ACC proposal not the best for safety

16 August 2006

ACC proposal not the best for safety

Plans to merge the employer and self-employed ACC accounts won’t necessarily incentivise safety says Business NZ.

This morning the ACC Minister announced plans to have the same levy for both accounts.

Business NZ Chief Executive Phil O’Reilly says there are two main problems with the plan.

“The first is that the employer account is significantly overfunded compared with the self-employed account. Merging the two will mean employers subsidising ACC for the self-employed.

“The second issue is the plan’s inadequate incentives for workplace safety. Without experience rating - which rewards a good safety record and penalises a poor one - there are not strong incentives for companies to constantly improve their safety management.

“The current systems-based scheme - where companies get audited for Workplace Safety Management Practices - needs to be augmented with some form of experience rating.

“Otherwise, given the generally higher risk profile of the self-employed group, a uniform levy will lessen the incentives for good safety management in both groups.

“Business would prefer a system capable of identifying and penalising poor safety management and rewarding safe practice, instead of a simple socialised ‘one-size fits all’ system.

ENDS

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