Plant posts perfect safety record

EastPack's Katikati staff have a strong safety focus.

Kiwifruit post-harvest operator EastPack is proud to have achieved a zero rate for recordable injuries for a full year at its operation at Marshall Rd, Katikati, says occupational health and safety manager Richard Worthington-Currie.

Businesses measure their performance against an international measure called the TRIFR (Total Recordable Incident Frequency Rate), a measure derived by comparing the number of recordable injuries occurring within the business against the total number of hours worked.

World class in the kiwifruit industry is considered to be five or less, but EastPack Katikati had reduced its result to zero.

"That's an outstanding achievement," said Mr Worthington-Currie. "There are a lot of opportunities to injure yourself in our industry. To go 365 days without a recordable incident is amazing."

Mr Worthington-Currie previously worked in the gas field sector in Australia, and said New Zealand's industrial safety record was "not that wonderful" compared to world standards.

"But the government has been making changes to steer the country in the right direction."

He attributed the result at Katikati - the only one of EastPack's sites to achieve a zero level to date - to a strong team effort led by site manager Bruce Youngman and his No2 Marie Reti-Flower.

"Everyone on site has a common goal and works together to achieve that goal," said Mr Youngman. "And each person is responsible not only for themselves and their own actions, but also for their colleagues and anyone else visiting the site."

Each day starts with a comprehensive daily pre-shift team briefing, which includes a "safety moment" of the week where all staff focus on a key safety-related message.

The safety team leaders were also sticklers for making sure the workplace was always neat and tidy, he said.

"A clean, orderly site is the basis for a safe site, and is the secret to reducing and eliminating accidents and incidents."

Mr Worthington-Currie said staff also sought out every opportunity for improvement and there was a well-developed company system to ensure each submission was assessed.