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Workplace Health and Safety Council Meeting Minutes - No.5, Thursday 15 May 2008 PRESENT Christopher Blake (Chair), Hon Trevor Mallard, Phil O’Reilly, Carol Beaumont, Andrew Casidy, Paul Jarvie, Panu Raea IN ATTENDANCE
APOLOGIES Hon Maryan Street, Helen Kelly INTRODUCTION The meeting commenced at 9.15am with a brief introduction from attendees. ACTION The Council: 5.1 Noted apologies. 5.2 Confirmed the minutes of the 21 February 2008 meeting. 5.3 Agreed the summary of actions, noting that the Hon Trevor Mallard had written to the Minister of Health about occupations being recorded on health records and a timetable for a response to the NOHSAC recommendations. He proposes meeting with the Minister of Health to progress these issues further. STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT Item 5.4: Briefing from Statistics New Zealand In November 2007, Statistics NZ reported on the role of the Injury Information Manager and programme progress. The Council expressed an interest in how the Information Manager might improve information flows to provide more accurate data, provide easier access to statistical information, and minimise respondent burden. The Council also requested six monthly updates on the Injury Information Management programmes. Conal Smith (Manager, Social Conditions Unit) provided an update to the Council on the Injury Information Programme. The update comprised two parts: (1) an overview of 'business as usual' activities at Statistics New Zealand and (2) an update on progress with the review of the Official Injury Statistics Programme. There have been personnel changes at Statistics New Zealand. Conal has replaced Paul Brown as Manager and Ingrid Jaegers has been appointed to a newly established position of Programme Manager, Injury Information Programme. Ingrid's appointment is a recognition from Statistics NZ of the strategic importance of the injury information programme and the need for Statistics New Zealand to take a more active leadership role in the programme. Ingrid will progress the review of the Official Injury Statistics Programme and the development of a strategic plan and work programme going forward. Along with completing the draft report, presenting stakeholder feedback as phase one of the programme review, Ingrid has been meeting with major stakeholders. Other work that has been progressed since the previous Injury Information Manager update, has been the release of the work-related ACC claims for the year ending October 2006 and updating the Statistics New Zealand website. Conal provided background information on the review of the Official Injury Statistics Programme. From inception in 2002, initial progress was made on the integration of ACC and Ministry of Health workplace injury data. The introduction of the NZ Injury Prevention Strategy and the need for improved injury data have driven the review of the programme to refresh it going forward. As a first phase, stakeholders were invited to comment on the current programme and areas for improvement. Conal also provided a report on the findings of the review. He summarised the key findings from the stakeholder feedback and addressed the four recommendations.
The chair thanked Statistics NZ for their presentation. ACTION 5.4.1 Noted the findings of the review in respect of the role of Injury Information Manager. 5.4.2 Noted the importance of the Injury Information Manager role. 5.4.3 Noted that consultation on phase one of the Official Injury Statistics Programme review will be occurring over the next two weeks. 5.4.4 Noted that a second phase of the review will be established and that this work is expected to be completed over the next four months. 5.4.5 Agreed that Statistics NZ should take a more active leadership role as Injury Information Manager with priorities to raise awareness and availability of current information and scoping the development of one or more official injury rates. 5.4.6 Noted that the next update from Statistics NZ is scheduled for November 2008. 5.4.7 Noted that Statistics NZ will report back to the Council on the outcome of the review of the Official Injury Statistics Programme in November 2008. Item 5.5: Briefing from the Ministry of Transport The Ministry was invited to present to the Council as part of its regular engagement with senior health and safety officials from government agencies. The meeting also provided the opportunity for the Ministry to share lessons learned and successes in relation to its experience with evidence based policy in the portfolio of road transport safety. In addition, Transport is currently looking to replace the existing Road Safety to 2010 Strategy with a new strategy that will be released by the end of 2009. Work has just commenced on developing the new strategy but a key theme that is likely to emerge is the interface with road safety and the workplace. This makes the development of the new strategy of interest to workplace health and safety officials. Apologies were received from David Crawford (Environment & Safety General Manager) who was unwell and unable to attend. In his place Gayelene Wright (Principal Adviser) and Wayne Jones (Principal Scientist Transport Monitoring) presented on the topic of “Evidence-based road safety: what have the lessons been?” The presentation provided an overview of what factors had been important in progressing road safety since 1990, with a key focus on the learnings gained from taking an evidence based approach to policy interventions. A summary of the key lessons were:
Following the presentation the Council discussed a number of issues.
ACTION 5.5.1 Noted there is clear Council agreement on the importance of “work” as a context for road safety moving forward. 5.5.2 Noted the range of interventions that have been taken to date, and that a more sophisticated intervention mix will be needed to meet road safety needs, moving forward. 5.5.3 Noted that DoL and ACC are proactively involved in work relating to the development of the 2020 Road Transport Safety Strategy. 5.5.4 Noted that ACC is discussing vehicle safety features to importers, employers, fleet owners, rental vehicle providers. 5.5.3 Requested that the Ministry of Transport ensure the scope of the Road Transport Safety Strategy to 2020 includes more overt consideration of road transport safety issues for workers and workplaces. The Minister of Labour departed at 10.55am WHSC STRATEGIC PRIORITIES AND ISSUES Item 5.6: Improving the interface between government agencies In response to a request from the Council at the 21 February meeting, to report back on this project, the Department tabled two reports (Volume I: Risk Landscape and Volume II: Interventions and Evaluation – by the NZIER) for discussion. Craig Armitage provided an overview of the research. The intention of this project was for it to be central to defining the future strategic relationship and interaction between DoL and ACC, and to provide a common “picture” of the current risk landscape for workplace injuries and illness that can be shared on an ongoing basis by both agencies. He advised that the reports are still in the draft phase and will be subject to peer review before being finalised. The reports have partially met the Department’s expectations – this was to some extent due to the lack of available data. The Department of Labour, in particular, doesn’t have detailed records on the costs of some interventions and this limited the ability of the researchers to complete the intervention model. The issues around data are certainly ones that the Department intends to act on. The findings will feed into the current review of the Departments knowledge tool, ‘WorkInfo’. He informed the Council that the international literature review shows that the interventions used by the DoL and ACC are the right ones. The report does highlight opportunities to influence what the agencies do in the future around indicators and targets. Volume II is more theoretical than strategic and the Department will pursue further discussions on the methodology with NZIER. An independent peer review will be used to provide assistance to make the report outcomes practical. They will also form the basis of ongoing discussion with the ACC. For the next Council meeting, the reports will be presented in their final form and there will be an opportunity for a more focused discussion. ACTION 5.6.1 Noted the information provided about two draft NZIER reports Volume I: Risk Landscape and Volume II: Interventions and Evaluation. 5.6.2 Noted the Department of Labour will be undertaking an independent peer review of the NZIER’s reports. 5.6.3 Agreed the Department of Labour’s proposal to finalise the two NZIER reports for an in-depth discussion of the recommendations in Volume II at the next meeting. The Chair (Christopher Blake) departed at 10.55 Andrew Annakin assumed the chair for the remainder of the meeting Item 5.7: Improving health and safety designs, practices, systems, standards and information flows Preventative safety cultures are a key outcome of the Workplace Health and Safety Strategy as well as a priority objective for the New Zealand Injury Prevention Strategy. In addition, safety culture is increasingly referenced in international research and health and safety discourse as an important factor in resilient approaches to workplace health and safety. Based on this context, the Department of Labour commissioned two pieces of research to establish an initial evidence base on safety culture:
Dr Bennett presented the summary findings from these two research reports, supplemented with her experiences and observations as a practitioner in the field of safety culture assessment. Dr Bennett emphasised the importance of safety culture as a means of bridging the traditional components of health and safety - namely engineering solutions, systems and behaviour. She also stressed that safety culture should be discussed in terms of collective behaviours rather than beliefs and attitudes, as ultimately, it is what people do that is important for health and safety. Dr Bennett also outlined the key dimensions or influencing factors to building a positive safety culture, e.g. leadership commitment and worker participation, followed by organisational issues and good policies. ACTION 5.7.1 Noted that the two pieces of research complemented each other well, identifying a largely agreed set of conclusions. Taken as whole, the research confirmed that a positive safety culture is linked to positive outcomes, both safety (reduced accidents), and non-safety (corporate reputation). 5.7.2 Noted that the Department intends to promote this research by making the key research reports and a summary document available to interested businesses to provide them an overview of the key findings. Practically the Department will look to promote these resources through its website and targeted seminars. 5.7.3 Noted that the research reports will be available on the Department’s website by 30 June for feedback. 5.7.4 Noted that the Department is also exploring opportunities within the forestry sector to pilot some approaches for improving safety leadership and safety culture. This will be coupled with the development of a simple safety culture snapshot tool. 5.7.5 Requested the Department of Labour to report back on key principles for workplace safety culture practices and options for devolvement and dissemination at the next Council meeting in November. 5.7.6 Endorsed the key findings and principles of safety culture as outlined to the Council. Item 5.8: Six monthly progress update on Workplace Health and Safety Strategy The Council was provided with a progress update of the Workplace Health and Safety Strategy for the period between July and December 2007 and a full summary of priority actions and activities of supporting agencies. Overall, very good progress has been made in the last six months to develop and build on Strategy priorities. A higher priority has been placed on promotion activities that both raise awareness of the social costs of workplace injury and disease, and the behaviour changes needed to improve New Zealand’s health and safety performance. Common misconceptions about health and safety have been tackled through the “Health and safety - It’s No Joke” tag line developed and used in a series of targetted campaigns over the last few months. The “Drop the Volume” nationwide advertising campaign highlighted issues around noise-induced hearing loss. New Zealand Safety Week (3-9 September) was used to alert people to the dangers of workplace noise generally, and the hospitality industry was given a special focus. Local health and safety inspectors visited bars for an informal chat with hospitality workers. The Department also ran a nationwide “It’s no joke” campaign warning that occupational noise is no joke. The Department has been working collaboratively with ACC and the Health Research Council on noise-induced hearing loss. This includes commissioning a major piece of epidemiology research undertaken by Auckland University into the incidence and prevalence of noise-induced hearing loss, which began in July 2007. The Grim Harvest campaign successfully fostered a greater awareness by agricultural workers and the general public of workplace hazards in the agricultural sector. Between 14 December and 5 February: the campaign generated 4,422 unique website visitors, 5,899 page views, and 469 download of campaign material. Television resulted in 4,548 page views from 3,078 unique visitors. The Department has also been promoting the productivity benefits of good health and safety practices (such as quality health and safety management systems and culture, employee participation, and management commitment). The launch of new health and safety guidelines for the shearing industry at the Golden Shears, along with an information pack illustrating “how health and safety makes good business sense” highlighted how good health and safety practices in the workplace pay off for business and business productivity. A relationship has been established with the Construction Client’s Group (CCG) as part of the Department’s work on improving health and safety management in contract situations. The CCG is a peer group of public and private sector clients of construction. It is expected this partnership will enable a pragmatic focus on what is required for health and safety to be better recognised in the contracting process. The Department is continuing to engage and support the NZ Forest Owners Association’s Safety Strategy. The Department has been working to improve the focus and structure of its enforcement activities to be more effective, efficient and consistent. The Department’s enforcement role has been reviewed and a strategy to guide our workplace interventions is being developed in consultation with social partners and other key stakeholders. This work delivers on the government leadership outcome in the Strategy and also contributes to wider government efforts to improve the quality of regulatory activities and interactions between government agencies and citizens. An enforcement policy statement is ready for consultation. An internal Prosecution Panel has also been established to pilot an approach to review prosecution cases taken by the Department. Established early in 2007, the Panel met with workplace health and safety inspectors, providing peer review and advice on a number of cases submitted by inspectors. The Panel’s findings have identified a range of issues relating to investigation practice, the role of managers in supporting staff, client engagement, and organisational support. The Panel has recommended the development of a “thinking tool” to assist inspectors and managers to “diagnose” at the start of an investigation, rather than focus on regulatory breaches. Another recommendation involves establishing peer review processes at a local level to support improved investigation practices. In December 2007 the Ministry of Transport released an interagency Driver Fatigue Strategy to combat driver fatigue. The new strategy works to ensure that there is a collaborative approach to future policy initiatives, promotion and delivery of driver fatigue counter-measures. During December a high profile television advertising campaign urged New Zealanders to wake up to the warning signs of driver fatigue. Maritime NZ has been working with the fishing industry to develop health and safety guidelines for the aquaculture industry. A tripartite health and safety group for the stevedoring industry has been established and is working to improve health and safety outcomes for the industry. Health and safety workshops, supplemented by a one-on-one mentoring system, are being delivered within the inshore fishing and aquaculture industries. ACC undertook an operational review in mid-2007 of the small employer/self-employed incentive programme, providing levy discounts for small businesses. A number of improvements have been made to the training and assessment processes. The Waste Management industry will be added to the programme from 1 April 2008. The Department will build on the good progress made in the last few months and take a strong position to promote Workplace Health and Safety Strategy priorities. The health and safety of Pacific and youth workers is a national priority under the Strategy and will be a focus in coming months. Pacific workers are experiencing disproportionately high workplace incident rates in key industries including manufacturing and construction. Youth workers have the second highest ACC claim incidence rate, and are overrepresented in high risk occupations and industries, particularly working around machinery. Fact sheets, comic strips and a song competition have been developed and were used to raise awareness of health and safety at the ASB Polyfest in Auckland in March 2008. Five hundred Pacific Passports to Safety were recently launched as part of the Puataunofo Manukau project, which is collaboration between government agencies, Manukau City Council and South Auckland employers. In response to business concerns over liability for actions of contractors raised in the recent quality regulation review, the Department has developed contracting guidelines for principals. The guide will provide a “good practice” framework, for principals to meet their duties for contractor safety. ACTION 5.8.1 Noted the six monthly progress update on the Workplace Health and Safety Strategy. Item 5.9: Use the Implementation Road Map to engage Council stakeholders to identify priorities and activities that will lead to improved health and safety performance A draft Implementation Roadmap (the Roadmap) has been developed by the Department of Labour to illustrate the phased implementation of the Workplace Health and Safety Strategy. Importantly, it has also been developed to stimulate discussion across stakeholders to identify the big, critical mass issues for workplace health and safety. At the Council’s February 2008 meeting, the Council considered the draft Roadmap was appropriate to promote discussion and engage with sector groups. However, it highlighted that some areas of the Roadmap could benefit from additional refinement, namely a need to (1) articulate the critical mass issues more clearly and concretely; (2) identify indicators, timeframes and responsibilities for each implementation phase; and (3) illustrate the explicit links between the Roadmap and the WHSS. Council also agreed that the draft Roadmap could be socialised with associates or affiliate organisations. The Council discussed the need to engage with stakeholders and how this could inform the Council’s high level advice to Ministers on a range of key issues. Specifically, this advice would assist in identifying:
In addition, this engagement process would also provide a practical opportunity to further refine the draft Roadmap and socialise the concept with stakeholders, as identified by the Council in February 2008. The Department's view is that this engagement process provides a logical and appropriate opportunity to refine, clarify and explain the critical mass issues outlined in the draft Roadmap. Stakeholder feedback to finalise these critical mass issues would assist in highlighting the links between the Roadmap and the WHSS. Options for engagement could include workshops being delivered as separate stand-alone events across the three main centres via breakfast sessions. Engagement workshops could be attached to existing conferences and meetings of relevant communities of interest (e.g. OHSIG conference). These workshops could be separate to the specific conference or event (i.e. the day before or day after), or as an actual part of the respective forum. Alternatively, a combined approach that leverages existing events and includes some dedicated workshops may be appropriate. The Department envisages this engagement being delivered by the Council as a collective group. The process would leverage off existing networks and associations of the NZCTU and Business New Zealand and will be inclusive enough to enable wide stakeholder input from all parts of New Zealand. The Department proposes the draft Roadmap be used to support the engagement process, by providing high level themes (e.g. capability, engagement, leadership, shared culture) and timeframes (short, medium, and long term). Given reasonable timeframes for written and oral feedback, the subsequently refined Roadmap could also provide a potential method for capturing and presenting the key findings of the engagement. ACTION 5.9.1 Noted that at the February meeting the Council considered the draft Roadmap was appropriate to promote discussion and engagement with sector groups 5.9.2 Noted that the Council also agreed at its February meeting that the draft Roadmap could be socialised with associates or affiliate organisations. 5.9.3 Noted that an evaluation of the Workplace Health and Safety Strategy is due to commence in 2008 and that stakeholder feedback and Council views will be crucial in this evaluation process. 5.9.4 Noted that the opportunity to engage widely with stakeholders supports the Council’s purpose to build consensus among stakeholders and provide advice on workplace health and safety issues in New Zealand. 5.9.5 Nominated Paul Jarvie and Rosaleen Loughman to work with the Department of Labour to develop options for a stakeholder’s engagement plan. 5.9.6 Requested the Department of Labour to provide a stakeholder engagement plan to inform Council’s advice to Ministers on New Zealand workplace health and safety matters. 5.9.7 Noted that, subject to feedback from the stakeholder engagement process, the Department will identify links between the Roadmap and the Workplace Health and Safety Strategy for discussion by the Council at the November meeting. 5.9.8 Noted that the Department and ACC have strong working relationships with health and safety networks in the Bay of Plenty and New Plymouth regions. 5.9.9 Discussed opportunities for raising awareness of Council’s existence and work, e.g. a follow up article in Safeguard, links on the Department and ACC websites, publishing Council minutes on the websites, set up a contact point for public feedback to Council. 5.9.10 Discussed opportunities for sharing good practices and stories, e.g. the health and safety award nominee stories and culture examples. 5.9.11 Requested that the minutes of the Council’s meetings be made available to the public. CONCLUSION Item 5.10: Agenda items for 27 August meeting ACTION 5.10.1 Agreed agenda items for the 27 August meeting:
Item 5.11: General business ACTION 5.11.1 Noted that the Council will receive a feedback questionnaire on the Department’s performance, within the next few weeks. 5.11.2 Noted that David Tregoworth had been seconded from Air New Zealand to the Department as Chief Advisor, Safe and Healthy Workplaces. 5.11.3 Requested the Department to provide a schedule of contact details for Council members. ADDITIONAL PAPERS Council Members were provided the following additional papers:
Meeting closed 11.55am, Thursday 15 May 2008 Next meeting 10.00-12.30, 26 August 2008, 3.4 Members Only Dining Room, Beehive Chair Phil O’Reilly |
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