10 Nov 2017  -  On 1 December the Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2017 will come into force. The aim is to reduce both the immediate harm to people and longer-term illness caused by hazardous substances in the workplace. It’s no small matter. A hazardous substance is any product or chemical that has explosive, flammable, oxidising, toxic or corrosive properties – and they’re everywhere. Around one in three New Zealand workplaces use, manufacture, handle or store them. This includes factories, farmers and growers, as well as printers, collision repairers, hairdressers and retailers. They are in commonly used…

Daylight Saving this weekend is a good time to check on the amount of sleep you are getting to keep yourself and others healthy and safe as you work, says WorkSafe Chief Executive Nicole Rosie. “People who are tired and fatigued are 30% more likely to have an accident. Both businesses and workers have a responsibility to manage fatigue and the risks that arise from it. “Work and personal demands can often make it difficult to get the sleep we need to function safely throughout the day,” Ms Rosie said. WorkSafe has a fatigue quick guide with information for businesses…

WorkSafe has just launched two new businesses to its highly-successful ‘Around the Block’ tool – a free online tool which has been developed to help small and medium sized Kiwi businesses manage workplace health and safety risks. The new shops are a bakery and a collision repair workshop. The original 13 shops on Around the Block were launched in November 2016, and since then have proved extremely successful and have been used over 90,000 times. “Our statistics indicated that workers in bakeries and collision repair workshops are faced with a range of work and health related risks. This tool will…

New Zealand’s system for the management of hazardous substances in the Workplace is changing. The Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations will come into force in December 2017. The Regulations are aimed at reducing both immediate harm and longer-term illness that can result from the work-related use of hazardous substances. If yours is one of the 150,000 businesses across New Zealand that manufacture, use, handle, store or transport hazardous substances, take note that the rules that govern the use of hazardous substances in the workplace are moving from the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (HSNO) Act (administered by…

A rare opportuntiy to purchase a business that offers services now required by law and even more so allows common sense to play a real role.      

Workers in elementary occupations such as cleaners, rubbish collectors, and labourers had the highest rate of injury in 2015, Statistics NZ said today, as the rate for agriculture and fishery workers moved down from the top spot for the first time in eight years. Elementary occupation workers, which also includes jobs such as pest controllers, hotel porters, and courier drivers, had 238 claims per 1,000 full-time equivalent employees in 2015, which was the same rate as the year before. However, the injury rate for agriculture and fishery group workers, which includes forestry workers, fell from 242 per 1,000 workers, to…

WorkSafe has developed a new online tool to help businesses get started with managing their workplace health and safety risks. The ‘Around the Block’ tool is animated and interactive, taking users on a journey through a typical city block. Thirteen businesses often seen on a city block have been included so far – from cafes and hair salons, to medical centres and petrol stations. Clickable hotspots within each of the interiors identify some of the health and safety risks in that business and provide some information on how to manage them. Over time, more business types will be added to…