as possible. The person conducting the business, your employer or site manager, needs to know straight away so they can act.
3. Try to resolve it together. The Act expects you and the business to attempt to fix the problem, isolate the hazard, add controls, change the method. Involve your health and safety representative if there is one.
4. Stay available for safe alternative work. Under section 86 you must remain available, and the business can offer you other work that is safe and suitable within your role. You can agree to different safe work, but you cannot be directed to just anything.

Put your concern in writing, even a quick text or email, and keep a copy. If it ever becomes a dispute, a dated record of what you raised and when is worth a great deal.

What counts as serious risk

Serious risk means real potential for serious harm, not everyday discomfort or minor annoyance. Exposed live wiring, a trench at risk of collapse, a machine with its guard removed, a load that could crush someone, working at height without fall protection, these are the kinds of immediate or imminent hazards section 83 is built for. A slightly wobbly office chair is not.

The reassuring part is that you do not have to be certain, or ultimately correct, to be protected. If you genuinely believed there was serious danger and acted honestly, stopping was your right even if it later turns out the risk was controllable. What the right does not cover is refusing the ordinary, understood risks of a job that have not materially changed, a qualified electrician cannot refuse all electrical work as inherently dangerous. The right is for danger that is serious and immediate, not for risk that is simply part of the trade and already managed.

Do you still get paid

This is the question that stops people exercising the right, and the honest answer needs care, because the Health and Safety at Work Act does not mention pay at all. It neither guarantees your wages while you have stopped nor lets anyone dock them.

The answer comes from employment law instead. You remain employed the whole time, and the Act requires you to stay available for safe alternative work, so in the ordinary case your pay continues, especially where you are given other safe work to do. If an employer tries to stop your pay for refusing genuinely unsafe work, that is an employment dispute, and docking pay could itself be part of the unlawful punishment covered below. Do not let the uncertainty deter you, raise the safety issue, stay available, and get advice from your union or Employment New Zealand if pay becomes a fight.

Protection from being punished

The law takes seriously the fear that stops most people, that speaking up will cost them their job. The Act prohibits a business from engaging in adverse conduct, dismissal, demotion, cutting hours, refusing a benefit, or otherwise treating you worse, for a prohibited health and safety reason, which includes raising a concern, being a health and safety representative, or exercising your right to stop unsafe work.

The protection has real teeth in one respect worth knowing. Under section 94, in a prosecution for adverse conduct, once it is shown that you suffered adverse treatment and that a prohibited health and safety reason was in play, that reason is presumed to be the dominant reason unless the employer proves it was not. The burden shifts onto them to show the real reason was something legitimate.

You also have a second, more practical route. Being punished for a health and safety reason is a personal grievance under employment law, which most workers pursue through the Employment Relations Authority, usually the faster path to getting your job back or compensation. Raise a personal grievance within 90 days. Our guide to unfair dismissal walks through that process.

Your other health and safety rights

Stopping unsafe work is the emergency brake. Around it sits a set of everyday rights the same Act gives every worker:

• A safe workplace. The business must manage risks so far as is reasonably practicable, the core duty of the Act.
• Protective equipment at no cost. The business must provide the PPE the work needs, and it is an offence under section 27 to charge or levy a worker for anything provided to keep them safe.
• Information, training and supervision in a form you understand, so you can do the work safely.
• A say through health and safety representatives and committees. Workers can elect representatives, who can issue a provisional improvement notice requiring a problem to be fixed, and in some cases direct that unsafe work stop.
• The right to raise issues and to have them dealt with, and to complain to WorkSafe, the regulator, if they are not.

Contractors, working alone and stress

It is not just for employees. The Act protects workers, and section 19 defines that broadly, employees, contractors and subcontractors and their staff, labour-hire workers, apprentices and volunteers. If you are a genuine contractor on someone’s site, the right to stop unsafe work is yours too.

Working alone does not remove your protection. A business must still manage the risks of lone or isolated work, communications, check-ins, emergency plans, and you can raise it if they have not.

Mental health counts as health. WorkSafe treats psychosocial hazards, chronic overload, bullying, exposure to trauma, as genuine health and safety matters, and its 2025 guidance pushes businesses to manage them. One honest limit, the stop-work right in section 83 is built for immediate physical danger, so a heavy workload is usually a raise-an-issue matter rather than something you can simply walk off. If bullying is the problem, our guide to workplace bullying covers the specific steps.

Common questions

Can I be sacked for refusing unsafe work

Not lawfully. Dismissing, demoting or otherwise punishing you for exercising your right to stop unsafe work, or for raising a health and safety concern, is prohibited. If it happens, you can raise a personal grievance within 90 days and, in a prosecution, the employer must prove the health and safety reason was not the dominant one.

What counts as unsafe work

Work that you genuinely believe would expose you or others to a serious risk from an immediate or imminent hazard, exposed wiring, an unguarded machine, a collapsing trench, unprotected heights. Everyday discomfort or the ordinary managed risks of your trade do not qualify.

Do I still get paid if I refuse unsafe work

The Act does not address pay, but you stay employed and must remain available for safe alternative work, so pay ordinarily continues, particularly if you are given other safe work. If an employer stops your pay over a genuine safety refusal, treat it as an employment dispute and get union or Employment New Zealand advice.

Can I refuse to work without PPE

If the work would seriously endanger you without protective equipment the business has failed to provide, yes, that can be exactly the situation the stop-work right covers. The business must supply the PPE the work needs, free of charge, and cannot make you buy your own.

Who do I report unsafe work to

Raise it with your employer or site manager and your health and safety representative first. If it is not fixed, or a serious event has happened, contact WorkSafe on 0800 030 040. In an emergency where someone could be seriously hurt right now, call 111.

Does health and safety law cover contractors

Yes. The Act protects workers broadly, including contractors, subcontractors, labour-hire workers, apprentices and volunteers, not just employees. The stop-work right and the protection from punishment apply to them too.

Where to get free help

If you were hurt before the danger was fixed, our guide to challenging an ACC decline covers your cover, and our unfair dismissal guide covers being punished for speaking up.

Have you had to stop unsafe work, or been pressured to carry on? What happened when you raised it? Share your experience in the comments, it could give someone else the confidence to speak up.