One day left to have your say | IMPAC health and safety

 |  Follow us on  

There’s just one day left to have your say on the Health and Safety at Work Strategy before submissions close at 5pm on Friday 8 June 2018.

Speak now or forever hold your peace on the Health and Safety at Work Strategy. Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

Consultation meetings

Health and Safety at Work Strategy consultation meetings were held around the country in May, to explain and discuss the central themes of the new strategy and seek feedback. These will help direct policy over the coming decade.

Meeting facilitator Craig Smith urged people to make submissions before the June 8 deadline.

Health and safety in the school curriculum, better quality training, more consistent guidance material, and stronger health and safety leadership from the government were some of the main items on the wish list from the recent Central Auckland meeting.

After Smith introduced the key themes for the new strategy – which include Māori and other vulnerable workers, small business, high-risk industries, health and safety leadership, information, worker engagement, and specialist capability – comments from the floor were welcomed.

Apparently, the response was immediate, and attendees “made it clear they were not afraid to bite the hand that was going to feed them”, and WorkSafe and the government’s performance was critiqued.

Final thoughts

Summing up, Smith said he had a slight sense of disappointment that in some areas the issues were well understood, but not being effectively resolved: “Worker engagement and participation is one such area. We know it’s really important, but we’re not making much progress. And I cannot for the life of me believe we haven’t sorted out the division of regulatory boundaries.

But a lot of the things you know are the lead indicators that will make a difference. The question is, how do we make sure that we actually drive some change?”

Don’t forget to have your say

Read and download the consultation document and make sure you get your submission in to have your say.