RECENT NEWS

New Zealand, along with the rest of the world, has been through a unique experience, one we hope never to repeat. The craziness of panic buying hand sanitiser, toilet paper and PPE looms large in our memories. COVID-19 highlighted many positive aspects of humanity and identified other areas where we did not stand for the greater good. Like many others, I tried to buy, with limited success, hand sanitiser for my on-the-road workers to keep in their vehicles. If I were honest,

Have you ever come across roadworks and been confused by the traffic management? Maybe the gaps between the cones are large enough for a vehicle to move between, maybe there are conflicting arrows, maybe there doesn’t appear to be any reason for them. The risk of a vehicle incident is much higher when the traffic management plan appears confusing, both for the road users and for the road workers. Your workplace can be just as confusing and high-risk, particularly if people a

This is one of the most frequent statements I hear: health and safety is just common sense. But is this true? WorkSafe New Zealand put out a media release recently about a driver who was watering a track. He was travelling at low speed. He allowed two young boys, around 10 years old, to climb on and over the tanker truck as it was moving along. One of the boys fell off and was badly injured. No doubt the driver thought the kids were just having an adventure, and how bad coul

WorkSafe NZ put out a media release on 23rd August 2017 containing the details of the first sentencing following a prosecution under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA). This has taken a long time as WorkSafe now have 12 months to decide if they are going to lay a prosecution, rather than the six months under the old act. The incident occurred on the 6th April 2016, two days after the new legislation was enacted. A worker had his hand caught as he fed product into

I’ve been to a few training sessions recently where people are talking about work as it is done. Traditionally, health and safety has been based on fear, problems, and, sometimes, blame. Health and safety has had an image of being the “fun police”, not about people. It would be fair to say that putting rules in place and insisting on compliance is the starting point for most companies, especially those who are just starting the health and safety journey. There is a place for

Recently WorkSafe NZ announced that there had been seven workers killed at work, in a three-week period. At least two were forklift related; one involved a swing lift. It would be very easy to say that each of these people were in a place they shouldn’t have been, and that would probably be true. But, it is just the smallest part of the answer. It’s like saying wearing a hi viz vest will save your life. It will make you more visible, but it won’t make the injury less if you