NZCTU has published information on its activities to mark 28 April that include a listing of 28 April events, a poster, an NZCTU Health and Safety starter pack, a corporate manslaughter law ‘Stand with Pike’ campaign plus information on engineered stone and more.
Further details from the NZCTU 28 April webpages
In New Zealand, too many people are injured or die as a result of what they do for a living. The New Zealand Institute of Safety Management’s (NZISM) purpose is to influence better health and safety outcomes at work.
As part of this effort, NZISM has commenced a major project to coordinate the actions of the three key stakeholders in advanced health and safety education in New Zealand: the employers; our students; and NZ tertiary institutions. A soon-to-be-released study produced by the NZISM Tertiary Lead will reveal that these three groups are working largely in isolation from each other and, as a result, the safety education environment is disjointed, relatively unresponsive to the needs of the country, and inconsistent in its content and approach.
As a starting point, the study observed that the 2013 Independent Taskforce on Workplace Health and Safety called for a ‘step-change’ in New Zealand safety to radically improve our woeful record of workplace injuries and fatalities. It anticipated that … “within 10 years New Zealand will be among the best places in the world for people to go to work each day and come home safe and sound”. Nine years on and this ‘step-change’ has not happened:
Last week, a further two workers died in two separate port incidents.
What will it take to make the ‘step-change’ required by the Independent Taskforce, way back in 2013?
NZISM conducted a systematic qualitative study – seeking the thoughts and opinions of the three stakeholder groups – along with a review of relevant scientific literature. Eight key themes emerged from this research. Each theme has been analysed in reference to the literature, and will result in a number of recommendations to be released in the coming weeks.
New Zealand lags well behind other OECD countries in its safety record. Our farms, forests, construction sites, ports, and many other places of work in this country are simply not managed well enough to prevent fatalities and injuries.
The recommendations of the NZISM study are required in order to achieve significant improvement in New Zealand’s health and safety record – and to achieve the ‘step-change’ called for in the 2013 Independent Taskforce on Workplace Health and Safety report.
This year, the World Day for Safety and Health at Work will not be a celebration of success in New Zealand. It will be yet another ‘Workers’ Memorial Day’. But NZISM expects that with a higher standard of safety education and application, New Zealand will achieve meaningful improvement in its safety performance in the coming years. We have to.
Tuesday, 27 April 2021, 3:27 pm
Press Release: Council of Trade Unions
On April 28th, Workers’ Memorial Day, working people all around the world remember those killed at work.
CTU President Richard Wagstaff wants to see more done to ensure that everyone is able to return home safe and well at the end of their working day. “The facts clearly speak for themselves, too many working Kiwis are being killed at work. We must do more to hold employers to account. Workplace deaths are always avoidable and preventable. Employers who fail to keep working people safe should face serious consequences.”
“From May 2020 – January 2021 37 people were killed at work. 37 people went to work and never returned home. The most dangerous industries are agriculture (8), construction (4) and forestry (4). Employers in these industries need to really examine what they are doing wrong, why their business models are so problematic that people are being killed just by doing their jobs.”
“As well as the 37 people who were killed at work, more than 33,000 New Zealanders have been so seriously injured at work in the last year that they have needed more than a week off work. 33,000 is more people than the entire population of Timaru, we clearly have urgent work to do to ensure people are safe at work.”
“Another huge health and safety issue is occupational deaths. Between 750-900 New Zealanders died in the last year as a direct result of work. Many of these deaths are from long term exposure at work to things like asbestos, silica, and other chemicals/substances which has resulted in death.”
“The problems are clear. The solutions include employers needing to do more to enable working people to speak out. Working people need to demand safe and healthy workplaces and to feel empowered and freely able to speak up when they see things at work which are unsafe.”
“The CTU is a member of the ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation) and we support their campaign calling on the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to adopt occupational health and safety as a fundamental right at work,” Wagstaff said.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2104/S00202/workers-memorial-day.htm
Today, 28th of April, is Worker’s Memorial Day. “We must all take responsibility for better health and safety at work in New Zealand. 100 working people were killed in workplaces in the last year,” said Council of Trade Unions President Richard Wagstaff. “It is a sombre reflection that today we also open up many workplaces under COVID-19 level 3, and the health and safety of working people is on everyone’s mind.”
” At midday today, union members across New Zealand and the world, will be taking a minute to light a candle and remember the 100 people killed in workplaces, 100 lives too many.”
“We also turn our minds to the international theme of Worker’s Memorial Day, which is ‘Stop the Pandemic at Work’, timely for the re-opening of many worksites under the cloud of COVID -19. We know that internationally there have been thousands of working people exposed. Hundreds of those working in healthcare around the world have died at work trying to save others.”
“In New Zealand, we are proud that our ‘go hard go early’ lockdown has prevented any workplace exposure deaths from COVID-19. We should be taking the same attitude to all health and safety risks at work. “
“The Council of Trade Unions will today be surveying those who went back to the work site today about whether the ’10 checks for a safe return to work’ have been followed. Alert Level 3 is no return to ‘business as usual’ for health and safety. Let the Level 3 re-opening be the reset button we need to treat every workplace risk with the same level of caution we will for COVID-19 – there is no reason any Kiwi should be killed at work,” Wagstaff said.
https://www.union.org.nz/workers-memorial-day-a-time-to-reset-health-and-safety/
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions has launched an online tool for working Kiwis to identify employers who aren’t doing the right thing during the COVID-19 period.
CTU President Richard Wagstaff said: “We want to ensure that people are able to tell their stories and log what is happening to them. Due to the number and complexity of problems that a significant number of working people are experiencing we need to create a register so that these cases can be triaged and addressed.”
“Where we identify there are systematic breaches of employment law we will be raising these with government.”
“Employment law still needs to be adhered to – employers who breach the law need to be held to account.”
There are 6 main areas we are seeing poor behaviour from employers
“We strongly encourage anyone who has not been treated fairly to ensure that they log it with us. Together, we will identify whether there are specific employers and industries which need to be urgently communicated with,” Wagstaff said.
Click here for a full-length HD interview with CTU Secretary Melissa Ansell-Bridges as she explains the initiative and why it’s needed.
https://www.union.org.nz/covid-19-breaches-of-work-rights-will-be-logged-with-unions/
Workers’ Memorial Day (April 28th) is a powerful reminder to people in positions of influence and power about their vital role in fostering safe and healthy workplaces, says the Business Leaders’ Health and Safety Forum.
More than 287 work-related deaths have been reported to WorkSafe since 2010. “But the actual death toll is much higher because that figure doesn’t include deaths from work-related road crashes, occupational illnesses or maritime or aviation deaths,” says Forum Acting Executive Director Frances Martin.
Virginia Pawsey says she still thinks about this day 20-years-ago, as the one that changed everything forever.
Her son, Kit Pawsey was one of 14 people who died when a poorly constructed Department of Conservation viewing platform gave way in the Paparoa National Park on the West Coast. More
