Businesses need safety boost, experts say

18th May, 2013

Businesses need safety boost, experts say

Many Northland businesses are not prepared for looming changes to workplace health and safety legislation, a group of Northland experts believes.

Health and safety concerns have made headlines over the past month, after an independent taskforce recommended sweeping changes to the workplace safety legislation.

Labour Minister Simon Bridges confirmed a rethink was necessary and said the Government would respond in more detail by July.

A group of Whangarei-based health and safety businesses say the vast majority of small businesses in Northland are not fully aware of their requirements under the law.

To counteract that problem, StaffCare, Northsafe, Active Intervention Management (AIM) and Building and Fire Services are banding together and launched a new joint venture, Safety in Numbers, on May 22.

Each business will remain independent but the four will work together as a team to offer a complete health and safety offering to clients.

Northsafe’s Mike Dalton said it would mean that when he was designing and implementing a health and safety plan for his customers, he could talk to them about other services they might need, such as drug testing, rehabilitation for injured staff, or building certification.

He said: “Ninety per cent of small businesses don’t have anything. They think they’re exempt. There’s a legal requirement to at least identify hazards, but a lot of businesses don’t even have that much.”

Mike Lindsay, of Building and Fire Services, said all the businesses had a common goal of improving the health and safety of Northland workplaces but could not individually cater for every concern. “We all have individual areas we help people comply with but when we meet clients they often talk about other fields.”

It would be a win-win for customers, occupational therapist Debbie Glendinning, of AIM, said. There would be no extra charge to customers, but they would get a chance to see what services were available to keep their costs down and improve the safety of workers.

StaffCare’s Mary Cook said all four businesses had worked together in the past. “We all know each other, respect each other and are comfortable everyone does a good job.”

Safety in Numbers is an idea that has been percolating for a while. But Cook said now was the perfect time to launch it. “There are a lot of employers not doing anything and it will become even more important later this year that they do something about that. That’s where we can help.”

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