RECENT NEWS

WorkSafe New Zealand have just released the first sentencing under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. This was for a machinery guarding incident; a worker had his hand caught, and lost most of his fingers. The company had identified a problem with the guarding six weeks prior to the incident, but had not taken any action towards fixing it. The fine was $100,000 which is an increase from $30,000 to $40,000 under the old Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992. The fine w

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

As business owners, or managers, there are a few things that can keep us awake at night: paying the bills, having enough work, having too much work, and our workers having an accident. Accidents do happen, our job is to put systems in place to prevent them. One way we can do this is by investigating all accidents. This includes accidents which result in injury, and those that result in property damage. It’s also essential that we investigate near misses. These are a golden o

The NZ Herald recently had a couple of articles about a car versus a bus accident in Te Anau. The first photo I saw was the burnt wreck of both vehicles. However, the second article I saw showed the vehicles fully alight, flames leaping high, and black smoke filling the sky. The article read that the man inside the car was screaming for help. Around the same time, there was a fatal car versus train incident near Matamata. The photos, and story, about the Te Anau accident app

Recently I undertook site audits for a client who is helping with the Edgecumbe disaster recovery. It was very interesting to see the damage, and the clean-up which is underway. It was also heart breaking looking at the mess - the damaged houses were somebody’s pride and joy. Whilst I was in Edgecumbe, I heard a lot of people saying that no one could have predicted the floods. That may be true, but, as business owners or managers we should be identifying the potential emerge

There are many things that an employer or manager does to ensure the safety of their workers; remember that workers include contractors, sub-contractors and other people. Some of these things are: Induction – making sure workers know about how we do health and safety in our organisation. Training – making sure workers know the best and safest way to do their tasks. Supervision – providing an experienced worker to watch over a worker who may be new, or new to the task.

PCBUs PCBU means person conducting a business or undertaking. This is the entity of the business, so Safewise is a PCBU. It is not a person unless the business is a sole trader. The current act says the employer must provide a safe place of work but in the new Health and Safety at Work 2015 Act the PCBU has the primary duty of care for the health and safety of workers and others in the workplace. As far as is reasonably practicable they must: Provide and maintain safe p

Summer is the favourite season for many of us. We love the long days, the hot weather and the chance to be outside. Whether socialising or working in the garden, summer is fun. Last year, summer was incredibly hot, and workers were becoming tired and distracted by the middle of the afternoon. Safewise would, on average, investigate two serious harm (now notifiable events) incidents a year for our clients. Last summer there were four in January alone. Each of these involved di