Nearly half of New Zealanders affected by workplace incidents: report

WELLINGTON, Aug 19: Nearly half of New Zealanders have been affected by a workplace incident that has happened to them, colleagues, family or friends, a report said on Monday.

The cost of poor workplace health and safety performance, including loss of life and income, the cost of serious injury to the government’s Accident Compensation Corporation and health-related problems, rose to 4.9 billion NZ dollars ($2.97 billion) last year, the report said.

The cost was set to be 4.4 billion NZ dollars ($2.67 billion) in 2022, according to a report by the Business Leaders Health and Safety Forum, which has committed to reporting annually on the performance of New Zealand’s health and safety system, reports Xinhua news agency.

It said New Zealand lags behind its overseas counterparts in terms of workplace health and safety.

The report said that despite the three countries having similar legislative arrangements, New Zealand’s fatality rate is 60 per cent higher than Australia’s and the rate is 500 per cent higher than the UK.

“A person in New Zealand is twice as likely to die at work as in Australia,” said Forum chief executive Francois Barton.

The report said almost 50 per cent of people had a positive perception of New Zealand’s health and safety performance and the response after an incident at work.

Labour Party workplace relations and safety spokeswoman Camilla Belich called for effective investment in WorkSafe, New Zealand’s primary workplace health and safety regulator, so that it could play its vital role in investigating and investing in injury prevention.