Workplace Health and Safety Strategy for New Zealand to 2015

Building a positive culture of safety in New Zealand is critical to achieving the vision of “healthy people in safe and productive workplaces”. This year, the Department of Labour commissioned research into workplace safety culture.

International and New Zealand experience suggests that a positive safety culture is the key to translating health and safety systems into effective workplace practices.

A positive safety culture usually involves a strong reporting and learning culture. These aspects require strong leadership and quality worker participation.

This kind of culture creates better health and safety outcomes, as well as business benefits such as enhanced corporate reputations and improved staff recruitment and retention.

Improving the safety cultures of New Zealand workplaces will require commitment and action from government, industry and worker organisations.

Government promoting safety culture

The Department of Labour has been focusing on safety culture this year, encouraging industry debate on the subject. For example, leadership summits enable industry leaders in health and safety to discuss what safety culture is and how to put it into practice.

The Department has also built up a knowledge base of commissioned research and case studies on positive safety culture and how health and safety makes good business sense.

As well as sharing knowledge, the Department has been developing tools for employers and employees. An easy-to-use safety culture snapshot survey is being developed. This survey will allow workers, supervisors and managers to better understand their workplace’s safety culture and will provide some simple tips for improvement.

Raising awareness through the “Grim Harvest” campaign

Government agencies have also led the way in raising workplace health and safety awareness through public campaigns. After researching hundreds of its fatality investigation reports, the Department of Labour ran a comprehensive awareness-raising campaign to draw the public’s attention to a definite and consistent peak in workplace fatalities during summer and autumn.

The campaign’s message centred on the Grim Reaper and his yearly “harvest”. The key message was to take extra care during the busy summer and autumn periods. The campaign encouraged people to drink plenty of water, to take breaks, to stop and think about their options before and then act in the safest way.

The campaign involved television and press advertising, direct mail-outs, feature articles in relevant publications, and fact sheets and real stories on the Department’s website.

This year, the Department has also tackled common misconceptions about health and safety using the “Health and Safety – It’s No Joke” tag line. A small-scale campaign used a “knock, knock” joke format for press advertising and a television advertisement featuring a stand-up comic to target the issue of noise-induced hearing loss in the entertainment industry. The campaign coincided with New Zealand Safety Week 2007 and the Special Investigators series shown on TVNZ.

Providing workplace health and safety incentives

ACC has continued to develop relationships with key industry sectors through the Priority Industry Forums and direct relationships with larger employers.

ACC has also adopted an incentive programme for small employers and the self-employed, targeting a range of sectors. The Workplace Safety Discount Programme provides levy discounts for businesses that are able to demonstrate effective health and safety practices.

ACC also works closely with companies presenting high rates of injury claims. This year, ACC worked with construction company Livingstone to address its main injury issues and began initiatives to integrate health and safety into all work activities.

Livingstone adopted a team-based approach, and some of the best improvements to its health and safety came from on-site staff suggestions. Back injuries, eye injuries and lacerations all declined dramatically when workers were given information or training on how to prevent injuries.

Livingstone has now become a high achiever in health and safety and has undergone a complete shift in focus, setting itself high targets for health and safety. This company was also a finalist in the 2008 Safeguard New Zealand Workplace Health and Safety Awards, receiving a commendation from the judges.

Promoting hazard management through the Hazard Handler online tool

The Hazard Handler is a tool designed to help small businesses kick-start their hazard management procedures. It provides practical information on how to identify and manage both generic and industry-specific health and safety issues in the workplace. It is available at www.dol.govt.nz/onlinetools.

Eligible businesses can also use the Hazard Handler to apply for the ACC Workplace Safety Discounts scheme. This discount is currently only available to small businesses within the forestry, residential construction, agriculture, motor trade and road transport industries.

For small businesses that don’t qualify for this scheme, the Hazard Handler contains a General Small Business category that addresses common, non-industry specific hazards, including noise, forklifts, machinery and office environments.

Industry leading improvements in safety culture

There are plenty of good examples this year of industry leadership in working to improve New Zealand safety cultures.

One notable example is the Culture, Leadership and Forestry pilot project. The Department of Labour, ACC and PF Olsen Ltd, as a representative of the New Zealand Forest Owners Association, have worked with a selected group of forestry contractors in Nelson and Rotorua to road-test how safety culture concepts can translate into real industry practice. The year-long pilot project aims to develop tools and approaches that can be shared within forestry and across other sectors.

The project is a prime opportunity to share leading research in health and safety and promote the concepts of leadership and culture in a forestry context.

The Electricity Engineers’ Association (EEA) provides a further example of sector leadership on safety culture. The EEA is developing an Electricity Supply Industry Strategy to 2020. The Industry Strategy identifies safety culture among its intended outcomes.

Best practice guidelines for shearing

Shearing best practice guidelines were released in February 2008 after three years of development with industry representatives. The guidelines will help the industry take care of its most valued resource – the shearers. The guidelines will also help employers understand that effective health and safety practices are also good for business.

The Department of Labour has been active in helping to bring these messages to shearers and wool handlers. During the 2008 Golden Shears event in Masterton, Department staff spoke with more than 100 people, providing information and resources and answering queries related to health and safety, employment relations and productivity. A total of 550 copies of the guidelines were distributed.

Paewai Mullins Shearing Ltd has made health and safety integral to every practice in their workplace, not only identifying hazards and removing them but also looking to the future of the industry. Understanding that shearers are becoming an increasingly ageing workforce, the company has provided innovative equipment to help with productivity and to prevent injury in the workplace.

Recognising successful business

As well as sector leadership, this year has shown numerous examples of individual businesses, both large and small, that have committed to building positive cultures of safety in their own workplaces. The 2008 Safeguard New Zealand Workplace Health and Safety Awards recognised many such successful businesses.

The farming sector was well represented at the 2008 awards. Paewai Mullins Shearing from Dannevirke won the Air New Zealand award for Best Overall Contribution to Improving Workplace Health and Safety, as well as the New Zealand Safety award for Best Initiative to Encourage Employee Engagement in Health and Safety (see page 18).

Rakaia dairy farmers Hayden and Rachel Finch won the Air New Zealand award for Best Health and Safety Initiative by a Small Business (see page 17).

Both these examples show how small businesses can lead the way in building a positive safety culture.

Improving farm safety – and productivity

Rachel and Hayden Finch are 50/50 sharemilkers, with 720 cows and four employees, on a farm near Rakaia in Canterbury. They both grew up on farms and know how easily farm accidents can happen. Seeing a series of major incidents, including a fatality, while they were working in the gold mining industry in Australia made them even more aware of the importance of having good health and safety systems in place.

Their farm is the family home as well as their business, and they want their children, workers and themselves to be safe – they also understand that health and safety systems contribute to the business as a whole. As Rachel says, “There’s going to be a lot of downtime if we’re down a staff member because of injury, and the job just won’t get done.”

Their initiatives include hands-on training and supervision, a procedures manual outlining the safest way to do regular tasks, a regularly updated manual listing all hazards and appropriate controls and monthly all-staff health and safety meetings.

In the end, though, it’s not one particular initiative that delivers their health and safety success – it’s the combination of everything, their team approach and the fact that health and safety awareness is an integral part of the way they do business.

It’s also about the investment the couple put into their staff. On the first day, new workers get a full induction programme and training. They are introduced to the various hazards as they do each new task, and a buddy system helps them gain confidence. Staff are encouraged to have training – for example, first aid or chainsaw courses. The Finch family have also introduced a six-day on/two-day off working roster to make the job more comparable to a “town” job – and have found it attracts workers and helps them stay alert.

The Finch family have proved that good health and safety management can bring big benefits in terms of staff engagement, reduced downtime and improved productivity.

“Simply the way we do it”

Paewai Mullins Shearing Ltd in Dannevirke is a family-owned fourth-generation shearing contracting business. The company has more than 150 wool-grower clients spread over the North Island and handles more than two million sheep per annum. They usually employ about 40 staff but this number expands up to 120 for the four-month period from December to the end of March.

The operation deals with physically demanding work, unfamiliar work sites, seasonal job demands, high staff turnover and workers who often have low literacy and sometimes a narrow range of work skills. The company has met these challenges by developing a strong team culture underpinned by traditional Māori values – whanaungatanga or family, mātauranga (ongoing learning), manaakitanga (inclusion) and tino rangatiratanga (self-responsibility or self-determination). The directors take a personal interest in their employees, treating them as family, and they provide training and support to help workers gain skills and work safely.

In this culture, workplace health and safety is part of a much larger whole, which focuses on treating people with respect at every level. Health and safety is a key part of the staff induction programme. The company also runs regular health and safety staff forums, where any accidents and their causes are analysed. Photographs are used to demonstrate safe work practices, so that those who have difficulty reading can understand the messages. Care for staff health goes beyond the immediate workplace risks; for instance, a local Māori health provider educated staff on sexual health and gambling issues, and a full-time cook provides balanced meals for the teams.

While the average age of a shearer is increasing every year, and shearing remains a very physically intensive job, the company has maintained productivity, due to innovative equipment that enables staff to work smarter – and safer. For example, a “bungee” – a sling that supports a shearer’s back when shearing – helps prevent back injuries and allows older shearers to stay in the industry longer.

Paewai Mullins Shearing Ltd won a top honour at the 2008 Safeguard New Zealand Health and Safety Awards – the Air New Zealand award for Best Overall Contribution to Improving Workplace Health and Safety. One of the judges, Jackie Brown-Haysom, commented, “Paewai Mullins has made health and safety such an integral part of everything that happens that it quickly becomes the only way its workers know how to operate.”

As general manager Aria Mullins puts it, “Health, work safety and whanaungatanga are simply the way we do it.”

For further information, see www.dol.govt.nz/itsnojoke/index.asp.