Labour ACC spokesperson Ruth Dyson said Accident Insurance Minister Murray McCully was showing once again his total lack of understanding of injury prevention and accident compensation.

"There is no new financial incentive to improve workplace health and safety. Private insurers are using exactly the same methods as ACC has done for the last few years.

"Mr McCully's has attempted to use Labour Day to promote changes that are decidedly 'worker unfriendly' by being extremely selective in the points he has highlighted.

"Some of the points he didn't emphasise in his press statement include:

· 75% of employers who are now insured with private insurance companies claim to have a health and safety plan in their workplace. This number has not altered at all since before the 1 July implementation date.

· Over 30% of employers have not passed on the identity of their work place accident insurers to their staff despite the law requiring them to do so.

· Half of employers surveyed thought that the ACC privatisation would make no difference at all to the number of accidents in the workplace.

· Half thought there would be more disputes.

· Nearly half thought that private insurance companies would lead to under reporting of workplace accidents.

"Despite his best efforts to try and make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, Mr McCully has once again failed miserably," Ruth Dyson said.

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