Most types of farming can claim exemption under health and safety reforms, says Minister

Senior Political Correspondent·NZ Herald·

19 Aug, 2015 04:45 AM4 mins to read

Workplace Minister Michael Woodhouse. Photo / Supplied

More than 50 industries have been identified by the Government as high-risk, meaning they will be not exempt from some requirements under the Health and Safety Reform law, even if they have fewer than 20 employees.

Industries include forestry and logging, road freight transport, coal mining, hunting and trapping, fishing, electricity transmission, horse and dog racing as well as any industry deemed to have potential for catastrophic risk in the event of accident such as oil and gas extraction and petroleum refining.

But most types of farming will be able to claim an exemption, a move slammed by Labour leader Andrew Little.

"What we need is a good law and good enforcement and that is now denied a sector that has killed too many of their own.

"We cant have farmers happy for expensive [rescue] helicopters and ambulances to drive out to their isolated areas to cover them for their errors - some time fatal - and the taxpayer picking up their cost."

The farming excluded from high-risk include dairy, beef, poultry and deer but the livestock farming included as high-risk is bee-keeping, pig-farming, horse breeding, dog breeding, goat farming and share-milking as well some types of crop growing.

Workplace Minister Michael Woodhouse today sent party leaders his list of proposed high-risk industries, in advance of the House resuming debate on contentious changes to the bill in select committee.

The bill received the unanimous support of the House at its first reading when the bill required every workplace to have a health and safety worker representative when requested by workers.

But Labour, the Green and New Zealand First withdrew their support after changes at select committee allowed a workplace with fewer than 20 employees to be exempt from the requirement.

Mr Woodhouse said that in terms of the total workforce, around three quarters of all workers would not be covered by the exemption and would have the ability to elect a health and safety representative on request.

The high-risk industries, once confirmed in regulation, will have no exemption, no matter how small the business.

The criteria in defining high risk is any industry that falls into one of these categories:

• Business that carry the risk of a catastrophic event causing multiple fatalities;
• Any industry with a fatality rate greater than 25 per 100,000 workers
• Any industry with a serious injury rate of more than 25 per 1000 workers.

The following list of proposed high-risk industries (using the recognized Australia and New Zealand Standard Industry Classification Level 3) comprises 57 of 214 on the ANZSIC list of all industries.

Potential for catastrophic risk

B070 Oil and Gas Extraction
B080 Metal Ore Mining
B099 Other Non-Metallic Mineral Mining and Quarrying
B101 Exploration
B109 Other Mining Support Services
C151 Pulp, Paper and Paperboard Manufacturing
C152 Converted Paper Product Manufacturing
C170 Petroleum Refining and Petroleum and Coal Product Manufacturing
C181 Chemical Manufacturing
C182 Basic Polymer Manufacturing
C183 Fertiliser and Pesticide Manufacturing
C184 Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Product Manufacturing
C185 Cleaning Compound and Toiletry Preparation Manufacturing
C189 Other Basic Chemical Product Manufacturing
C192 Natural Rubber Product Manufacturing
D261 Electricity Generation
D263 Electricity Distribution
D264 On Selling Electricity and Electricity Market Operation
D270 Gas Supply
I471 Rail Freight Transport
I472 Rail Passenger Transport
I481 Water Freight Transport
I482 Water Passenger Transport
I490 Air and Space Transport
I501 Scenic and Sightseeing Transport
I530 Warehousing and Storage Services

High standardised rates of fatality and severe injury

A015 Other Crop Growing
A019 Other Livestock Farming
A020 Aquaculture
A030 Forestry and Logging
A041 Fishing
A042 Hunting and Trapping
B060 Coal Mining
C111 Meat and Meat Product Manufacturing
C113 Dairy Product Manufacturing
C115 Oil and Fat Manufacturing
C116 Grain Mill and Cereal Product Manufacturing
C132 Leather Tanning and Fur Dressing
C141 Log Sawmilling and Timber Dressing
C212 Basic Ferrous Metal Product Manufacturing
C229 Other Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing
D262 Electricity Transmission
D281 Water Supply, Sewerage and Drainage Services
D292 Waste Treatment, Disposal and Remediation Services
I461 Road Freight Transport
I502 Pipeline and Other Transport
I521 Water Transport Support Services
L662 Farm Animal and Bloodstock Leasing
R912 Horse and Dog Racing Activities
R913 Amusement and Other Recreation Activities