Worker health and safety training a casualty of indifference

Worker health and safety training another casualty of government indifference to safe workplaces

As the government attempts to water down core provisions in its new health and safety law, funding to support high risk industry health and safety representative is also about to end.

The CTU has today announced that its Health and Safety Representative Training programme, supported by ACC since 2003, will be ending in its current form this November.

Business New Zealand and private provider Impac Services are also affected by ACC’s decision.

ACC has supported this training since 2003, and over 33,000 Health and Safety Reps have been upskilled by the CTU in this period.

In recent times ACC has focused it’s funding on several high risk industries including forestry, farming, road transport, residential care, food processing, heavy & civil construction, general construction and mining.

The training costs were met by ACC from the injury prevention levy and meant employers while having to meet the costs of two days leave, were able to avail themselves of a free course for these representatives.

“At a time when the Governments own Health and Safety Taskforce identified lack of worker participation as a core missing element leading to New Zealand’s poor health and safety record the Government is not only removing the rights for workers to elect representatives in small businesses but is also cutting the funding for the approved course required for any representative before they can act in the role,” said CTU Secretary Sam Huggard.

“It’s bizarre and shows the impact of the Government disregard for the important role workers play in health and safety.”

“Last year the Health and Safety Representative Training was attacked by then Minister Judith Collins, and lobbyist Jordan Williams, despite it receiving positive evaluations and the Minister herself approving the programme. Both ACC and MBIE have put many of their own staff through the CTU and Business NZ programme.

“I hate to think and hope the ending of this programme is not as a result of the compromise developed within a split National Party caucus on health and safety, in order to get the Bill through. But the attack all round on the right of workers to participate and be trained is a very sad conclusion to what we had hoped would be a step change to keep New Zealand workers safe,” he said.

The CTU is exploring ways to continue to offer the training programme to the many employers outside of ACC funded programme who have paid for staff to attend what they appreciate as a high quality programme, Sam Huggard said.

ENDS

© Scoop Media