Looking at the construction industry, the New Zealand fatality rate is 4.41 workers every 100,000 compared to 2.93 workers in every 100,000. The workplace injury rates tell a similar story. New Zealand injury rates, as reported by ACC have improved over time, however the Australian rate is 25% lower, the UK 45% lower. Why? Why are we so much worse than other countries we should be able to compare ourselves with? Brooke van Velden, the Minister for Workplace Safety, says we're overregulated. That there are too many rules and the fear of prosecution is making workplaces less safe.
“We're changing the focus of worker health and safety to focusing on the critical risks, those things that can cause deaths and serious injury, and at the same time, I'm changing the focus of WorkSafe to care about deaths and serious injury as well and not sweating the small stuff because we've had a culture of too much over compliance, ticking all the boxes, trying to get all of the paperwork done, rather than focusing on, do I actually do anything in my workplace that could cause death or serious injury? And are we doing that correctly?
“So I'm saying to everybody out there, let's not sweat the small stuff. Let's focus on those deaths and serious injury activities and let's have WorkSafe going on site providing more upfront guidance so that they're here to help rather than having too much of the stick.”
Who was it that said there are no more chilling words than “hi, we're from the government. We're here to help”? It was an American, I'm sure. Is there going to be able to be a change of emphasis? If all of a sudden, Workplace Safety says, ‘hey, we're here to help. We're here to help you, as the employer, make the workplace safer’. Are we able to pivot away from thinking ‘if Health and Safety come in here, they're going to find all sorts of nitpicky things and make my life misery’, to ‘might ring Workplace Health and Safety and see how they can help me’. It's going to take a big mind shift.
Mike said this morning he thought there were too many rules and there probably are for people who are educated, who have choices about what they do, who have choices about where they work. For people who don't have the luxury of telling a boss to stick it if they're asked to do something they think is really dangerous, or to do something with equipment they think is dangerous, rules are required. But they need to be clear, they need to be effective and if they're not working, do away with them. And I think most importantly, employees need to be on board with them. The number of times I've had employers ring in and tell me that as required by law, they bring in the safety gear, they instruct the workers to wear it, they do spot cheques to ensure the workers are wearing it, and the workers are not wearing it. They say that the goggles mist up. That the harnesses mean that they can't rely on their own wits to go about the building, and they'd rather risk death than rely on their own sense of balance. The employees don't seem to value their lives in some cases. You've got to get employees on board as well.
There has to be a culture of safety, that workers have to value themselves and employers have to value their workers. And you can't regulate for that. You can't red cone that. I tend to agree that too many rules just mean the important ones get lost in the noise. Too many road cones and you don't know when it's dangerous and when it's not. But our work-related deaths are appalling. And they've been appalling for a very, very long time. How do we fix it? It's only those workers in dangerous occupations, mainly men, and the bosses in those dangerous occupations that can tell us.
Kerre McIvor, is a journalist, radio presenter, author and columnist. Currently hosts the Kerre Woodham mornings show on Newstalk ZB - where this article was sourced.
3 comments:
it is absurd that the employer is always to blame. Newspaper reports do not make clear the degree of carelessness of the worker. It is absurd that a worker can cycle or ride a motor bike to work, play rugby on the weekend, walk on the foorpath a foot from passing truck and bus mirrors etc but to paint a 9 ft high garage roof over grass now needs full fixed scaffolding. The ACC savings are spent many times over in increased cost to customers. We have many youth in NZ very poorly educated and with an anti attitude generally. To many ACC is attractive. The personell make up is likely different overseas.
I partly but not entirely blame our education system where carefulness is actually discouraged in student's school work . Besides no work ethic any school work done can be sloppy , inaccurate and is seldom marked or corrected . Near enough is close enough could be a description of the now proven wrong WL . reading system still dominant in schools. The primary numeracy maths project has also encouraged imprecision .
Our children have been led to believe lawlessness and rebellion are good behaviours and not to follow instruction from an authority figure but to 'discover ' things for themselves. Children are not to be corrected but come to their own innate conclusions about how to behave.
As someone who has spent considerable time in Australia I can tell you that the approach to worker safety from both employers and employees is very different to the approach taken here.
Employers are held to account by laws, random govt inspections, and (organised gangs) unions.
Employees are incentivised to take their safety seriously by the (gangs) unions, insurers, and employers. And the provisions their employer makes for their safety is taken very seriously.
On the flip side - if you are injured on the job in Oz, there is no ACC, and if you failed to follow the safety procedures or use the safety equipment provided, then any insurance (income protection/ medical) is also going to be voided in the event of an injury. In other words - you're stuffed mate.
General attitudes are also a lot different. NZ has very much a "don't tell me what to do/ i know what I'm doing" giant chip on their shoulders - whereas the Aussies are very happy to be told what to do by someone higher up the ladder because it absolves them of responsibility in the event of an accident.
Also the (gangs) unions make sure employees comply.
A real life example of this - my engineered stone benchtop would not have been purchased or installed in Australia... vs here in NZ, it was not only installed, but the experienced worker told his young sidekick/ employee to wear the mask provided and the young sidekick said nah mate I don't like it....and wouldn't wear it while the silica powder flew around his face for the better part of 4 hours.
(Personally I was horrified and concerned for his mid - long term health...the kid couldn't have given 2 flicks, but will no doubt be on ACC in a few years when he can't breathe any more.)
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