Helen Kelly: Soft safety law? Thank big business

Two extensive reports, from the Royal Commission on the Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy and the Independent Taskforce on Health and Safety, asked how things had got so bad. Photo / NZME.

Lobbying from industries with bad records has forced Government to make significant changes to reform bill.

After the Pike River mine disaster, the Government promised to improve New Zealand's health and safety law. There was, and is, no doubt that change is needed. More people are killed and injured at work per capita in New Zealand than in any other comparable nation.

Two extensive reports, from the Royal Commission on the Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy and the Independent Taskforce on Health and Safety, asked how things had got so bad. They identified a number of weak spots in our current system and proposed a new law based on the current Australian system.

The first draft of the Health and Safety Reform Bill was a good law, based on those recommendations. But once it got into the hands of politicians, it was changed - for the worse. Now, the law put up by the National Government is different in a few significant, and worrying, ways.

The changes were driven by special interests in industries with bad health and safety records, based on anecdotes and fearmongering. A small but powerful group of employers really do think that if workers have the opportunity to raise health and safety at work it will be the end of the world.

Many mainstream businesses expressed their support for the original bill. Those good employers should not have to compete with businesses prepared to cut corners and risk workers' lives.

So what are workers, their unions, and good employers particularly concerned about?

Health and safety representatives for one thing. Health and safety representatives are elected by workers. Our current law, flawed as it is, requires them in all workplaces when workers ask for them. But under National's new law, workplaces with fewer than 20 employees won't be required to have health and safety representatives unless they're in a "high risk" industry. Unfortunately the Minister of Labour won't tell us which industries those are.

This means that up to 300,000 working New Zealanders won't have access to one of the most effective ways they can keep themselves and their mates safe at work.

Health and safety representatives will have the power to stop dangerous work, issue improvement notices, accompany WorkSafe investigators and get answers from employers when issues are raised.

These are important powers. But they'll be denied to workers in small sites.

The cruel irony is that in any given industry, small workplaces are less safe than larger ones, due to a lack of knowledge, time and resources. This change threatens the workers who are already the most vulnerable.

We also want personal protective equipment, not an allowance to buy our own. At the CTU, we've represented a lot of workers who were hurt or killed after their employer gave them an allowance - often insufficient to afford the safety gear it was for - instead of supplying it.

Yet after lobbying from bad employers, the Government is endorsing giving workers an allowance instead of the gear they need to be safe on the job. This means more risk - especially new workers who may not be able to afford the right gear up front.

These are just two of the areas where our Government has listened to reckless business interests instead of putting the health and safety of working Kiwis first.

Helen Kelly is president of the Combined Trade Unions.