New thinking for New Zealand’s workplace health and safety
New Zealand’s design and construction industry must play its part in addressing the country’s workplace safety record – one which sees a workplace death almost every week.
The Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA), introduced on 4 April, is the biggest change to New Zealand’s safety laws in over 25 years.
Introducing a new way of thinking about workplace safety – with a particular focus on the proactive management of critical workplace risks – the new legislation aims to improve New Zealand’s alarming workplace record; it’s not pretty.
WorkSafe New Zealand data shows recorded workplace fatalities across industries have exceeded 43 people per year for the past six years.
Of the 248 deaths recorded between 2011 and 2016 to date, 28 were in the construction industry and another eight in energy services. WorkSafe also identifies the construction industry as one of the major contributors to the injury toll.
Crucially, the HSWA shifts the focus from monitoring and recording health and safety incidents, to proactively identifying and managing risks.
Based on the Australian model safety legislation, some of the changes the new HSWA introduces include providing greater opportunities for worker engagement and participation in health and safety, introducing a risk-based approach to the management of hazards, ensuring senior leaders are informed, and placing added health and safety responsibilities on designers, architects and those who supply, install or commission workplace plant or structures.
Companies involved in New Zealand’s infrastructure design and construction sector have a key role to play in reducing the number of deaths and injuries, believes Peter Stratford, AECOM’s Health, Safety and Environment Manager, New Zealand.
“A risk-based approach to safety planning is vital to ensuring that a workplace is a safe and healthy place for employees and contractors,” he said.
“Businesses need to standardise their approach by implementing systems and processes that integrate safety into every part of the way they work.”
Citing AECOM’s implementation of Health and Safety plans for high risk projects, and the use of Safe Work Method Statements (SWMS) – a tool to plan work activities, assess potential hazards, and document controls that need to be put in place to eliminate or minimise the risks – Mr Stratford said it was critical to empower workers with the authority to “Stop Work” and implement a “Step Back” system on site.
“One of the most important aspects of a high performing safety culture is recognising and celebrating good safety performance,” he said.
“A positive incentive program can be a tangible way of achieving this; AECOM’s “Scratch Card” program, in which staff members are rewarded for reporting safety incidents, is a prime example.”
Auckland-based Alice Chaplin, AECOM Technical Director – Energy, said the Energy group had consciously worked towards implementing a culture change.
“We want everyone to understand why safety is important,” she said.
“We’ve improved how we do our safe work method statements, have check-in procedures when on site and are always trying to raise expectations.”
Ms Chaplin said team members had the unequivocal support of senior management to stop work and challenge potentially unsafe behaviours or conditions at any time.
Ms Chaplin said another key to safety success is working closely with clients to implement safety planning into their projects and identify safety risks early. “Our key clients want to join us on the journey and they want to be seen at the forefront of trying to lead change in New Zealand,” she said.
The inception of a project provides the greatest opportunity to eliminate or minimise safety hazards. The right people need to carefully assess potential issues and determine measures to eliminate or mitigate those hazards – typically the owner/operator, designer and constructor, she said.
As part of the cultural shift, she said leaders need to encourage staff to see safety observations as positive. Honest incident reporting together with an approach that acknowledges lessons learned from past experiences is vital.
“A significant incident is more than just a cost issue or a reputational issue – it can affect people permanently,” he said. “Keeping our projects and workplace safe benefits not only our business but our clients and our people.”
To learn more about workplace safety at AECOM please see page 24-25 of the 2016 NZ Sustainability Report – The Things We Value for an article Keeping People Safe and Well and a case study on working with Genesis Energy – Safety in Design.