Rautaki mō te Haumaru me te Hauora o te Wāhi Mahi mō Aotearoa ki te 2015

Snapshot of Progress 2008/09

ISBN 978-0-478-33395-4
November 2009

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• Snapshot of Progress 2008/09 [pdf 1,039KB 64 pages]

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Workplace Group
Department of Labour
PO Box 3705
Wellington
New Zealand
email: whss@dol.govt.nz

Contents

• Minister's Foreword
• Workplace Health and Safety framework for action
• Highlights for year four of the Strategy in action
• Background
• Outcome 1: Government Leadership and Practices
  • The Chief Executives' Injury Prevention Forum
  • Reviewing the Strategy
  • Reviewing the Workplace Health and Safety Council
  • Setting high expectations
  • Improving health and safety around hazardous substances
  • Occupational health
• Outcome 2: Preventive Workplace Cultures
  • Workplace Culture, Leadership and Forestry Project
  • Leaders in Health and Safety Summit
  • Agriculture health and safety research
  • Promoting preventive cultures
• Outcome 3: Industry Leadership and Community Engagement
  • Industry leadership
    • Operate Safe
    • The Industry Chief Executives' Health and Safety Forum
    • New Zealand Institute of Safety Management
  • Community engagement
    • The Gateway programme
    • Connecting with Pacific workers
    • Tainui health and safety group
• Next Steps
• Council and government agency group members
  • Workplace Health and Safety Council July 2008-June 2009
  • Workplace Health and Safety Government Agency Group

© Crown copyright 2009

Disclaimer: The Department of Labour has made every effort to ensure that the information contained in this report is reliable, but makes no guarantee of its accuracy or completeness and does not accept any liability for any errors. The information and opinions contained in this report are not intended to be used as a basis for commercial decisions, and the Department accepts no liability for any decisions made in reliance on them. The Department may change, add to, delete from or otherwise amend the contents of this report at any time without notice.

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Minister's Foreword

I have pleasure in presenting the fourth annual Snapshot of Progress on the Workplace Health and Safety Strategy for New Zealand to 2015.

This snapshot sets out the highlights of the year, demonstrating the breadth of activities that have taken place under the umbrella of the Strategy. Progress has been made in all three outcome areas - government leadership and practices, preventive workplace cultures, and industry leadership and community engagement.

The Strategy aims to lift New Zealand's workplace health and safety performance by creating a strong national safety culture. Events like the Leaders in Health and Safety Summit in August 2008, the quarterly Workplace Culture, Leadership and Forestry Project workshops, and the Chief Executive Summit in May 2009 emphasise this. The over-riding message from New Zealand and overseas is that business leaders must provide strong proactive leadership on health and safety. Health, safety and productivity are the result of good management and good leadership. Health and safety are not trade-offs for productivity - the two go hand in hand.

The success stories of individual workplaces featured in this report are evidence that this message is getting through. A number of workplaces have demonstrated a creative commitment to health and safety and have enjoyed better business outcomes as a result. KiwiRail Corporate's award-winning programme to encourage staff engagement has resulted in a huge drop in lost time injuries. Improved communication featured highly in the majority of award winners' stories, and it is pleasing to see how many of the success stories involved a multi-stakeholder approach.

During the year, a planned operational review of the Strategy was undertaken to determine progress and identify areas where change may be required to improve the Strategy's effectiveness. There were high levels of support, stakeholder engagement and consensus among contributors to the review about the Strategy's relevancy, progress, barriers and future priorities. The review's report is due to be released before the end of 2009.

The principle conclusions of the review are that the Strategy is sound and has produced practical and encouraging achievements in its first three years but has not been as effective as it could be in directing activity in the areas that will make the most improvements in New Zealand's health and safety performance.

Over the next few months, I will be overseeing the development of a new National Action Agenda, to better prioritise and focus activity over the next three years. I look forward to continuing our partnership as we work towards reducing New Zealand's work toll and fulfilling the Strategy's vision: Healthy People In Safe And Productive Workplaces.

Hon Kate Wilkinson, Minister of Labour, November 2009

Workplace Health and Safety Framework for Action

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