And the winner is.....Fonterra

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Dairy giant Fonterra has taken overall honours at this year’s New Zealand Workplace Health and Safety Awards for initiatives addressing fatigue in milk tanker drivers and the welfare of contractors on the firm’s major construction projects.

Fifteen awards were presented at a gala dinner at SKYCITY Convention Centre in Auckland on 25 May in front of an enthusiastic audience of well over 500. The awards, which began in 2005, are organised by Safeguard and supported by WorkSafe New Zealand. They were judged by a panel of five representing WorkSafe, ACC, NZ Council of Trade Unions, Safeguard, and an industry health and safety practitioner.

The top award was selected from the winners of the eight award categories open to organisations. Fonterra had earlier taken out both the health and wellbeing categories.

The judges also presented a lifetime achievement award to former CTU president Helen Kelly for her dedication to securing fair, safe and healthy work for all New Zealanders.

The full list of winners is:

Supreme award: the WorkSafe New Zealand/ACC best overall contribution to improving workplace health and safety in New Zealand

Fonterra Co-Operative Group

Kensington Swan best initiative to address a safety risk

Fulton Hogan

Developed two sophisticated mobile driving simulators to address the vehicle crash rate. Mounted on trailers, they tour the country to train all drivers in multiple vehicle types and driving conditions.

WorkSafe New Zealand best initiative to address a health risk

Fonterra Co-Operative Group

Developed a sophisticated approach to monitoring milk tanker driver fatigue, enabling potentially fatigued drivers to be identified earlier.

Vitae best initiative to improve employee wellbeing

Fonterra Co-Operative Group

The ‘Village Concept’ features a very high standard of centralised facilities for all subcontractors at major build sites, improving engagement and collaboration between previously ghettoised groups.

NZ Safety best initiative to encourage engagement in health & safety

Frucor Beverages

Refreshed its previously compliance-focused H&S programme by inviting all staff to brainstorming workshops, from which arose the comprehensive and engaging “See It, Sort It, Safe As” theme, with staff also involved in induction videos.

SICK New Zealand best use of NZ design/technology

Prestige Ltd, Hastings

Eliminated strain injuries incurred in the early stages of removing thousands of house fence posts by inventing and trialling a simple but effective post-pulling machine, which has also improved productivity.

Site Safe best health and safety initiative by a small business

Regents Park Farm, Bulls

Created a health and safety management app which everyone uses as a reporting tool, boosting incident and near-miss reports and enabling rapid escalation and resolution.

Impac best significant health and safety initiative by a large organisation

Transdev Auckland

Took multiple measures – driver training, task analysis, workload management, fatigue, cognitive performance – to address an unacceptably high rate of signals passed at danger (SPAD)

ACC best leadership of an industry sector or region

NZ Transport Agency

Hosted the first Zero Harm Knowledge Forum and toured an associated roadshow to bring all players in the road construction sector together to adopt a risk-based approach based primarily on engagement.

NZISM health and safety practitioner of the year

Martin McMullan, NZ Transport Agency

Championed innovative apps, conferences and roadshows for the road construction sector and helped the Construction Safety Council develop an innovative competency assessment.

edenfx HSE Recruitment most influential employee

Laurie Collins, Lyttelton Port Company

On behalf of others, invoked the right to refuse unsafe work because maintenance staff could not provide ‘first responder’ cover over weekends. Stood his ground over several weeks, enhancing the cause of H&S and the ability to resolve issues transparently.

Business Leaders’ Health & Safety Forum executive leader

Graham Darlow, Fletcher Building

Leveraged the company’s role in post-quake Christchurch house repair to lift H&S standards among subcontractors, and grasped that the home rebuild programme also presented an opportunity to lift standards in the residential construction sector nationwide. Chairs the Canterbury Rebuild Safety Charter.

Countdown Lifetime Achievement Award

Helen Kelly, Wellington

For her tireless commitment to making sure working people are safe at work using all the tools at her disposal – from the judicial system right though to Twitter. Her work to publicise the alarming number of workplace deaths and serious injuries in the forestry sector was also acknowledged, as was her work after Pike River to improve health and safety law and to advocate for the victims and their families.

Judges’ commendation awards went to:

• New Zealand Playhouse, Christchurch: for developing The Playhouse Bible, a 48-page compendium of wit and wisdom about surviving life on the road for its small groups of touring players. Few staff inductions could be more engaging.
• Wellington City Council: for directly addressing men’s mental health, particularly depression, by developing a regular workshop, One for the Blokes, which has now been attended by more than 350 staff with enormously positive feedback. The workshop is now also being run in Christchurch.