March 2026 Health and Safety Newsletter

4 days ago
2 min read

4 Important Health & Safety Lessons

We work to prevent accidents and mitigate their effects, but when they do happen, it’s important to look into what we can learn from them.

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Christchurch Worker Loses Finger

Back in April 2023, a worker at a French bakery in Christchurch had his index finger amputated, his thumb partially amputated, and his middle finger crushed after his hand got pulled into the bakery’s machine rollers.

The company has been sentenced after admitting work health and safety failures during a WorkSafe investigation following the accident.

Three critical failures led to this accident:

Gaps in training and supervision
Lockout failures
Incomplete risk assessments

This accident highlights an unfortunate reality within New Zealand’s work health and safety, with WorkSafe saying these fundamental safety failures are far too common in our workplaces.

We all experience pressure, from weather delays to tight deadlines, but some teams still manage to work safely, calmly, and professionally at the worst of times.

This year, our interactive seminar explores what exactly high-performing teams do differently when under pressure.

Interested in attending?

A Guide to Work and Safety in NZ

There are four core pillars of workplace safety in New Zealand:

Leadership and due diligence
Risk management
Worker engagement and participation
Incident reporting and notification

Having a living health and safety system at work that incorporates these four pillars is the best way to meet HWSA requirements.

Read to learn more

Consultant’s Corner

By Tracey Murphy.

Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill

“In my opinion, some of the changes are simple and reasonable. Such as providing further explanation about what a notifiable injury or illness is, or even just defining critical risks.

However, the biggest change causing concern regards small PCBUs, which are defined as those with fewer than 20 workers. The proposed change would mean small PCBUs are only required to manage the critical risks in their organisation.

This raises considerable concern for the workers of these PCBUs, as harm from non-critical risks already makes up around 75% of ACC’s work-related claims. How much will this percentage increase when responsibility is removed from PCBUs entirely?”

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