A substantial rewrite of workplace health and safety law is now on the statute book, and community organisations have less than six months to work out where they stand. The Health and Safety at Work Amendment Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 9 July 2026 and comes into force on 1 April 2027, according to MBIE's reform page. For charities, clubs and trusts that run on volunteers, the changes interact with rules about volunteers that have been in the Act since 2015 and that many boards have never read closely.
What the Amendment Act Changes
WorkSafe's summary, Understanding the changes to health and safety law, describes four shifts that matter most to the sector.
The first is a new split between small and large organisations. WorkSafe defines a small business as one "having fewer than 20 workers for at least nine months of a financial year." From April 2027, according to WorkSafe's guidance on the updated purpose of the Act, small organisations will only need to manage critical risks, while larger organisations must still manage all risks but prioritise critical ones when deciding where to spend time and money.
The second is the idea of critical risk itself. WorkSafe's page What is a critical risk? says a critical risk is one that is likely to lead to death, a notifiable injury, illness, incident or occupational disease, or a risk managed by regulations under the Act.
The third is the officer duty. WorkSafe says officer duties "have been clarified to focus on governance functions": understanding the relevant risks, making sure the organisation has the resources and processes to manage them, and verifying that those resources and processes are being used. Any duties an officer has as a worker are separate.
The fourth is recreational land. WorkSafe states that "Landowners will no longer have health and safety duties for people using their land for recreation purposes", although duties still apply where the recreation is connected to the landowner's work or where work is happening at the same time and place. Trusts that own reserves, tracks or sanctuaries open to the public should read that change carefully rather than assume it ends their exposure.
Where Volunteers Fit
None of the WorkSafe pages on the reform discusses volunteers directly, so the existing rules carry the weight. Under section 19 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, a volunteer worker is a volunteer who works for the organisation with its knowledge or consent, on an ongoing and regular basis, as an integral part of what it does. WorkSafe's guidance on keeping volunteers healthy and safe confirms that volunteer workers are classed as workers, while casual volunteers are treated as "other persons" at a workplace, in the same group as visitors.
The Act also lists activities that never make someone a volunteer worker: participating in fundraising, assisting with sports or recreation for an educational institute, sports club or recreation club, assisting an educational institute with activities outside its premises, and providing care for another person in the volunteer's own home.
This matters for the new small and large split. Because volunteer workers are workers under the Act, an organisation with a handful of paid staff and a large roster of regular volunteers should not assume it sits below the 20-worker line. WorkSafe has said it will publish further guidance on small organisations and critical risks before the changes take effect, and boards should check how that guidance treats volunteer workers before relying on small status.
Groups With No Employees
Some groups are outside the Act altogether. Section 17 defines a volunteer association as a group of volunteers working together for one or more community purposes where none of them employs anyone to carry out work for the association. WorkSafe confirms that volunteer associations are not PCBUs and so have no duties under the Act, but notes they may still owe a common law duty to take reasonable care of people involved in their activities. The moment a volunteer-run group employs someone, even part time, it becomes a PCBU.
That common law duty is where public liability cover does its work. A group that falls outside the Act can still be sued by someone injured at a working bee or a community event, and the cost of defending that claim does not depend on whether the regulator has any interest.
Volunteer Officers
Many charity boards are made up entirely of unpaid trustees or committee members. WorkSafe's guidance states that volunteer officers have the same due diligence duty as other officers, but do not commit an offence if they fail to meet it. That position comes from section 51 of the Act, which says a volunteer does not commit an offence under sections 47, 48 or 49 for failing to comply with a duty, except their own duties as a worker or as another person at a workplace.
Two cautions follow. First, an officer who is paid, such as a chief executive or a remunerated trustee, does not have that protection. Second, freedom from prosecution is not freedom from consequences. The organisation itself can still be prosecuted, and individual trustees can still face civil claims and, for registered charities, scrutiny under the Charities Act 2005. The clarified officer duty from April 2027 gives boards a clearer checklist to work through, and a minuted record of doing so is the best evidence that the duty was taken seriously.
What Insurance Cannot Do
Boards sometimes assume a statutory liability policy will pay a health and safety fine. It cannot. Section 29 of the Act provides that a policy indemnifying a person for a fine or infringement fee under the Act "is of no effect" to that extent, and makes it an offence to enter into, offer or pay such an indemnity, with penalties of up to $50,000 for an individual and $250,000 for any other person.
Section 29 is aimed at fines and infringement fees. It does not stop a policy from paying legal defence costs. Policy wordings differ on whether they also respond to reparation orders, investigation costs before any charge is laid, and claims against individual officers, so it is worth asking for those points to be confirmed in writing.
Where Insurance Does Fit
Three covers line up against the exposures described above.
Statutory liability responds to the organisation's own regulatory exposure, within the limits set by section 29. Trustee liability, sometimes called association liability or D&O, responds to claims against individual board members for governance decisions, including how the board discharged its due diligence duty. Volunteer personal accident cover fills a different gap: ACC weekly compensation is available to people who were employees, self-employed or shareholder-employees when injured, according to ACC's weekly compensation page, so a retired or non-earning volunteer receives treatment support but no income replacement.
A Practical Plan Before April 2027
Start by deciding which category the organisation falls into: volunteer association, small organisation or large organisation, counting volunteer workers carefully. Then list the activities most likely to cause death or serious harm, because under the new framework those are what WorkSafe will look at first. Typical examples in the sector include working at height on halls and churches, vehicle and quad bike use, chainsaw work, water-based activities and crowd management at events.
Next, map the board's oversight against the three officer themes WorkSafe describes, and record it. Registered charities that have just completed their governance review under the Charities Act will find much of the groundwork already done. Finally, review the insurance programme with the same list in hand: confirm what the statutory liability policy pays given section 29, whether trustee liability extends to everyone who now counts as an officer, and whether volunteers who carry out critical-risk work are protected beyond ACC.
Get Your Cover Checked
Health and safety reform is a good moment to look at statutory liability, trustee liability and volunteer accident cover together rather than one at a time. charityinsurance.co.nz passes enquiries to Registered Financial Service Providers who place cover for not-for-profit organisations. Get a Quote and a specialist will be in touch within one business day. For more on protecting volunteers, see our volunteer accident insurance page.
Sources: MBIE; WorkSafe; Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, sections 17, 19, 29 and 51; ACC. All checked 10 October 2026.
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