Worksafe NZ beings next phase in forestry safety work
WorkSafe New Zealand inspectors have begun a new round of visits to forestry contractors with a focus on tree felling. They will be inspecting to ensure workers are complying with the Best practice Guidelines for Safe Manual Tree Felling.
WorkSafe has completed its assessment round focusing on hauling the cut logs to transport sits in the forest and has discovered alarming levels of safety breaches.
“We have visited over 200 cable hauling operations and issued over 270 enforcement notices, including 23 prohibition notices which shut the operation down in the face of imminent danger to workers,” Ona de Rooy, General Manager Health and Safety Operations, said.
Marlborough vineyard contractor to pay penalty for non-compliance
A Marlborough vineyard contractor has been ordered to pay $3,000 for failing to comply with an improvement notice issued by the Labour Inspectorate.
The
Employment Relations Authority handed down the penalty after it was found TP Manu Limited deliberately ignored requests by the Labour Inspectorate to provide timesheets, wage records and copies of employment agreements. Labour Inspectorate general manager George Mason stated a labour inspector visited TP Manu’s Blenheim work site last year and found several employees did not have employment agreements in place. The inspector issued an improvement notice requiring TP Manu to provide records to the Labour Inspectorate, which was repeatedly ignored.
Govt announces new tertiary education strategy
The government has announced a new tertiary education strategy of which a key focus will be building stronger links with industry to enable students to leave university with skills employers want
The five-year programme aims to provide students with the skills needed in the workplace, and to help older workers improve their skills and education, Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce said.
Six key priorities make up the new strategy; Delivering skills for industry, Getting at-risk young people into a career, Boosting achievement of Māori and Pasifika, Improving adult literacy and numeracy, Strengthening research-based institutions and Growing international linkages.
Perfect life balance revealed
If you want to achieve the perfect work life balance you need to spend eight hours gossiping, 10 hours exercising and 13 hours at your desk a week according to psychologist Emma Kenny.
Kenny’s formula for a perfect work-life balance suggests that two hours a day should be spent outdoors, two hours doing something active and one hour reserved for a relaxing lunch.
“It's not just important to create balance, it's essential. It's time to make life work for you, instead of simply working your life away,” Kenny told The Daily Mail.
However, research last month found that if a husband wants to improve his wife’s quality of life, he should spend longer hours at the office. The more overtime a man does, the healthier his spouse becomes, with wives benefiting most when husbands work more than 50 hours a week.
