Workplace safety changes would create more confusion - health and safety expert

Plans to scale back on health and safety measures will impact the country's economy, as well as worker safety, says the NZ Institute of Safety Management.

Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke Van Velden's Safety at Work Amendment Bill would exempt businesses with fewer than 20 workers from legally having to manage non-critical safety risks.

The bill sets out to cut death and injury rates, and compliance costs, by focusing on the most serious critical risks and reducing confusion.

A select committee's report on the proposed law changes was published today.

Institute of Safety Management board chair Mike Cosman told Checkpoint today that smaller firms accounted for up to 97 percent of the country's businesses.

He said claims for less serious accidents - such as slips and trips, sprains, strains and wounds - made up 4.7 million days of weekly compensation from ACC each year.

"Not every small firm is going to say 'I'm no longer going to provide you with safety boots or gloves' or 'I don't have to train you or supervise you because you're not doing work classed as critical risk', but it sends a message that health and safety is only about the really bad stuff and not about the things that cause harm every single day," Cosman said.

Cosman said the changes would "do nothing" to address Aotearoa's poor health and safety standing against international counterparts such as Australia and the UK.

He took exception to the minister's claims that the bill offered common sense changes that increased certainty, eased compliance costs and improved safety.

"I have been involved in health and safety for 46 years as a regulator, a policy maker, a consultant [and] an expert witness. I am struggling to interpret some of the concepts that are introduced in this new bill.

"Working out what is a critical risk is complicated. Working out what is a small firm is complicated. So none of these changes actually will make it easier for business they just require further decisions to be made at an individual business level about 'Is this in? Is this out? Do I have to manage it? Do I not?'," Cosman said.

He said there had recently been a page-long clause introduced into the bill to further define what would occur when small businesses were working in conjunction with larger organisations.

"We've now got this dual speed system where when I'm working with another small business I only have to manage certain risks, but when I'm working with a larger business now I have to manage all of the risks.

"It is not common sense. It is not simple. It is not clear and ultimately it isn't going to reduce injuries," Cosman said.

Cosman said he hoped one party - or half a dozen MPs - will cross coalition agreement lines and vote the bill down.

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