Leadership in Health and Safety Presented by Helen Mason Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce

Health and Safety in New Zealand New Zealand currently has very poor workplace health and safety statistics Internationally we rank poorly Largely due to our culture and mentality $3.5 billion – the cost to New Zealand

Why is our record so poor? She’ll be right attitude and culture No. 8 wire mentality Many more SME’s

Health and Safety legislation Health & Safety in Employment Act 1992 Health & Safety Regulations 1995 Codes of Practice & Guidelines Health & Safety Reform New Health & Safety Landscape – Blueprint for Health and Safety Health & Safety at Work Act – 4 April 2016

Who will owe duties in the Health & Safety at Work Act? PCBU Person conducting business or undertaking New single, inclusive duty holder Covers all relationships between those in control and those affected, including upstream participants (designers, manufacturers, importers) Officers Directors, Partners, Owners, Boards Any person who makes decisions that affect the whole or a substantial part of the business (e.g. CEO, Managing Director) Workers Includes employees, contractors and volunteers

Who are duties owed to? Workers Employees, Trainees, Apprentices Contractors, Sub-contractors Labour hire staff Volunteers Work experience staff Others Visitors, Public (if they are affected by work carried out) Tenants Other PCBUs and their workers

Duties can overlap There may be multiple PCBU’s involved in work at the same location or on the same project: More than one PCBU can have the same duty PCBUs must consult, co-ordinate and co-operate with each other Duties are not transferable i.e. cannot delegate responsibility for health and safety on site to one PCBU

Effective Leaders - Officers Duties proposed under new legislation for ‘Officers” Effective leaders can improve workplace health and safety by: Setting and maintaining a strong health and safety vision and building a culture where people want to be safe Making health and safety a priority and ensuring it is a core part of the business Ensuring the right risks and hazards are managed, the right performance and results are monitored and the right improvements and investments are made Create a common mind-set and vision that Zero Harm Workplaces can be achieved – because there’s no such thing as an acceptable injury rate “Good Governance Practices Guideline”

Officers – due diligence in action Acquire and keep up-to-date knowledge of work health and safety matters Understand the business operations, hazards and associated risks Ensure appropriate resources and proper processes available to enable risks to be identified, eliminated or minimised Ensure appropriate processes available for receiving and considering information about incidents, hazards and risks and responding in a timely way Ensure processes are implemented for complying with duties or obligations Verify, monitor, review use of resources and processes i.e. inspection and auditing processes

Effective Leaders – Workers Duties of Workers under proposed new legislation: While at work, a worker must – take reasonable care for his or her own health and safety take reasonable care that his or her acts or omissions do not adversely affect the health and safety of other persons comply, as far as the worker is reasonably able, with any reasonable instruction that is given by the PCBU to allow the PCBU to comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act co-operate with any reasonable policy or procedure of the PCBU relating to health or safety at the workplace that has been notified to workers

Worker Participation Practices  The PCBU must engage, so far as is reasonably practicable with workers who work for the business and are directly affected by a health and safety matter and must have effective practices that allow workers to have an opportunity to participate in improving work health and safety on an ongoing basis  Engagement means talking and listening to your workers when identifying hazards and risks and making changes to work that affect health and safety

Powers of a Health & Safety Representative  Once the Representative has completed the Transitional Training and Unit Standard they can;  Issue provisional improvement notices to address a health and safety problem, and  Directing a worker to cease work that would expose them to serious risk arising from an immediate or imminent exposure to a hazard, which supports the existing right for a worker to cease work in this situation  Health and Safety at Work (Worker Engagement, Participation, and Representation) Regulation 2016 to be released soon

Health and Safety System Hazard Management – identify, assess and control Accident, Incident Reporting – accident register, serious harm reporting Training and Supervision – Inductions, on the job training Emergency procedures – fire, earthquake, chemical spills etc Contractor management – pre-qualifying, agreements, inductions, monitoring Employee Participation – process for employees to raise issues

Plan, Motivate, Build Understanding Think about safety before you start work. Ask for the resources you need to work safely. Think out of the box – suggest better ways to work that might improve safety. Be an example to others. Take responsibility for yourself and those you work with including students, contractors. Use your voice and tell people, no matter who they are, when they have good ideas or do something that improves safety, and also when they could do something safer. Develop your own knowledge and skills, and share your experience and abilities with those you are working with so that they can develop. Talk with the people you work with to identify the risks in your work.

Building a good Safety Culture It is well proven that even compliance with all the right processes, safety equipment and safety audits, can be quickly undone by an ineffective and weak safety culture: Health and safety culture starts with leadership Recruitment selection – support, mentor and live your culture Measure your culture Identify and remedy all hazards Recognise and reinforce safe behaviour – stop at risk behaviour Encourage employees to speak-up Be tough on problems, not on people – avoid the rush to blame Build a ‘just and learning culture’ – learn from mistakes; be proactive Ensure health and safety is considered in every strategic and operational decision Make health and safety a strategic business advantage

Penalties for non-compliance Three categories of offences: Category 1: Reckless conduct exposing people to death/injury Category 2: Failure to comply resulting in death/serious injury Category 3: Failure to comply with a health and safety duty Lower level compliance tools will be strengthened Cannot insure against a fine

Where to from here ….. Undertake an assessment of your current procedures or Get a gap analysis completed Check all employees are aware of the processes you have in place and have access to the necessary documentation –hazard identification form, accident register, safe operating procedures Paper trail is critical Keep informed and when legislation is enacted make the necessary changes to your current health and safety system e.g. risk assessment matrix, change to definitions e.g. serious harm Ensure all directors and officers are using the checklist provided in the Good Governance Practices Guidelines and are being provided with the necessary information to be across all health and safety risk in the business

Where to from here … Consider the merits of entry into the ACC discount programme Provide training to your health and safety representatives or committee It is well proven that even compliance with all the right processes, safety equipment, and safety audits, can be quickly undone by an ineffective and weak safety culture. Health and safety culture starts with leadership Measure your health and safety culture Recognise and reinforce behaviour consistent with the desired culture Make health and safety a strategic business advantage Encourage employees to speak-up

Questions