Workplace Health and Safety Strategy for New Zealand to 2015
Rautaki mō te Haumaru me te Hauora o te Wāhi Mahi mō Aotearoa ki te 2015
Snapshot of Progress 2006/07
Outcome area - Preventive Workplace Cultures
Ultimately, individual workplaces take responsibility for their own health and safety. A preventive workplace culture is created when management and staff are all committed to managing risks and hazards. They have values, attitudes, systems and practices in place that prevent harm to people at work.
Exploratory research commissioned by the Department of Labour in April shows New Zealand industry leaders agree that positive safety cultures in the workplace are linked to improved health and safety outcomes - and this is backed up by international evidence.
Health and safety needs to be on everyone's agenda (i.e.
leadership, managers and staff) ... should be a standard component of every
decision, a standard agenda item and on the agenda of every
project.
The key benefits from positive safety cultures include reduced accidents and injuries and increased worker safety behaviour.
As important, positive safety culture also seems to be linked with improved non-safety outcomes, such as increased productivity, increased job satisfaction and enhanced corporate responsibility.
It is rare to find an organisation with high levels of health
and safety and low productivity.
There is a definite link between
productivity and safety. They are both equally the result of good management and
good leadership. Safety is not a trade-off for productivity. The two go hand in
hand.
Visible management commitment and ownership of safety is seen as crucial to improving safety culture. Similarly, engaged and involved workers are key factors in maintaining and improving safety culture.
The Holy Grail of great workplaces is, "How do I get
employees to go the extra mile?"... Staff will not be engaged if
they feel
unsafe.'
Three workplaces, including some honoured in the 2007 New Zealand Health and Safety Awards, are demonstrating preventive workplace culture in their work practices.
Plumbing firm fixes a health and safety problem at source
Last year, Invercargill firm Karl Boniface Plumbing produced an information sheet through its toolbox and staff meetings to ensure all its plumbers knew how to safely use a primer in PVC pipe installation - one that contains methyl ethyl ketone, a substance known to have serious health effects.
For all that, last November a new employee splashed some primer in his eye. Although he suffered no lasting harm (as a result of speedy first aid), the company introduced a new procedure to ensure employees wore protective equipment when applying the substance, and they also decided to look at the applicator supplied with the product.
Finding the applicator bristles too stiff, they tested a number of alternatives before deciding that a soft synthetic brush was the most suitable. They let their plumbing wholesaler and the primer manufacturer know, and the manufacturer has now agreed to change the applicator design.
Karl Boniface Ltd won the 'New Zealand Safety best health and safety initiative by a small business' award at the 2007 New Zealand Workplace Health and Safety Awards. The company showed great commitment to health and safety.
They didn't just get staff to use protective equipment, they went on to fix the problem at source. And they didn't just fix things for their own workers - they wanted the whole industry to share their findings. Thanks to their efforts, PVC pipe installation has been made safer for plumbers all round the country.
Glass-maker innovates for safety - and productivity
Making glass is an ancient art, and an unlikely one. Turning silica sand, soda ash and limestone into a transparent substance through heat seems magical. In the modern world, the process is also sophisticated and highly technical.
O-I New Zealand, based in Penrose and the only New Zealand manufacturer of glass bottles and jars, runs two furnaces twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. As part of the glass-making process, encrusted flue dust needs to be removed from the furnaces, and workers used to do that by going into the furnace area with long-handled rakes.
O-I abandoned that method because of the risks posed by extreme heat and falling debris. Brainstorming the issue with employees, they tried other methods - a vacuum and then a pulley-driven scraper system - that proved unsatisfactory. After more than a year of trying various solutions, they came up with the idea of using a remote-controlled scraper, meaning that cleaning can now be done without risk to workers.
The company won an award for their innovation - the Department of Labour's 'Best productivity gain from a health and safety initiative' award at the annual New Zealand Workplace Health and Safety Awards. That's because their health and safety solution not only made the operation safer for workers, it also allowed the furnace to be cleaned more frequently, which reduced fuel consumption and increased productivity - a great bonus for any company that works hard to ensure health and safety.
Logging firm helps to reduce the forestry death toll
A ten-member cable logging company - the Tokoroa-based Ribbonwood Yarding Systems - have shown the way this year in how to reduce the death toll for fellers in the industry.
After a spate of tree-felling fatalities in the industry in 2006, Ribbonwood decided some initiatives to improve feller safety were needed. They developed a radio check-in system so that other crew members quickly become aware if a feller is in trouble; a daily log book where fellers note any physical, technical and emotional issues they face during the day; a panic alarm to bring immediate help; and a safety DVD showing how emotional strain can put them at risk.
Little wonder that Ribbonwood Yarding Systems won the top prize at the New Zealand Workplace Health and Safety Awards 2007. Jackie Brown-Haysom, the editor of Safeguard magazine and one of the judges, makes the point that, "The Ribbonwood DVD and log book both recognise the importance of emotional wellbeing in safety critical situations - a message that could be hard to convey to some forest workers - but because this is coming from the guys themselves, we believe it will be much more widely accepted."
FITEC, the forest industry training organisation that funded the DVD along with ACC and Ribbonwood Yarding itself, is certainly enthusiastic, planning to supply the DVD to a variety of industry contacts and screen it at their events.
The role of government agencies in supporting such cultures is to advise and incentivise. Many government agencies provide guidelines and promotional material to assist businesses. ACC funds training for health and safety representatives, and field staff from agencies such as ACC, the Department of Labour, Land Transport New Zealand and Maritime New Zealand, often working in partnership, are proactive in getting health and safety messages across to businesses.
This is illustrated in their usual business, or in particular initiatives during the year that support the Strategy:
- The Department of Labour and ACC sponsor the Safeguard
conference and annual New Zealand Workplace Health and Safety Awards.
- ACC has also published a series of 'how to'
booklets, with support and review by the Department of Labour, to assist small
businesses and self-employed people with health and safety.
- The Department of Labour has produced a review of
international research, with dvd case studies of New Zealand businesses showing
the links between health, safety and productivity. This review has highlighted
compelling evidence of the many potential benefits health and safety offers New
Zealand businesses. Some examples of the positive links between health, safety
and productivity included fewer injuries, increased innovation and improved
staff recruitment and retention. The common success factors in businesses that
demonstrate the links between work quality and productivity include good
co-operation between management and employees, work that gives employees
challenges, responsibilities and job autonomy, and allowing creative solutions
for safety and health problems. (06/07 Priority)
- The ACC Workplace Safety Discounts give a new incentive to
small businesses, through a discount on ACC levies, for those who can
demonstrate the required level of competence in health and safety management.
- Maritime New Zealand, working with industry, has developed
specific health and safety guidelines for the passenger and non-passenger
fleets, along the lines of previously published guidelines for the commercial
inshore fishing industry. A series of publications relating to the management of
fatigue in the maritime industry has also been developed, using a case study
approach.
- In December 2006, a Civil Aviation Authority collaboration
with several government agencies and industry bodies resulted in the publication
of safety guidelines for farm airstrips (Safety Guideline, Farm airstrips
and associated fertiliser cartage, storage and application). Civil Aviation
is now working on guidelines for occupational health and safety for
aircrew.
- Department of Labour staff in Auckland organised an
occupational health seminar for health and safety practitioners in February
2007. The seminar covered proposed changes in the Second Schedule of the IPRC
Act, the reporting and investigating of occupational disease, and the
Department's occupational disease priorities.
The list above highlights some of the health and safety advice and help to workplaces that government agencies have provided during the year. Agencies also work closely with industry organisations - where these organisations take a leading role, the highlights are included in the next outcome area of Industry Leadership and Community Engagement.
Workplace health and safety training goes up a level
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU) and Business New Zealand, with ACC support, have developed a third stage in health and safety representative training.
Workplace health and safety representative training is all about achieving sustainable change. The trained representatives, applying their knowledge in all kinds of workplaces, are a valuable resource for both their co-workers and their employers.
Workplace health and safety representatives now have the chance to do another level of training.
The new part of the programme is designed to integrate prior learning from the first two, and is doing that well, judging by comments from health and safety representatives who have already attended:
It fitted together like a jigsaw and I feel more suited to the
role.
It's great to recap on stage one
and two and begin to understand more about productivity and how accidents affect
this.
The ACC joint venture with NZCTU has trained more than 15,000 representatives nationally. The growing pool of skilled and experienced representatives is making a significant difference to New Zealand's occupational health and safety performance.
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