Renovation show nailed on safety
A carpentry tutor has given TV show The Block NZ a hammering for what he calls a hypocritical approach to health and safety issues.
And watchdog WorkSafe will meet with producers of the reality show after viewer complaints.
The show’s producers, Warner Bros NZ, said all teams, tradies and crew were briefed on health and safety issues, and nobody had been seriously injured in any of the show’s five seasons.
But tutor Guy Harris of Wellington said the TV3 show broadcast some practices regular builders would catch hell for.
Harris was stumped when his apprentices started asking about the show.
‘‘The apprentices from all over the district come in and say ‘How come The Block doesn’t have to follow the rules?’’’
Harris said some people on the show working under scaffolding were not wearing hard hats, and he’d seen people ’’two or three layers’’ up on scaffolding without harnesses.
‘‘Earmuffs and goggles seem to be optional on The Block,’’ he added.
He said his Whitireia polytechnic students were apprentices at major construction firms, and found the situation hypocritical.
WorkSafe New Zealand said the show had made some safety improvements since last year, but viewers were still calling in to raise fresh ‘‘health and safety issues’’ concerns this year.
WorkSafe would meet with the production company and site foreman Peter Wolfkamp ’’over the next few weeks’’ because of the complaints.
Meetings were held in 2014 and last year, WorkSafe said.
‘‘We discussed various health and safety issues brought to our attention by viewers,’’ a WorkSafe spokesperson said.
‘‘We have noted improvements for controlling high-risk activities, like working at height.’’
The production company said it was ‘‘in regular contact’’ with WorkSafe.
‘‘We take safety very seriously on The Block NZ and we are proud to say that in five seasons of the programme we have not had any serious accident by any of the teams or their tradies,’’ a Warner Bros NZ spokesperson said.
‘‘All teams, tradies and crew receive a full health and safety briefing before filming commences and every Monday morning we hold compulsory weekly toolbox meetings where everyone is briefed on the hazards on site that particular week.’’
The Block NZ first aired in 2012. It involved teams giving their house a major makeover before auctioning the property off. Nearly 1.2 million people watched the show’s two-hour finale in 2013. Last year, 196,140 watched The Block NZ: Villa Wars premiere, according to TV website Throng.