Health and safety reforms must not be watered down

By Joe Fleet­wood
Mari­time Uni­on of New Zea­l­and Nation­al Sec­ret­ary

New Zea­l­and has far too many deaths and injur­ies in the work­place. In the South Island, many work­ers are exposed to danger in their occu­pa­tions.

Farms, forests, the mari­time and fish­ing sec­tor, meat pro­cessing, con­struc­tion, mines and quar­ries – these are all some of the indus­tries in which our people are hurt on a reg­u­lar basis.

We have a far high­er rate of work­place injury when com­pared to sim­il­ar nations such as Aus­tralia or the United King­dom. Some­thing is badly wrong.

Fol­low­ing the tra­gic death of 29 work­ers in Pike River mine in 2010, and the sub­sequent Roy­al Com­mis­sion and an Inde­pend­ent Taskforce on Work­place Health and Safety, the Gov­ern­ment prom­ised to pass a new, improved health and safety law by the end of 2014.  The Com­mis­sion and the Taskforce con­sul­ted widely and developed the new pro­posed law.

The Chair of the Taskforce, Rob Jager, a seni­or exec­ut­ive with Shell Oil, was blunt in his 2013 assess­ment of New Zealand’s work­place health and safety sys­tem, say­ing it had “a num­ber of crit­ic­al weak­nesses” and “needs major sys­tem­ic changes to save lives.”

New Zealand’s health and safety laws were not “fit for pur­pose.”

The pro­posed new Health and Safety Reform Bill included some pos­it­ive aspects of Aus­trali­an health and safety law, and strengthened the role of work­er rep­res­ent­at­ives.

It said that if work­ers in any job wanted to have a Health and Safety Rep­res­ent­at­ive, the employ­er must make that hap­pen by giv­ing them inform­a­tion, pay­ing for them to get trained, and provid­ing time and resources to do their role.

The pro­posed new law said that Health and Safety rep­res­ent­at­ives could stop unsafe work, and issue notices to employ­ers requir­ing them to address health and safety con­cerns.

The select com­mit­tee of MPs con­sid­er­ing this Bill repor­ted back in July 2015 after delays.

Now, Gov­ern­ment MPs have pro­posed changes that under­mine its cent­ral pur­pose.

These changes include work­ers in busi­nesses with less than 20 staff not being allowed to elect a Health and Safety rep­res­ent­at­ive if they wish. This is a ser­i­ous step back­wards.

It is essen­tial that work­ers have real input into health and safety on the job, and that all busi­nesses, wheth­er large or small, are held to the same stand­ards of provid­ing a safe work­place.

Both uni­ons and major busi­ness organ­iz­a­tions in New Zea­l­and agree the Health and Safety Reform Bill must not be tampered with.

Safe, well-reg­u­lated and pro­duct­ive work­places are in everyone’s interests.

If New Zea­l­and is to func­tion as a developed, mod­ern 21st cen­tury nation, then we need to get our health and safety laws fixed.

Work­ers must have the right to have a say on health and safety in their work­place.

It’s our lives and the well­being of our fam­il­ies at stake. All work­ers deserve to come home from work safe and well.

The Gov­ern­ment must get the Health and Safety Reform Bill back on track and not water down its cent­ral pro­tec­tions for work­ers.