Dialogue: Work safety requires joint effort

By MARGARET WILSON

The primary objective of the Health and Safety in Employment Amendment Bill is to reduce the human and economic costs of poor workplace health and safety.

At the outset it is essential to stress that there are many workplaces where employers and employees work together to develop an excellent culture of safety at work.

It is the best practice of these enterprises the amendment is supporting. After talking to employers and workers in enterprises where a good health and safety culture is practised, I have become convinced there are two essential ingredients for the development of a best practice health and safety culture.

The first is that everyone in the enterprise is involved and responsible for their own health and safety, as well as that of the workplace as a whole. A culture of good health and safety practice requires the participation and commitment of not just employers or just employees, but everyone. This is why the amendment seeks to strengthen the need for all enterprises to develop a culture of participation.

The second factor distinguishing good practice enterprises is their zero tolerance of unsafe practices. This approach to self-regulation means such enterprises will not be the subject of penalties under the act.

The act does not require a state of absolute perfection in the workplace. It requires that employers take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of employees while at work. There is also a duty on every employee to take all practicable steps to ensure their own safety and that of others.

The penalties are for the worst cases where no action to ensure all practicable steps has been taken. Just as with the Employment Relations Act, good employers have nothing to fear from the amendment.

It is important to understand that the proposed amendment is the result of 10 years' experience with the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992. It was this act that signalled a departure from a regulatory, penalty-driven approach to health and safety.

The emphasis shifted to a more voluntary approach, with the focus on employers working with Occupational Safety and Health to develop codes of practice that would give definition to what was meant by all practicable steps within an industry or occupation.

The amendment is not intended to abandon this focus. We want to avoid the one-size-fits-all approach because we recognise the differences between large and small enterprises, and between industries and occupations.

But it has become apparent that over the past 10 years our health and safety record has not improved much. OSH calculates that in the 1998/99 year, 163 people were killed in an accident at work. These figures do not include those who died on the roads while travelling to or from work, because of fatigue. Last month alone, 10 people died at work.

Deaths at work attract headlines and cause untold misery to families, who must cope with the emotional and financial consequences. They also affect the workplaces.

But it should not be forgotten that 33,385 employees suffered a moderate to serious injury in the workplace in the 1999/2000 year, according to ACC. Apart from the emotional cost, this represents a huge financial cost - estimated to be at least $3.2 billion.

Finally, I have been asked to comment on stress. The previous legislation recognised stress as a workplace hazard. The amendment is merely trying to find a way to help enterprises develop good practices to ensure negative stress does not cause any more human and financial cost than is necessary.

Changing work practices associated with a more flexible employment environment have created stress for both employees and employers.

The European Agency for Safety and Health At Work estimates that in the United States, more than half of the 550 million working days lost each year are because of stress-related absenteeism.

The amendment is an attempt to sit down with enterprises to see if there is a problem and, if so, how it can be addressed in the most cost-efficient way.

I have encouraged a participatory approach to the development of a new employment relations framework. If you want to contribute to the debate you have until March 1 to make a submission. For further background, visit the OSH website www.osh.dol.govt.nz

* Margaret Wilson is the Minister of Labour.