Appendix B - ACC and employer responsibilities under the Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2001

The Injury Prevention, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2001 requires employers to pay the first week of compensation, at a rate of 80 percent of earnings lost by an employee as a result of a motor vehicle injury that is also a work-related personal injury.

A motor vehicle injury that happens in a work context will be categorised as a work-related personal injury if:

it happens while an employee is a passenger in an employer's vehicle at the beginning or at the end of the day; and
that vehicle is provided by the employer for the purpose of transporting employees.

The injury will also be a work-related personal injury if it happens while the employee is travelling between his or her place of work and another place, in order to get treatment for another work-related personal injury. The treatment being sought has to be necessary for the other work-related personal injury and be treatment of a sort the employee is entitled to under the Act.

Workplace injuries can result in significant costs to individuals, businesses and the community. ACC's primary function is injury prevention. Consequently ACC encourages employers to work with their employees to reduce the number and severity of injuries in the workplace. ACC provides a range of injury prevention programmes and assistance to employers and industry groups including:

regular regional injury prevention seminars
advice on setting up workplace health and safety systems
discomfort, pain and injury programme for manual handling.

The range of injury prevention and injury management publications available free of charge includes:

How to set up and support workplace health and safety
How to implement safer workplace practices
Down with speed: a review of the literature and the impact of speed on New Zealanders
Code of practice for manual handling
Driving to the conditions.

Contact ACC on 0800 844 657 to order any of these publications. Help for specific industries is also available. For further information about ACC's injury prevention resources, visit the ACC website.

Additionally, ACC operates two programmes that reward employers with good health and safety systems by reducing the costs of levies.

Workplace Safety Discount Programme

This programme was developed for small businesses and self-employed people to receive a discount on their levy if they can show sound health and safety practices.

This discount is 10 percent on the work component of the ACC levy applying for the three tax years from the date the application is accepted. An annual declaration is required during this time to confirm company details.

This incentive programme is available for six specific sectors: agriculture, road transport, motor trades, fishing, forestry and construction. There are selected classification units from each of these industries that are eligible to apply.

Further criteria that must be met for the discount is that a small company must have:

an annual payroll of $380,000, or
10 or fewer full-time employees.

Then, all you have to do to qualify is show experience implementing a health and safety policy and/or complete a free short training course. Correctly fill out a self-assessment form to ACC, which serves as the application. Some of those who apply will be audited to verify that safety systems and processes are understood.

ACC Workplace Safety Management Practices Programme

This programme has been developed by ACC to encourage employers to create and maintain safer workplaces. In return for putting in place systems and processes for managing and improving workplace safety, employers can receive discounts to their standard ACC WorkPlace Cover Levy.

Levy discounts apply for 24 months from acceptance into the programme. There are three levels of discount which recognise the employer's level of workplace safety management practices:

Primary 10%
Secondary 15%
Tertiary 20%

The programme is voluntary and is open to all employers (except for employers participating in the ACC Partnership Programme):

Entry to the programme is by application.
Acceptance to the programme depends on passing an ACC-funded audit of your workplace safety management practices.
As a guide the programme more appropriate for employers whose annual ACC levies are between $10,000 and $100,000.

Applying for entry to the programme is a three-step process:

Employers must first undertake a self-assessment to determine whether their existing workplace safety management practices meet the entry requirements. A guide to help you through this self-assessment process is available by contacting the ACC Business Service Centre on 0800 222 776.
Complete the application form. It gives ACC information on such things as the number of employees and the nature of business activities carried out.
Have an independent audit carried out.

Independent audits, paid for by ACC, are carried out to verify that safety systems and processes are understood and used by management and employees in the workplace.

Independent auditors who have been specially trained and approved by ACC carry out the audits. Employers can select the auditor of their choice provided there is no conflict of interest (eg the auditor has not done any consulting work to help the employer gain entry to the ACC Workplace Safety Management Practices Programme).

ACC Partnership Programme

Employers who wish to manage their own employees' workplace injuries can apply to join the ACC Partnership Programme.

The programme allows eligible employers to take responsibility for their own workplace health and safety, injury management, and rehabilitation of employees' workplace injuries. This includes providing all entitlements as set down in legislation, such as weekly compensation.

Employers joining the ACC Partnership Programme are effectively agreeing to act on behalf of ACC for their own workplace injuries. In return, their standard ACC WorkPlace Cover Levy is significantly reduced. Two discount plans are available under the ACC Partnership Programme:

Partnership Discount Plan offering levy discounts of 29% - 56%.
Full Self Cover Plan offering levy discounts of around 90%.

Entry to the programme is by application. The application includes meeting stringent eligibility criteria and successfully undergoing an independent audit of their workplace safety management and claims and case management systems (paid for by the employer).

Any employer can apply for entry to the ACC Partnership Programme, although it is more likely to be suitable for employers whose annual ACC levy exceeds $100,000.

Managing fatigue

From October 2007, ACC will offer Managing Fatigue workshops to targeted industries. For more information. see www.acc.co.nz.

To find out more

For more information on the ACC Workplace Safety Discount Programme, the ACC Partnership Programme or the ACC Workplace Safety Management Practices Programme, visit the ACC website at www.acc.co.nz/levies-and-cover/employers/how-to-pay-less/.

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Last updated: 12 September 2007