If you have people working alone, whether on a remote site, in a client's home, or late at night in an empty building, you have specific legal duties under New Zealand law. Here is what you need to know.
Lone worker safety in NZ is one of those areas that many businesses know they should have sorted, but few have properly thought through. It is easy to assume that if someone has a phone and knows to call if something goes wrong, the bases are covered. In most cases, they are not.
New Zealand law places clear obligations on any business that has people working alone or in remote or isolated conditions. Those obligations do not disappear just because no one is there to supervise. If anything, they become more important.
A lone worker is not just someone deep in the bush or out on a remote farm. Under New Zealand's health and safety framework, isolation is defined by the ability to access help, not just physical distance.
That means lone workers can include:
The common thread is this: if something went wrong, how quickly could help reach them? If the honest answer is "not quickly enough," you have a lone worker situation that needs to be properly managed.
The Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016 sit alongside the HSWA and specifically address remote or isolated work. They require PCBUs (that is, any person or business conducting a business or undertaking) to manage risks to workers performing isolated work, just as they would manage any other workplace risk.
In practice, this means three things:
These are not box-ticking exercises. They are genuine protections, and the regulator expects businesses to have them in place.
The assumption that "they have a phone" is where many businesses fall short. Around a quarter of New Zealand's landmass has limited or no reliable cellular coverage. For workers in rural areas, on remote sites, or even in certain industrial buildings with poor reception, a smartphone may be useless in an emergency.
For genuinely remote work, businesses should think about whether a standard mobile is actually fit for purpose. Options worth considering include satellite communication devices, two-way radios, or personal locator beacons for high-risk outdoor environments.
For workers who are alone but not remote, such as a retail worker closing up alone, the solution is simpler. A check-in system where the worker confirms they have left safely, combined with a clear process for what happens if they do not check in, is often enough.
Getting this right does not have to be complicated. Start with a straightforward risk assessment for any role that involves working alone. Ask:
Once you have worked through those questions, document the answers. A lone worker policy does not need to be lengthy, but it does need to exist. Workers should know what is expected of them and what the business will do to support them.
Lone working is not just a physical safety issue. People working alone for extended periods can experience stress, anxiety, and a sense of isolation that affects their wellbeing and their ability to do their job safely. Checking in regularly is not just about emergency management, it is also about making sure people feel supported and connected, even when they are not physically in the same place as their team.
For health and safety for small business in NZ, this is one area where a relatively small investment of time and thought can make a significant difference. A simple check-in process, a clear emergency plan, and regular conversations about lone working risks go a long way.
If your business has people working alone, you have legal duties that go beyond simply hoping nothing goes wrong. Lone worker safety in NZ requires a communication plan that actually works, a check-in system with a clear escalation path, and an emergency plan that has been thought through before it is needed. For many businesses, getting this right is straightforward once you sit down and work through it properly. The risk of not doing it is far greater than the effort required to sort it out.