Always identify workplace hazards

This post from work safe NZ a few weeks ago shows how taking care in managing risk can help prevent serious injuries to workers. 

5 May 2015

The Hawera District Court has ordered two companies to pay fines and reparation totalling $70,000 after a worker fell into a cellar at a mothballed oil and gas facility in Taranaki.

The worker fell 3.2 metres after a grating covering a well cellar gave way while he was standing on it. An internal investigation found that the clips used to secure the grating were missing.

The worker suffered a 7-centimetre cut to his shin and a compression fracture of his spine but managed to climb the escape ladder, even though it had several broken rungs and was coming away from the top of the cellar wall.

NZEC Wiahapa Limited, which operates the site in partnership with L&M Energy Limited (which was NOT charged), was fined $30,000 and ordered to pay reparation of $10,000.NZEC Waihapa had engaged Vause Wireline Limited to work at the site and the injured man was a contractor engaged by Vause Wireline. Vause Wireline was fined $30,000.

The companies were sentenced today in the Hawera District Court under sections 18 and 50 of the Health and Safety in Employment, after earlier pleading guilty.

WorkSafe New Zealand’s chief inspector Keith Stewart says a full hazard assessment of the site would have identified the risk posed by the cellar, which has now been filled in.

“Both companies had a duty to identify and manage risks at the site before workers were put in harm’s way. A proper assessment would have found that the clips were missing. Given the height of the cellar a second way of securing the grating should also have been in place.

“Vause Wireline should also have ensured there was a safe escape route available if someone did fall.

“This incident could have been avoided with a bit more care and attention to risk identification. Once a hazard is identified it is often relatively simple to manage,” says Keith Stewart.

Change in Select Committee report back date for the Health and Safety Reform Bill

Why we’re here

No one goes to work expecting to get hurt, sick or killed. But in New Zealand, far too many people do.

On average, 75 people per year die on the job, 1 in 10 is harmed and 600-900 die from work-related diseases—all coming at a cost of $3.5 billion per year. And that’s doesn’t count the social and psychological costs on the friends, family, loved ones and co-workers of those people hurt on the job.

We’re here to change that.

In 2013, government announced its Working Safer reform package, aimed at bringing down New Zealand’s workplace injury and death toll by 25 per cent by 2020. Perhaps the most important part of this is the new Health and Safety Reform Bill , which will make every workplace responsible for the health and safety of all workers.

Progress of the legislation

The Bill is currently before parliament. The Transport and Industrial Relations Select Committee has a revised report back of 24 July 2015 and then the Bill will continue its progression through the parliamentary process. The Bill is on course to be passed in the second half of 2015. There will be adequate time of some months between when the Bill is passed and when it comes into force to make sure duty holders are aware of their responsibilities under the new law.

With the legislation still being finalised, we can’t answer every question yet, but this page will link you to the key information you need to know now. We’ll update it regularly to keep you informed.

First home detention sentencing for health and safety prosecution

This article by Duncan Cotterill is a timely reminder to companies that they need to get serious about Health and Safety.  It is not long now till the Government will implement major changes to health and safety legislation, with much harsher penalties available than Mr Britton received.

For the first time, a health and safety prosecution in New Zealand has resulted in a sentence of home detention for the company director.

Mr Britton, the company director for Britton House Movers Ltd, was the foreman on the job on the day of the incident. A house was being moved, and came into contact with a power line. The live power line snapped, and fell on to the roof of the house. An employee used a wooden stick to move the power line into a ditch, out of sight.  They then went on to continue with the house delivery, without notifying authorities of the downed power line.

At the same time, a local farmer was moving his sheep out of a nearby paddock.  Some of the sheep walked into the ditch and were electrocuted, as were two of the farmer’s dogs. The farmer himself narrowly avoided being electrocuted, being pulled back by his assistant when he was reaching out to one of the dead sheep. They then chased down the house-moving convoy, and called the authorities.

The full sentence was four months’ home detention for Mr Britton and a fine of $60,000 for his company. It was noted that this fine was reduced significantly, because of the financial situation of the company. 

With the upcoming changes to health and safety legislation, which provide for much higher penalties than are currently available, this sentence could mark the beginning of more severe sentences generally.

Disclaimer: the content of this article is general in nature and not intended as a substitute for specific professional advice on any matter and should not be relied upon for that purpose.

Lone worker solutions don't have to be expensive and they save lives.

Work Safe NZ recently highlighted a situation in the Hawkes Bay where a company has been fined for not taking all practicable steps to ensure their workers safety.  The waterproofing company were fortunate the outcome was not worst, with the worker luckily escaping any serious or long-term health effects. 

Had the worker been wearing one of Direct Safety's Man down units, an effective emergency response would have been staged within minutes of him collapsing.

Don’t be blasé about toxic fumes and confined spaces

16 February 2015

Waterproofing company Gunac Hawke’s Bay Limited has been fined $33,750 and ordered to pay reparation of $2,500 after one of its employees was overcome by toxic fumes.

The worker was applying a bitumen-based product called Novaglass rapid primer to the inside of a grain silo at an egg farm near Hastings at the time of the incident in April 2014. He was wearing a respirator, but did not have a solvent filter available and so used a dust filter. That meant he was exposed to the toxic solvent fumes.

The worker spent more than six hours working by himself on the silo, and was found unconscious and unresponsive on the bottom of the silo near the end of the work day. He was taken to Hawke’s Bay Hospital where he was diagnosed as suffering from the toxic effect of carbon monoxide and “other gases, fumes and vapours”. He was discharged later that same day.

Gunac Hawke’s Bay pleaded guilty in the Hastings District Court for failing to take all practicable steps to ensure that its employee was not exposed to the hazard of working with solvents in a confined space. The company was charged under sections 6 and 50 of the Health and Safety in Employment Act.

WorkSafe New Zealand’s Chief Inspector Keith Stewart says working with toxic chemicals in a confined space is inherently risky.

“Gunac Hawke’s Bay had not trained its employees in working in confined spaces and did not have an operating procedure for such work.

“The company’s director admitted that maybe he had “got blasé about the health and safety” because he had experienced staff and Gunac had a good health and safety record. Well, you can’t afford to get blasé when it comes to working with hazardous chemicals – especially in a confined space.

“In this instance the worker in question escaped without serious, long-term health effects – but that was more a matter of good luck than good management,” says Keith Stewart.

Blackline’s New Safety Operations Center Delivers Around-The-Clock Confidence

One of the keys to an effective emergency response is the person at the end of the phone.  Blackline have taken steps to stay ahead of the competition with an inhouse managed Safety Operations centre.

To complement its suite of Loner employee safety monitoring solutions, Blackline GPS, a leading manufacturer of connected safety products, launched a new, in-house 24/7/365 Safety Operations Center. Now monitoring over 2,000 lone workers across Canada, this service manages an immediate emergency response to the precise location of an employee in distress.

“During a safety incident, the employee’s outcome depends upon the quality of emergency response management,” said Kevin Meyers, Blackline’s COO. “Blackline is in the best position to provide this capability as we already design, manufacture, and deliver service for leading safety monitoring solutions. This logical step forward is part of Blackline’s program to better serve customers by expanding our suite of services.”

Traditional call centers that monitor employee safety often also provide answering services, telemarketing, IT help desk, and technical support. Blackline’s Safety Operations Center is exclusively focused upon employee safety monitoring, staffed by professionally trained monitoring agents who also offer expert product knowledge. With 24/7/365 availability, safety alerts are managed from receipt through to resolution by following a customer’s unique emergency response protocol. Unlike many other players in this space, Blackline is able to direct local emergency responders to the employee’s location by accessing the network of 9-1-1 services across Canada.

The Blackline Safety Operations Center incorporates state-of-the-art infrastructure including redundancy of power supply, communications, computing, and other services. Safety alerts are responded to in an efficient manner and all calls are recorded for quality assurance. In order to provide comprehensive monitoring services to customers, Blackline is able to respond to situations with real-time translation of over 200 languages.

Blackline’s broad Loner safety monitoring portfolio empowers organizations in all industries and geographic locations with real-time safety incident awareness to deliver help within minutes instead of hours or days later. Blackline’s technology can make the difference to an employee’s outcome by directing an immediate response to the individual’s precise location.

health and safety reform bill information & expected dates

The New Zealand Government has a target to reduce workplace injury and death toll by 25 per cent by 2020.  As the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment state on their website this is going to take leadership and action from businesses, workers and Government to achieve this goal.

A discussion document outlining proposals for new health and safety regulations was released in May 2014 by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

The discussion paper – Developing regulations to support the new Health and Safety at Work Act - is part of the Government’s Working Safer package of reforms

The Health and Safety Reform Bill currently before Select Committee will, if enacted, create the Health and Safety at Work Act. The regulations proposed in the discussion document will support the new Act.

The Health and Safety Reform Bill will create the new Health and Safety at Work Act, replacing the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992.

The select committee considering the Bill is due to report back by 30 March 2015 and then the Bill will continue its progression through the parliamentary process. It is likely that the Bill will come into force in the second half of 2015.

There will be adequate time between when the Bill is passed and when it comes into force to make sure duty holders are aware of their responsibilities under the new law.

Read updates on the Bill

Read the submissions