More health and safety changes on the horizon

New Zealand must have a strategy in place to reduce the death toll and injury rate in the workplace over the next 10 years, according to the workplace relations and safety minister Iain Lees-Galloway.

Indeed, Lees-Galloway plans to expand the focus of what constitutes “significant harm” on the job in a draft health and safety strategy to improve the well-being of workers and consequently the productivity of the labour force.

Moreover, the government is looking for feedback on the draft plan with a view to finalising a health and safety strategy in September or October.

The paper also outlines four priorities, the first being a broader set of measures and targets that will replace an injury focus with a health focus when the targets expire in 2021.

Further priorities include creating a durable and proportionate regulatory framework, which will include a review of the legislation in 2020, putting workers at the centre of the system, and ensuring strong sector leadership with industry, unions and government working together to improve health and safety.

“New Zealand has made good progress in recent years in reducing the rate of acute harm. However, urgent work still remains,” said Lees-Galloway.

“I want to ensure that we are reducing all types of significant harm at work – this includes broadening the focus from acute harm to make sure we’re managing wider health risks, including mental health.”

The draft strategy paper said the level of work-related harm has improved from a low base and was still high by international standards, with more than 250 people killed and almost 2,000 seriously injured on the job over the past five years.

Moreover, if that’s broadened to work-related ill health, the paper estimates between 600 and 900 people die a year in New Zealand.

“A key priority highlighted in the strategy is ensuring better outcomes for Maori and other workers at greater risk who are over-represented in injury statistics and high-risk sectors, such as forestry and

construction, or more likely to be engaged in temporary, geographically remote or precarious employment,” said Lees-Galloway.

“Once finalized, it will also outline more meaningful measures and targets for monitoring our performance as a country.”