Workplace Health and Safety Strategy for New Zealand to 2015
Framework for Action
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The Workplace Health and Safety Strategy for New Zealand to 2015
The structure of the Strategy is shown in the diagram above.
The vision, together with the three long-term outcomes, provides a strategic direction.
The objectives and actions are the means for achieving the Strategy.
The national priorities help targeting of particular hazards and groups of national significance.
Four principles
Four principles have been used in developing the Strategy. They will also guide its implementation.
- Prevention: Workplace health and safety activities should focus on preventing new cases of illness and injury. The majority of work-related diseases and injuries are preventable, and prevention is the most cost-effective way for society to address workplace health and safety issues.
- Participation: Improvements in workplace health and safety can only happen if all groups are involved. In the workplace, this includes the people who carry out the work and their health and safety representatives. At industry and national levels, it includes unions, employer and industry organisations, and government agencies.
- Responsibility: Employers have primary responsibility for workplace health and safety. They have a general duty to ensure the safety and health of employees and involve them in health and safety matters. Employees also have some responsibility for their own safety, through how they act in their workplaces.
- Practicability: Workplace health and safety activities must be based on what is reasonable, given particular circumstances (such as potential for harm, current knowledge, and the cost of health and safety measures).
Key challenges for the future
The Strategy will need to monitor and respond to significant environmental trends:
- Changes in work and society: Working conditions will continue to evolve as workplaces improve their productivity and cope with skills shortages through changes in technology, work organisation and training. The shift toward employment in the service sector will continue and more workers will work from home or hold multiple jobs. Work relationships will become more varied, complex and fragmented.
- Growth in precarious employment: The rise in temporary employment arrangements, independent contracting and non-standard work (such as night work and shift work) is likely to continue. These forms of employment can be precarious, with higher health and safety risks associated with long hours of work, corner cutting, inadequate training, or poor communications.
- Emerging illnesses: There will need to be an increased focus on both ‘emerging’ illnesses (such as stress-related illnesses, musculoskeletal disorders, and harm from workplace aggression and violence) and ‘traditional’ health hazards (such as chemicals and asbestos). Special effort is required to address occupational health issues, which are often hidden and more complex than workplace safety issues.
- More small and medium workplaces: A significant, and growing, proportion of the workforce is engaged in workplaces of small or medium size - and these businesses need further encouragement and support to improve their workplace health and safety practices. Many of the recent improvements in health and safety have occurred in larger organisations.
- Increasing workforce diversity: The working population is ageing and becoming more ethnically diverse. Workplaces will need to accommodate a wider range of human characteristics and capabilities (such as size and strength) to ensure a high level of health and safety.
The vision
Healthy People in Safe and Productive Workplaces |
The Strategy envisions a healthy workforce in safe and productive workplaces.
‘Healthy’ encompasses physical, mental and social well-being.
‘Safe and productive’ means having workplaces that function well and do not cause harm to the people in them. This is primarily the responsibility of employers and managers - but the people who work in these workplaces also need to be actively engaged in working safely and productively.
The vision is realistic and achievable at a workplace level, and some workplaces have already demonstrated this. To be fully realised, however, it needs the participation of all stakeholders. Employers, contractors, workers and families, health and safety representatives, unions, government agencies, industry associations, and employer and training organisations must all become involved.
Outcomes and objectives
The Strategy identifies three interconnecting outcomes that support its vision:
- Government leadership and practices
- preventive workplace cultures
- industry leadership and community engagement.
The Strategy targets nine objectives that provide a focus for action over the next five years. The objectives were chosen because there is evidence that they will have significant effects on the outcomes. They also represent a coherent and balanced framework for action that will involve all key parties in working toward the Strategy’s vision
The intervention mix The actions for each objective are based on a set of intervention approaches:
A combination is needed for sustainable improvement in workplace health and safety. |
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