Consumer Laws and Legislation

In this topic, we focus on Consumer Laws and Legislation. You will learn about:

• Consumer Guarantee Act (1993)
• Privacy Act (1993)
• Health and Safety Act (2015)

Terminology and vocabulary reference guide

As an allied health professional, you need to be familiar with terms associated with basic exercise principles and use the terms correctly (and confidently) with clients, your colleagues, and other allied health professionals. You will be introduced to many terms and definitions. Add any unfamiliar terms to your own vocabulary reference guide.

Activities

There are activities throughout the topic and an end of the topic automated quiz. These are not part of your assessment but will provide practical experience that will help you in your work and help you prepare for your formal assessment.

It is a requirement of New Zealand businesses and people in trades to meet the responsibilities under The Consumer Guarantee Act (1993). The act sets minimum guarantees for all products and services and, also allows the consumer to seek repairs, replacements, or refunds when goods are faulty.

The Consumer Guarantees Act (1993), (CGA) is a protection tool, put in place to safeguard consumers i.e. those who purchase goods and or services. The Consumer Guarantee Act serves to:

• outline what consumers can expect when they purchase a product or service from a business
• provide guidelines as to what the business must provide to its consumers
• give the consumer the right to seek a solution from the manufacturer if the products or services do not meet one of the guarantees, regardless if the products come with a manufacturer's warranty, or not (also known as an “express guarantee” in the Act). 

What does The Consumer Guarantee Act guarantee?

Services

As the types of services businesses can offer consumers are quite wide-ranging and can include (but not limited to) services such as hairdressing, photography, early childhood, and fitness providers, the CGA protects consumers by stating services must be:

• Carried out with reasonable skill and care: done properly to a reasonable standard
• Fit for a particular purpose: results in what the consumer told the service provider the service was needed for
• Carried out in a reasonable time: the service was completed in a reasonable time, if the timeframe was not agreed upon beforehand
• Charged at a reasonable price: the service was charged at a reasonable amount if the cost was not agreed upon beforehand.

The CGA is not applicable to some services:

• Commercial services: services normally bought for or conducted in a business setting
• Private sales: this is applicable when you purchase from someone not in trade such as a private seller online and garage sales
• Contracts of service: the performance of work under an employment contract
• Work done by a charity which would be to your benefit.

Products

Product guarantees are applicable to both new and second-hand goods distributed by business inside New Zealand. Product guarantee covers a range of personal property, including software, animals, and fitness equipment. The CGA states that products must:

• Match their description: the product received matches the product description or the same model
• Is of an acceptable quality: the product is in good working order and free from defects
• Fit for a particular purpose: it does what the retailer was told it was needed to do
• Arrive in good time and in good condition: the product is delivered in good condition and at the agreed time.

As with services, there are several product-based situations where the CGA is not applicable, for example:

• The purchase of commercial products e.g. cleaning equipment purchased for a shop
• Money
• Buildings or parts of buildings attached to land for residential housing
• Products donated by a charity which you are benefited
• Private sales transactions
• Products bought by auction or competitive tender (including those bid for online) before 17th of June 2014.

What does this mean for you, the exercise professional?

Within your role as an exercise professional, you may be responsible for providing a variety of services to members of the public, i.e. your consumers. Be mindful that the reputation of your business, your professional reputation, your employer’s reputation is of great value. It is therefore imperative that you are aware of the guarantees within the act and ensure you adhere to these. You are responsible for creating an ethical and positive environment for your colleagues and new and existing clients.

Read the following scenario and consider if the following aspects of the CGA are evident, were the services offered:

• Carried out with reasonable skill and care?
• Fit for a particular purpose?
• Carried out in a reasonable time?
• Charged at a reasonable price?

‘Kim signs up for a one-week trial at a gym and decides to take advantage of the one on one personal training session. Before her first session, the exercise professional ensures to give Kim a full explanation on expectations of her first session (what to wear, what to bring and to call if she needs any further information).

On the day of the session, Kim is appropriately dressed and has brought all the necessary documentation which have been pre-populated and ready to go. When waiting at the reception area, she notices that they have charged her an additional amount which was not confirmed prior when making the booking- at this stage Kim is not too concerned, so she still goes ahead with her session.

When she meets her exercise professional, she is appropriately introduced and then sits through a little brief of the expected session plan, and safety aspects. When the session commences, the exercise professional asks Kim to stretch, demonstrating the movements she wants Kim to achieve, but does not comment on the movements she is doing wrong- this part goes for 1-2 minutes in total.

After warm-up is complete, the exercise professional takes Kim to the weights area and asks for Kim to hold a weight she is not completely comfortable with. The exercise professional laughs and says, “it’s not that heavy, you’ll be fine”. As Kim raises the weights, she loses balance, stumbles over and, rolls her ankle’.

The Privacy Act (1993) controls how organisations:

• Collect
• Use
• Disclose
• Store
• Provide access to personal information.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner creates and fosters a culture where personal information is secure and respected. They provide direction and advice surrounding the Privacy Act, its principles and other relevant privacy codes. There is specific data which defines what is considered to be personal information, some examples of this data include names, phone numbers, email addresses and other observations where an individual is identified.

The Privacy Act comprises of the following 12 Principles which are applicable to data in New Zealand:

1. Purpose of collection of personal information – Collecting essential information only
2. Source of personal information – Gathering information from the right person
3. Collection of information from subject – Remaining honest about how you are using the information
4. Manner of collection of personal information – Gathering information in a proper manner
5. Storage and security of personal information – Keeping information protected
6. Access to personal information – Giving people right to access
7. Correction of personal information – Amending the information if it is incorrect
8. Accuracy, etc., of personal information to be checked before use – Ensuring the information is true
9. Agency not to keep personal information for longer than necessary – Getting rid of information when no longer required
10. Limits on use of personal information – Only utilising the information for the specific reason you collected it
11. Limits on disclosure of personal information – Only divulging information with good reason
12. Unique identifiers – Utilising only where authorised.

The importance of the Privacy Act

The Privacy Act is applicable to almost every person, business or organisation in New Zealand. An agency could face severe consequences for breach of information. Some examples of ways companies could breach this act include (but are not limited to):

• Not having a clear understanding of the data collected
• Collecting information from a third party without proper authority
• Sharing private information with a third party without proper consent
• Collecting information unlawfully, unfairly, or intrusively
• Inaccurate/outdated information on file after correction has been filed.

What does this mean for you, the exercise professional?

When working in roles which involve a various amount of clientele, you will be expected to collect a range of personal information of each individual which include names, contacts, health information etc. These sensitive types of data will need to be appropriately stored to ensure you are meeting your lawful requirements. The times you will be required to collect this information will usually be on commencement of your contract with a client but will most likely be needing to be accessed at various times as necessary. As you work with your client(s), this will guide you to meet and better understand their personal needs.

Duty of care is the responsibility of all to ensure that each persons actions or lack of actions do not cause harm to themselves or others. New Zealand's workplace health and safety law is known as The Health and Safety at Work act (2015) (HSWA). This Act is in place to safeguard everyone in the workplace by minimising the rate of injury and deaths which may occur in the case of negligence or in accidental situations within the New Zealand workforce.

Consultation within the workplace is extremely important, especially when it comes to health and safety matters. HSWA advocates for all businesses to have worker engagement and participation around health and safety matters, irrespective of level of risk or the type of work carried out.

Engagement: it is fundamental for success that business’s must ensure workers’ opinions on matters that could affect their health and safety are discussed and considered.

Participation: it is important to have transparent, effective, and constant ways for employees to bring up concerns or suggest improvements on a on a continuous basis.

The act ensures everyone’s responsibilities are transparent, such as:

• Businesses are accountable for ensuring the overall health and safety of their employees and of anyone which may be considered at risk from the work of their business.
• Officers (including company directors, partners, board members, chief executives) must exercise care to ensure the business understands and is meeting the required health and safety obligations.
• Workers have a duty of care to ensure the health and safety of themselves and others. They are also required to adhere to and comply with health and safety related company policies and procedures and follow all safety instructions provided to them.
• Other individuals, such as visitors or customers, also need to comply with all health and safety obligations in order to ensure their actions do not negatively impact others.

By following four simple steps, you can assist in controlling workplace risks.

What does this mean for you, the exercise professional?

As an exercise professional, you have the overall responsibility to ensure the care and safety of yourself, your clients, colleagues, and any other person/s who may be affected by your work. This means is that you have a duty of care to everyone while at your workplace. There are a lot of legalities involved in health and safety so it is vital that you are completely aware of what you can and cannot do.

In this topic, we focused on Consumer Laws and Legislation. You learnt about:

• Consumer Guarantee Act (1993)
• Privacy Act (1993)
• Health and Safety Act (2015)