You may have heard that the Luxon Government have changed the laws around citizen's arrests. This law change does not compel anyone to engage in a citizen's arrest!
Know that you are legally protected from choosing not to undertake a citizen's arrest. Your union will protect your right to say 'no'.
Good employers will not require any worker to engage in citizen's arrests at work, no matter the degree of the offence occurring.
If you and others are at risk at work from someone committing a crime:
- First, ensure you, your colleagues and others are safe
- Call the police who are trained to deal with these situations
- Report the incident as a workplace health and safety issue.
If you refuse to undertake a citizen's arrest, make sure to do so in good faith; and contact your union rep and health and safety rep. Keep a record of what happened.
Your legal rights
Health and safety law
Health and safety legislation gives you a legal right to refuse any unsafe work - that includes unsafe work that could harm you or others. In the case of a citizen's arrest this also includes the safety of the person being arrested.
The Health and Safety at Work Act provides you this right to stop unsafe work where that work puts you (or someone else) at serious risk to your health and safety from an immediate hazard.
A trained health and safety representative can also direct others to not engage in unsafe work. This applies where an employer is compelling a worker to undertake an unsafe citizen's arrest.
You cannot legally get in trouble for stopping, or for HSRs directing, unsafe work.
Find more information on your right to stop unsafe work here
The risks of violence and harassment at work should be dealt with through proper health and safety processes. Your employer is legally required to mitigate the risk of violence at work, not make it worse.
It is crucial to have systems and policies in place keep workers safe from violence at work. This can include training about what to do when it occurs, designing the workplace layout so workers can keep themselves safe, and having other security measures to mitigate the risk
Employment law
In addition to health and safety law, employment law does not require you to make citizens' arrests. Employers' instructions can be safely refused if they are not lawful and reasonable.
While the law change may make a citizen's arrest lawful in more instances, that does not mean it is a reasonable instruction.
In most instances, requiring workers to engage in a citizen's arrest will not be reasonable. What is reasonable is determined on a case-by-case basis considering all the circumstances at the time.
A request from an employer is unreasonable if:
- Is not within the scope of your job and your employment agreement
- It exposes you or anyone else to a serious risk to health and safety from an immediate or upcoming hazard
- You have not received sufficient training for the task
