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 2008/09

Outcome Area: Government Leadership and Practices

The government must lead by example. It must set high expectations, provide information and support and ensure regulatory standards are achieved. It must also set a good example through excellent health and safety practices and purchasing policies in its own workplaces.

This year the higher level governance arrangements for health and safety have been given prominence through the work of the Workplace Health and Safety Council, the Chief Executives' Injury Prevention Forum and through the Strategy operational review. This oversight activity has been underpinned by a robust legislative programme and a breath of operational activity across government to support improved health and safety outcomes. Hazardous substances and occupational health are profiled as examples where government has identified a need to provide additional focus to achieve further progress.

New Zealand's Future Fleet: ensuring protection, prevention and sustainability

Vehicle fleets purchased for commercial use account for around 70 per cent of all new vehicles entering New Zealand each year. These vehicles are generally sold on to the public within two or three years and stay in service for over 20 years.

If fleet buyers purchase vehicles with high-quality vehicle safety technology, the safety of New Zealand's whole fleet improves.

That's why commercial fleets of vehicles were the initial target of the Vehicle Safety Technology Campaign, led by Land Transport NZ and ACC, with support from the Ministry of Transport and the New Zealand Police.

The Future Fleet Roadshow went to all the major centres to promote and explain all the features that provide crash prevention and occupant protection. Crash prevention is provided by technology, such as electronic stability control and anti-lock brakes, along with good handling and good visibility. Occupant protection is about injury protection innovations such as front and side airbags.

The Ministry of Transport, ACC and Land Transport NZ built the campaign from the roadshow into a series of workshops on work-related road safety. A third phase of the campaign aims to enhance vehicle safety awareness by all consumers.

Government agency fleet buyers are supporting the campaign in their own vehicle purchasing policies and practices. Government agencies must now purchase, lease or hire vehicles with an occupant protection crash test rating of four stars or above and must give priority consideration to vehicles with electronic stability control.

The Chief Executives' Injury Prevention Forum

The Chief Executives' Injury Prevention Forum (CEs' IP Forum) continued to provide leadership and direction to guide the injury prevention actions of government and non-government organisations during the 2008/09 year.

This year, there was a focus on increasing accountability and mandate through strengthening the role of the CEs' IP Forum. It will be the accountability link between the individual agencies and the Injury Prevention Committee, providing a single point of decision-making. As a means of formalising inter-agency commitment, members of the CEs' IP Forum signed a Memorandum of Understanding in September 2008.

Reviewing the Strategy

A planned review of the Strategy was conducted this year. It involved:

  • consultation activities - including four public events in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, consultation with government agencies, and in-depth stakeholder interviews with a range of health and safety practitioners and experts
  • stock-take of activities - including a formal review of activities that have been undertaken and completed since the Strategy was launched in 2005
  • public submissions - including invitations for written and electronic submissions from individuals, organisations and associations.

Four broad questions drove the review:

  1. What progress has been made in workplace health and safety in New Zealand over the last three years?
  2. What is working well and should be continued or expanded?
  3. What are the main barriers to achieving healthy people in safe and productive workplaces?
  4. What should the current and future priorities for workplace health and safety in New Zealand be?

The full findings of the Strategy review will be released in late 2009, but some key conclusions are set out below:

  • The Strategy is sound, has stakeholder support and has had a number of practical and encouraging achievements in its first three years.
  • The Strategy needs clearer direction to engage stakeholders at the workplace level.
  • Clearer directions are needed to bridge the gap between the Strategy's higher-level framework and implementation activities.
  • Improved cross-agency leadership and coordination is needed, along with an action agenda to fill the implementation gap.
  • New Zealand needs to build and strengthen its monitoring, measurement and data analysis capacity.
  • There is support for the Workplace Health and Safety Council.

Reviewing the Workplace Health and Safety Council

The Workplace Health and Safety Council is a high-level body with government, employer and employee representatives, which advises government on workplace health and safety matters. The Council provides leadership, coordination in health and safety and advice on legislation, standards and policies, and met three times during the year.

Membership of the Council includes the Minister of Labour and the Minister for ACC, the President of the Council of Trade Unions, the Chief Executive of Business New Zealand and two business and two employee representatives.

The Workplace Health and Safety Council (the Council) has a leadership role in the implementation of the Strategy and so it was considered appropriate for it to be reviewed as part of the broader Strategy review to explore the governance, accountabilities and delivery of the Council.

There was general support for the Council to continue and to develop in its role, recognising that it is still at an early stage of development. The review identified some key areas in which the Council needs to take action and some key resources the Council needs in order to undertake its role effectively into the future.

The Council review recommends that the terms of reference are reviewed and readjusted. Matters requiring further consideration in the review of the terms of reference include:

  • government's role on the Council
  • the Council's role in relation to the Strategy
  • the range of activities undertaken by the Council
  • resourcing and support for the Council
  • the relationship of the Council to other advisory groups
  • strengthening the networks of employers, employees and government agencies that the Council members are involved in.

Healthcare and community service providers: keeping them safe

Acts of violence and aggression are an increasing threat to healthcare employees and community service providers in all parts of the healthcare sector: hospitals, general practices, homecare services, alcohol and drug services, and community-based residential services.

To help healthcare service providers manage the risk of violence, the Department of Labour and Counties-Manukau District Health Board jointly released a set of guidelines in February 2009.

Managing the Risk of Workplace Violence to Healthcare and Community Service Providers provides practical guidance, including a range of do-it-yourself tools to assess risks arising from violence and mechanisms to manage those risks.

The guidelines include suggestions for training, education and information and practical steps to manage risk. They are available on the Department of Labour and Counties-Manukau District Health Board websites. Guidelines cannot prevent violence, but they assist healthcare providers to manage the hazard.

Injuries to healthcare workers include lacerations, puncture wounds (from bites and weapons), fractures and head injuries. Some of the injuries sustained by caregivers, nurses and community service providers require weeks off work for recovery. In other cases, a full recovery doesn't happen, or staff choose to leave the sector.

Violence towards staff harms the victims, their colleagues and the organisations they work for. Identifying and managing the risks of violence and aggression without compromising patient care reduce the financial and social costs of work-related injuries and also help to retain skilled and motivated staff.

Setting high expectations

A responsive legislative programme and up-to-date regulations underpin government's promotion of high standards. Government agencies work to ensure that health and safety legislation and regulations are constantly improved. During the 2008/09 year, this work included the following:

  • An amendment to the Health and Safety in Employment Regulations placing duties on principals who engage young people as contract workers. The amendment restricts contract workers under 15 from hazardous work and workplaces and contract workers under 16 from night work. This brings contracted young workers into line with employed young workers.
  • Three sets of outdated regulations (abrasive blasting, electroplating and first aid), superseded by the Health and Safety in Employment (HSE) Act 1992, were revoked.
  • Government agencies and industry bodies continually work to keep health and safety guidelines relevant and up to date. This year, activities included:
  • he establishment of a team from the Department of Labour dedicated to producing standards material within a clearly defined framework
  • he publication of the new enforcement policy statement - Keeping Work Safe - the Department of Labour's policy on enforcing the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992
  • development and implementation of health and safety guidance documents by ACC, including a resource kit for residential builders and a health and safety induction DVD for meat industry workers
  • publication by ERMA of a series of guidance materials to promote the management of hazardous substances for priority sectors and the approval of new Codes of Practice in a number of areas
  • development of new guidelines for the hang gliding industry and helicopter agricultural work by the Civil Aviation Authority.

Auckland Harbour Bridge: keeping workers safe

Hazards are a daily risk in major engineering jobs, and minimising the risk of lead poisoning in workers brought an award nomination for one high-profile project.

Total Bridge Services (TBS) is managing the two-and-a-half year project strengthening the clip-on lanes of the Auckland Harbour Bridge, and its risk minimisation project earned it a finalist position in the 2009 Safeguard Health and Safety Awards.

Some areas of the clip-on lanes had to have all the paint stripped, including the lead-based primer. To begin with, TBS used abrasive blasting equipment to remove the paint, but changed to a paint stripper. Their lead management programme also included dust extraction and filtration, water blasting with wastewater recovery and disposal and staff going through a four-stage decontamination process at the end of each shift. Staff were blood tested monthly, and procedures and processes were continuously assessed and improved.

TBS has also been proactively managing other focus areas:

  • Worker fatigue: To get the project finished on schedule, employees and contractors need to work around the clock. TBS is doing regular night checks to identify persons with fatigue.
  • Safe access and egress: No improvement had been made to work area access and egress over the 50 years since the harbour bridge was built, and it needed a significant capital investment. TBS made a report to Transit New Zealand and an upgrade is imminent.
  • Hazardous substances: The storage facility, which is near the marina and Viaduct Basin, had not been upgraded for about 50 years. The current work dramatically increased the amount of stored hazardous substances. Between March and May 2009, TBS made a register of all the hazardous substances, removed old chemicals, relocated the chemical storage bunkers and is to label the bunkers with the maximum amount of product to be stored.

TBS's commitment to health and safety on the site has ensured many of the identified hazards have been removed, and the remaining issues are being proactively managed.

Improving health and safety around hazardous substances

Small and medium enterprises (businesses with 19 or fewer staff) make up more than 97 per cent of all businesses in New Zealand and account for about 30 percent of employees. It is a critical sector for targeted information and education on health and safety.

In October and November 2008, ERMA and the Department of Labour, in association with ACC and the New Zealand Chemical Industry Council (NZCIC), ran a series of free information workshops. 19 centres were visited, attracting approximately 1,100 attendees. Workshop topics included:

  • information about hazardous substances in the workplace
  • meeting workplace health and safety obligations
  • managing chemicals safely in the workplace
  • HSNO compliance tools
  • hands-on experience identifying workplace hazards.

ERMA has prepared a generic emergency management flip chart that can be tailored to a variety of industries and types of hazardous substances. ERMA also provides ongoing support for test certifiers and HSNO enforcement officers.

Further activities in the 2008/09 year included:

  • training courses for regional enforcement agencies
  • Test certifiers and the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (HSNO) Act 1996 enforcement officers were supported by the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) with training workshops, published guidance and performance standards development.

ERMA also implemented a process for renewal of approved handler test certificates, a dedicated web page and published guidance to industry. The call-free Hazardous Substances Compliance Line responded to over 6,300 phone and email enquiries.

Safe workplaces include the roads

For employers of commercial drivers, health and safety includes having procedures in place to encourage safe driving practices. That's why ACC and the New Zealand Police have collaborated for the last few years in a Commercial Driver Campaign. From a pilot in the Central District in late 2005, the campaign has extended to include the Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Waikato and Eastern Police districts.

The campaign focuses on driver fatigue, a major contributing factor in many crashes. Fatigue is more than tiredness; it includes a lack of concentration, the inability to make good judgements, speed and other poor driving behaviours.

The two agencies set up a database that links commercial drivers' driving offences back to their organisation. Organisations whose employees continually commit driving offences can be identified and notified of incidents and 'near misses' they may have been previously unaware of. They are provided with feedback and advice on how to minimise risks for their staff. This is better than just issuing an infringement notice: education and enforcement go hand in hand.

The campaign has been so successful that, in the future, it could capture all on-road health and safety risks, including restraints, speeding, careless/dangerous driving, alcohol offences and other drug offences. That would make the campaign reflective of the 'fatal five' targeted by the Road Policing Strategy: speed, drink/drug driving, restraints, dangerous/careless driving and high-risk drivers.

One benefit of such a move would be to make employers more aware of their obligations under health and safety in employment legislation, another would be the positive flow-on effect for commercial drivers when driving outside of the workplace, but the greatest benefit of encouraging safe workplace driving practices is to the New Zealand community at large.

Occupational health

The Department of Labour and the Ministry of Health have been leading a group working on a surveillance system for occupational disease. The Centre for Public Health Research has been contracted to establish an occupational disease surveillance system using existing data sets. This project will run over two years and be completed in June 2011.

The Department was a major supporting partner of the inaugural Occupational Health and Safety Industry Group (OHSIG) conference in September 2008. The Department made a significant contribution to the Building Research in Occupational Health in New Zealand conference along with Massey University at Te Papa in November 2008.

The importance of improving air quality at work is reflected in the Department's airborne substances work. As part of the clean air work programme in the Christchurch region, training was organised for a paint supplier's staff to ensure that correct equipment and advice was being provided to its customers using isocyanate paint for vehicle spraying.

The Department is also developing an Outcome Monitoring Framework (OMF) to measure progress in improving workplace health and safety in New Zealand. The OMF will use a range of existing data sources to monitor progress of the Strategy, as well as explore new data sources or health and safety metrics. Other activities during the 2008/09 are set out in Appendix 1.

Factory boats: bringing the crew safely home

FishSAFE is a safety programme developed by the fishing industry in conjunction with Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) and ACC. Until late last year, it was aimed particularly at small commercial fishing boats, for example, crayfishing boats operating just off the beach.

MNZ General Manager, Maritime Services Sharyn Forsyth says the flagship FishSAFE programme is having a strong positive effect on safety culture throughout the industry, largely because the initiative came from industry participants. "It is those in the industry who know best where the risks are. They are in the primary position to develop ways of reducing harm to those at sea," Ms Forsyth says.

The industry and government partnership is building on the success of FishSAFE. The inshore training framework has been used since late 2008 as the basis for new training programmes being offered to the crews of large commercial fishing vessels - factory boats working in international waters and the like.

Factory vessels are typically away for six weeks at a stretch, bringing its own set of hazards. Weather conditions can often change dramatically over a six-week period - far more so than over a two- or three-day period. Fatigue sets in, and weeks of working in tight and challenging conditions can easily lead to mistakes if the proper processes are not in place.

The aim is to put as many crew through the programme as possible from the three big industry employers - Sanford, Talley's and Sealord.

Sharon Larsen from the Seafood Industry Training Organisation, which runs workshops for the crews, says that, for the most part, the large commercial vessels had been working quite safely. "This programme has been about pulling all the elements together, so crews have a better understanding of all the issues."

In the one-day workshops, participants use a workbook to complete exercises based on safety, emergency and accident scenarios. Workshops have continued in 2009 and will continue as long as there are new people entering the industry. FishSAFE will have a strong future in helping to ensure that fishers get home to their families safely.

Contents| << Previous page | Next page >>

or return to the Workplace Health and Safety Strategy website