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Call to Tackle High Cost of Workplace Illness
MEDIA RELEASE
27 April 2005
Call to Tackle High Cost of Workplace Illness
Employers must take responsibility to
tackle the hidden hazards that leave
thousands of workers
suffering from occupational disease, Council of
Trade
Unions president Ross Wilson said today.
Workers
around the country will mark international Workers’ Memorial
Day
tomorrow, remembering those who lost their lives
while at work or who died
as a result of workplace injury
or disease.
The report of the National Occupational Health
and Safety Advisory Committee
estimated 700 -1,000 deaths
each year from occupational disease,
particularly cancer,
respiratory disease and heart disease.
Around 17,000 to
20,000 new cases of work-related disease are also
reported
each year.
“This represents a huge cost to
workers’ health, to employers in lost
productivity, and
to the community,” Ross Wilson said. “The
report
estimates the total cost over a year of
work-related disease and injury is
between $4.3 billion
and $8.7 billion.
“The cost of having a safe and healthy
workplace is nothing compared to the
cost - in terms of
both money and health - of allowing workers to
become
sick, injured or killed on the job.”
Workplaces
must get heath and safety systems in place which involve
workers,
as is required under the law, he said.
“The
involvement and commitment of workers and management is the
key to
overcoming our dismal statistics of occupational
disease,” Ross Wilson
said.
ENDS
New Zealand Council of Trade Unions
Te Kauae Kaimahi
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi brings together over 350,000 New Zealand union members in 40 affiliated unions. We are the united voice for working people and their families in New Zealand.
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