Financial toll of workplace fatalities, injuries almost $5 billion

The financial toll of workplace fatalities and injuries in New Zealand reached $4.9 billion in 2023, up from the $4.4 billion in 2022.

This is according to the latest State of a Thriving Nation report released by the Business Leaders' Health and Safety Forum.

According to the report, the total financial toll considered the cost to the Accident Compensation Corporation, private losses through lost income, the statistical value of life, as well as updating the cost of health effects from WorkSafe NZ reporting to 2023.

"Catching up to Australia's performance would save New Zealand $1.4 billion each year, and if we were to match the UK's performance, we would save $3.4 billion per year. This is a considerable human and economic price to pay," said Forum chief executive Francois Barton in a statement.

Improving health, safety performance

Meanwhile, the report also found that New Zealand's health and safety performance is "getting gradually better." The country's provisional 2024 fatality rate improved to 1.9 per 100,000 workers, the lowest in the report's data set.

Despite this improvement, the report noted that New Zealand's fatality rate remains higher than in countries with similar legislative settings, such as Australia and the United Kingdom.

"[New Zealand's] five-year average to 2024 remains much higher than in Australia (1.6 times) or in the UK (6.4 times)," the report read.

The country's injury rate is also improving, but this is mostly concentrated to less-serious injuries that do not require more than a week off work.

"Over the past decade, the minor injury rate has decreased by 37% while the serious injury rate has increased by 18%," the report read.

It added that the country's serious injury rate is 35% higher than Australia and 330% higher than the UK, according to the report.

Impact of work health and safety

Overall, the report found that nearly 50% of New Zealand employees are affected by workplace health and safety.

In fact, 55% of the respondents said they would personally pay a nominal amount, or $730 million a year, to make work safer in New Zealand.

"It's telling that New Zealanders would opt to pay out of their own pocket for work not to hurt and that close to half of the population has been affected by poor workplace health and safety," said Shamubeel Eaqub, who wrote the report, in a statement.

Barton said regulators should take more proactive activities while the government should show "explicit commitment" to improve the entire health and safety system.

"With the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Hon Brooke van Velden announcing a review into health and safety, we urge her to consider the findings in this report to enable a more responsive health and safety system where businesses and workers know where to improve, where the risks are created and how best to mitigate those risks," Barton said.