Clayton Mitchell
A Northland health and safety expert says at least half of all businesses in the region are not prepared for new laws that aim to improve New Zealand's poor record of workplace injuries and fatalities by holding companies responsible.
The Health and Safety Reform Bill was passed in late July and is going through its remaining stages in Parliament before it becomes law.
Under the new legislation, managers, owners, trusts, directors and any governing bodies will face substantial fines or imprisonment if they fail to proactively manage workplace health and safety risk.
Companies are not obliged to have a health and safety representative or health and safety committee but if one worker requests an elected representative(s), one must be elected. Small businesses with fewer than 20 workers in low-risk sectors are excluded from that requirement, however.
Another change states that health and safety representatives will have a training entitlement of two days' paid leave a year, with existing reps having to carry out training to continue in their roles.
The Government also intended on clarifying some expectations of the bill, especially about the impact to smaller businesses.
Whangarei-based health and safety consultant Scott Bradley, of Securo, said the changes were designed to move "the ambulance from the bottom of the cliff to the top to prevent accidents and injuries from occurring".
He believed that about one quarter of businesses were doing a reasonable job at managing health and safety, with another quarter needing to do more.
"Then there's 50 per cent that do nothing or have a health and safety manual sitting on the shelf that's 10 or 20 years old. Those businesses really need to get some help right now," Bradley said.
"This is the time to ascertain where your business is at and do something because if you wait until the new legislation comes into force you will have an almighty task in front of you. Get something in place now."
He said a sound health and safety system would protect workers and the business.
"It's a whole lot cheaper to get it right than it is to be prosecuted. It's about awareness. There's a lot of things you can do to prevent harm in your workplace."
However, he said many companies "lack the technical knowledge and motivation to improve their own health and safety systems".
Securo, a New Zealand-owned and operated business, specialises in workplace health and safety with consultants helping businesses set up evidence-based, actively managed health and safety systems.
Securo general manager Frank Taylor said a fresh pair of eyes would see hazards that people had grown accustomed to in their workplace.
"Most of the people we work with say 'oh I never thought about that' when we point a potential risk out to them," he said, adding that health and safety was "an easy thing to put on the back-burner".
New Zealand First believes the changes would cripple small and medium businesses due to the financial burden of conforming to new requirements.
Labour's Clayton Mitchell suggested the costs of courses, travel and time off work to train health and safety representatives should be covered by the Government.