Skip to content

In Harm's Way: A case study of Pacific Workers in Manukau Manufacturing

APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW SCHEDULES

Employer interview	Pacific Worker Health and Safety Project-February 2011
Key themes	Proposed interview questions
Opening	Thank you for supporting the project. Did you receive the background documentation and are you familiar with scope of the project and what we are trying to achieve?
1. Demographic information	What are the details of the company-size, workforce, products etc? How many Pacific workers (PWs) are employed here?o What is the nature and range of the work they carry out?o Are they often employed in particular occupations?o What is the nature of those occupations? What is your range of responsibilities? Is this a unionised workplace? How strong is the union influence?
2. H & S climate	Can you tell me about management and employee attitudes and approaches to H&S in your company? Do stereotypes exist among the workers with regards to H&S? What are these stereotypes? When you compare the attitudes to H&S of your employees with those of other companies you come across, do you think they are similar or different? If different, in what way?
3. H & S organisation	How is H&S organised in this company?o What are the formal tools and practices you employ? Besides the formal processes, are there informal ways worker and employer concerns are raised? How important are these informal processes? Do PWs utilise these informal channels? In your experience do workers 'see a problem and fix it' without triggering formal activity or are they fairly relaxed about, or tend to ignore, potential H&S issues? What is the value of H&S related signage in the workplace? What sort of impact does it have on employees? What aspects of the signage are the most important and 'attention-grabbing'? Is the signage in your workplace written in the languages of your employees? Is this necessary? Do employees get blasé about signage that has been in place for some time? How do you counter this?
4. Pacific workers	What is the workplace accident record? What are the most common forms of H & S issues? What is your experience with PWs? Do they have more accidents than other groups? What are the most common reasons why the PW accident record is as it is? Do PWs approach H & S differently from other ethnic groups? How? Can you tell me about a typical H & S situation involving a PW. Do you find that Pacific employees are more or less outspoken about their H & S concerns compared with other groups of employees? What do you think are the reasons for this? Do you think that workers report all accidents? What sort or severity of injury might go unreported? What are your thoughts about PWs and potential or actual under-reporting? Is accident or injury reporting behaviour age related? Do PWs differ from the norm? How? What sort of changes, if any, to the PW approach to H & S and reporting of accidents can be related to the length of time the worker has lived in NZ? What factors lead a PW to become a workplace leader on H & S? How important is worker literacy and numeracy in the prevention of H & S incidents? Is this a particular issue for PI workers? If so, why? If not, why not?
5. Message transmission	How do you think your company can best act to reduce the incidence of PW H & S issues? What advice can you give about the best way to target different groups of workers, and particularly PWs, on H & S matters? How successful are current initiatives to improve PW H & S? Will your PWs act on material pinned up on the notice board or discussed at a workplace meeting? Do they need work-related training specifically directed to each individual (or small groups of individuals)? Are there approaches or initiatives the government can or should take to help bring down the rate of PW H & S incidents?

Employer interview	Pacific Worker Health and Safety Project-February 2011
Key themes	Proposed interview questions
Opening	Thank you for supporting the project; do you know what the project is about?
1. Demographic information	How old are you and where were you born? Which Pacific Island are you from? What year did you arrive in NZ? Tell me briefly about your education/schooling background? Tell me briefly about your work background-what kind of jobs have you been doing?
2. Pacific worker's job	How did you get the job that you're doing now? If I asked you what sort of worker are you, what would you say? (Describe? Explain?) If I was working in your current job what kind of things would I be doing? What do you like about your current job? What don't you like? Tell me what sort of people do you work with and how would you describe your relationships? Tell me about how you get on with your supervisor(s) and your managers.
3. Culture	Tell me about your Pacific Island culture. Does your Pacific Island culture have any impact on you in the way you approach your job? Explain. Give examples. What does health & safety (H & S) mean? How do you feel about it? Back in the Islands tell me about how H & S was looked after in the Islands. What differences do you feel in this company compared with what you had been used to in the Islands?
4. Organisation of health and safety	When you started the job you are in now did you get training about H & S? What did you learn? If not, why not? Tell me, in the job that you're doing now do what impresses you about the way the company tries to improve H & S? Any concerns? Explain. Give examples. As a worker, how do you contribute towards making sure your workplace is healthy and safe? Is it your responsibility or someone else's? If you saw something dangerous what would you do? How would you handle the matter? Have you had any experience of this? Have you seen anything happen that you can tell me about? What sort of injury will it have to be before you reported it? o Will this mean you will seek immediate treatment? Explain. When would you make an ACC claim? Explain. Tell me are the H & S signage at your workplace clear and do you understand them? Give examples. Do you think the H & S signage should be in relevant languages? What about where it is positioned in the workplace? Is it relevant to your workplace? Tell me what is the role of Department of Labour inspectors?
5. Message transmission	How do you like to learn and receive messages-talking, reading, formal instruction, workplace demonstration? How do you get messages about H & S in your workplace? Do you attend workshops (onsite or offsite)? Are these valuable and do you learn a lot? Do you get on-the-job training? How is this delivered? Language? External trainer, supervisor trainer?
Closing/ summary	Thank you for sharing your thoughts and advice. Do you have any final comments, suggestions, or advice before we finish our interview?

---

 

• About this site |
• Site Map |
• Subscribe to emails |
• Disclaimer |
• Copyright |
• Privacy Statement |
• Official Information