6 June 2012

Health and safety taskforce has a job to do

The CTU welcomes advice today of the taskforce to undertake a major review of the workplace health and safety system.

Peter Conway, CTU Secretary says “our workplace death and injury rates are totally unacceptable.”

“Workers have a vital stake in the outcome of this review and the CTU will consult extensively during the process.”

Peter Conway said “the terms of reference for the taskforce identify a number of areas of focus including the role of worker participation, the legislative and regulatory framework, guidance for workplaces, the impact of workplace culture on health and safety practices as well as penalties and enforcement. This relatively broad scope means the taskforce has a big job on its hands. We are concerned that the taskforce has only one person from the union movement - Bill Rosenberg, compared with two from Business NZ and it is therefore vitally important that the taskforce gets out and listens to worker perspectives.”

“The Minister has set a target to achieve a 25 percent reduction in workplace deaths and serious injuries by 2020 and we should aim to do even better than that.”

“It is a tragedy that so many families lose a loved one each year through a workplace death and we need to see the same sort of concerted effort that has reduced the road toll applied to the area of workplace deaths and injuries,” said Peter Conway.

ENDS

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