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Source: Worksafe New Zealand
Read our February 2024 high hazards update.
In this edition we cover:
Source: Worksafe New Zealand
Read our May 2024 high hazards update.
In this newsletter we cover:
Source: Worksafe New Zealand
Keeping people safe by paying better attention to vehicle maintenance would have saved a worker from a serious forklift injury, WorkSafe New Zealand says.
Casey Broad, WorkSafe’s National Manager Investigations, says the $240,000 fine handed down to Refrigafreighters Limited for an incident in September 2022 is a wake-up call to all businesses using forklifts.
“A worker had been collecting rubbish with the forklift. They parked it and put the handbrake on, but when they got out it started to roll down the slope it was parked on.”
The 33-year-old tried to recover the forklift but it tipped onto him and caused serious injuries including a punctured lung and broken back.
“WorkSafe’s investigation verified the forklift hadn’t been maintained and serviced to the standard we’d expect. We asked specialists to take a look and what they found was shocking – there were serious safety issues with the handbrake, to the point it would never have been able to stop the forklift from moving even on a slight incline.”
WorkSafe’s Casey Broad says the sentence is a reminder for businesses to keep workers safe.
“Businesses must ensure that forklifts and other vehicles and machines are safe to use. If businesses don’t meet their health and safety responsibilities, WorkSafe will hold them to account.”
“A lot of businesses use forklifts, but like any vehicle they need to be serviced and maintained so issues are picked up early and fixed. If you don’t, things can go wrong quickly.”
“Unfortunately there are too many incidents involving forklifts in New Zealand – businesses can do better to keep people safe.”
For more information you can contact our Media Team using our media request form. Alternatively, you can:
Email: media@worksafe.govt.nz
Source: Employment New Zealand
Depending on the weather and snow conditions, work for temporary workers may last for several months, and people planning to stay for the full winter season may prefer fixed-term rental accommodation rather than staying short term in hostels or backpackers.
Brett Wilson, National Manager, Tenancy Compliance and Investigations Team says, “it is important that employees understand their rights, and the landlord’s obligations when they look for accommodation, even just for a few weeks or months.”
This will avoid potentially vulnerable employees being short changed or staying in accommodation that does not meet the required standards.
“In some cases, the employer provides accommodation for the employee while they are working there. This is called a service tenancy and certain requirements must be met to comply with tenancy law,” says Mr Wilson.
All new tenancies must comply with Healthy Homes Standards, which include specific minimum standards for heating, insulation, ventilation, moisture and drainage, and draught stopping in rental properties.
Smoke alarms or detectors are compulsory in all rental properties and landlords must ensure they are working at the start of each new tenancy and remain in working order throughout.
If people want to learn about renting a spare room or setting up a house as a rental property have a look at the videos and checklists on the Tenancy Services website:
Tenancy Services (external link)
Beginner’s Guide to renting (external link)
Top tips for boarding house tenants and landlords (external link)
Source: Council of Trade Unions – CTU
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff backs the thinking of 74% of Wellingtonians in rejecting the airport privatisation.
“This is an important public asset, and the council share has reliably generated returns for Wellingtonians. In the last year alone, it generated $20.4m,” said Wagstaff.
“The best thing we can do is maintain control over a public monopoly like the airport to make sure that it is run in the public interest.
“There has never been a financial case for the sale, and the poll shows that there is no popular demand for it either.
“Instead of selling our shares, we should be using our shareholding and presence on the board to make sure that the airport is great employer, is committed to decarbonisation and that it continues to be great public asset for the benefit of Wellingtonians.
“Under the companies act our 34% shareholding prevents the airport from making any strategic decisions that would harm Wellingtonians. It also gives us 1/3 of all seats on the board.
“The privatisation of assets in Christchurch and the ports of Auckland have been rejected by Councillors there because they don’t stack up. It doesn’t stack up here either and Wellington council should follow their example by voting against a share sale that there is no mandate for.
“As a nation, we need to secure our future through building economic resilience and a just transition to a low-emissions economy. That means keeping public assets in public ownership,” said Wagstaff.
Source: Worksafe New Zealand
WorkSafe has launched its new strategy, with a focus on making a measurable difference to the most serious harm in New Zealand workplaces.
As the primary health and safety at work regulator, WorkSafe’s role is to influence businesses to carry out their responsibilities – and to hold them to account if they don’t.
“Ten years on from WorkSafe’s inception, our refreshed strategy is about delivering what New Zealanders expect of their work health and safety regulator. We will work with businesses, workers, and other key players in the system to reduce harm and improve health and safety at work for everyone,” says WorkSafe’s Board Chair, Jennifer Kerr.
The strategy defines the wider health and safety at work system (te aronga matua) and reflects our role in the system (kawa), how we will undertake that role (tikanga), where we will focus our effort (kaupapa), and how we will measure our impact (mātauranga).
Every year 50–60 people are killed at work and 400–500 hospitalised with a serious work-related injury (acute harm), and an estimated 750-900 people die because of work-related ill health (chronic harm).
“While these awful figures have steadily reduced over time, there is a long way to go and much work to do by everyone who can influence health and safety in our workplaces,” says Jennifer Kerr. “We also know that harm does not occur equally, and it is imperative that we remain focused on reducing these unacceptable harm inequities.”
WorkSafe Strategy
Source: Worksafe New Zealand
Courts have imposed more than half a million dollars in penalties since mid-March, in cases where workers have lost fingers on machinery that wasn’t kept safe by businesses.
“Businesses must manage their risks to keep workers safe. In each of these cases there was a failure to follow basic machine safety standards. WorkSafe investigated and prosecuted the cases as part of our role to hold businesses to account when they fall short on health and safety,” says WorkSafe principal inspector Mark Donaghue.
“All three cases are from the manufacturing sector – which has a persistent problem with machine safeguarding and is one of the country’s high-risk industries.”
One worker had two fingers amputated and a third degloved in a punch and shear machine, when the regular machine was out of order at Thompson Engineering in Timaru in January 2022. The business was recently fined $247,500 and ordered to pay reparations of $35,000.
Another worker had three fingers partially amputated while using a punch and forming press at Auckland’s Anglo Engineering in March 2022. In sentencing, Judge Lisa Tremewan referred to “an unintended complacency” and that “it is critical that robust practices are employed by those within the relevant industries”. A fine of $200,000 was imposed, and reparations of $35,337 were ordered.
And a third worker was cleaning a machine when it amputated two fingers and degloved a third at Flexicon Plastics in Auckland in August 2022. The machine’s on/off switch had been knocked into operation because the interlock wasn’t functioning. A fine of $74,392 was imposed, and reparations of $33,000 ordered.
“If you are unsure whether your safeguarding is up to scratch, engage a qualified expert as soon as possible,” says WorkSafe’s Mark Donaghue.
“These sorts of incidents are avoidable. Workers should not be suffering harm like this in 2024, and businesses have no excuse. WorkSafe is notified of machine guarding incidents from across the country every week, and is regularly prohibiting dangerous machinery as part of its proactive and targeted assessments. WorkSafe has a role to influence business to make sure they keep people healthy and safe – that’s why we’re speaking out on this issue.”
Workplaces have been required to safeguard machinery since the Machinery Act 1950 took effect. But more than 70 years later, workplaces still aren’t getting it right, with too many workers in Aotearoa being injured and killed from unsafe machinery.
Read more about safety with power presses
Read more about machinery lock outs
For more information you can contact our Media Team using our media request form. Alternatively, you can:
Phone: 021 823 007 or
Email: media@worksafe.govt.nz
Source: Worksafe New Zealand
WorkSafe New Zealand says urgent action is needed by the trades to take better care of apprentices, after the second court sentencing this year for a trainee killed on the job.
Josh Masters was fixing the hydraulics on a log loader when the vehicle’s boom fell and crushed him at Balmoral Forest in North Canterbury in January 2022. Mr Masters had nearly completed his diesel mechanic apprenticeship with Button Logging Limited – which has now been sentenced for health and safety failures.
The 23-year-old was told to position the loader’s forks vertically to gain access for the repairs, but the boom fell when the forks collapsed.
A WorkSafe investigation found the company didn’t have an effective procedure for the repairs, and when Mr Masters asked for help on how to proceed, he was given inadequate instruction and supervision.
“It was Button Logging’s responsibility to set down its expectations for working under a raised boom, and they had to ensure all workers, including apprentices, had knowledge of and were properly trained to meet those expectations,” says WorkSafe’s acting national investigations manager, Casey Broad.
”This tragic case is about the failure to manage a critical risk – it was utterly preventable and avoidable. As a result of that, a family is now deprived of a son, grandson, brother, and partner.”
Businesses must manage their risks, and WorkSafe’s role is to influence businesses to meet their responsibilities and keep people healthy and safe.
“Although Mr Masters was nearing the end of his apprenticeship, he didn’t have decades of experience to his name and deserved better when he sought direction,” says Mr Broad.
The sentencing of Button Logging follows another in late January, over the death of 19-year-old apprentice builder Ethan Perham-Turner in Bay of Plenty.
“Apprentices are the future generation, and companies that take on apprentices need to recognise they have a responsibility to look after them as they do with their own employees and put health and safety first,” says Mr Broad.
Read about the recent WorkSafe prosecution over the death of Ethan Perham-Turner
Source: Worksafe New Zealand
Read our May 2024 work-related health update.
In this edition of our work-related health newsletter you’ll find useful information about:
Source: Council of Trade Unions – CTU
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi has today launched Reimagining Aotearoa Together, a long-term project that will set out an alternative vision for Aotearoa that looks beyond the narrow confines of the policy straight jacket adopted by successive governments.
“Reimagining Aotearoa Together is a response to the continued failure of government to deal with the inequality and unfairness at heart of Aotearoa New Zealand’s society and economy,” said NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff.
“We will be reaching out to workers, tangata whenua, community allies, NGOs and interested New Zealanders to develop transformative policies that get to the heart of the change that is so desperately needed.
“We will also be growing a movement of people who are ready to go out and lobby political parties to adopt the policies in the lead up to the next election.
“Together we need to secure a vibrant, aspirational future that honours Te Tiriti o Waitangi and works for the many, not the few.
“Successive governments have failed to tackle the generational crises that confront us, from inequality, to climate change, and the future of work.
“We know that if we continue down the path of the past few decades, we will get more of the same – people working longer hours, and still not having enough to pay the bills and keep a roof over their heads. The wealthy getting richer while the rest of us suffer. A polluted natural environment and increasingly unstable climate.
“People are sick and tired of what seems like an endless cycle of failure to meet these challenges. It’s like being stuck on a revolving conveyer belt with no off ramp.
“That’s why it’s time we stepped up and set out a comprehensive vision for change that can’t be ignored by those in power.
“A better way is possible. The future is not set in stone. It will be determined by the choices we make now,” said Wagstaff.