Safety of rebuild welcomed

A rebuild safety programme likely prevented at least one death and dozens of workplace injuries in Canterbury, multiple reports have concluded.

One said, however, it needed a greater focus on helping at-risk workers such as migrants.

The Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment [MBIE] set up the Canterbury Rebuild Health & Safety Programme as a response to the dramatic increase in construction.

It began in 2013, following reports of a ‘‘significant increase’’ in serious-harm notifications and ACC claims in the construction industry. It finished in June this year.

The programme achieved most of its short and medium-term goals, a report released by the MBIE yesterday said.

It concluded it prevented one or two workplace deaths a year,

600,000 working days lost to injury and $80 million in ACC entitlements.

An independent report by MartinJenkins said the programme likely prevented up to one death, three to six severe injuries and 50 to 100 non-severe injuries.

It was centred around a charter hundreds of businesses signed, committing to a set of selfregulated standards around certain high-risk areas.

It involved strengthening the local workplace assessment programme by bringing in experienced inspectors from Australia to help.

Multiple workplace fatalities were expected throughout the rebuild, but there were zero since

2013, the report said. Interviews and surveys showed both Canterbury employers and construction workers were more aware of their health-and-safety obligations than in the rest of the country. ‘‘On the whole, workers and foremen and business owners reported that health and safety had been increasingly addressed in Canterbury during the rebuild and that this was evident when Canterbury was compared to construction in other regions their companies were operating in,’’ the report said.

They showed awareness about lesser-known risks such as asbestos.

One failing was lack of specific support for ‘‘high risk’’ workers, primarily migrants, younger workers and those in precarious employment situations.

While a guide was prepared for migrant workers, it was only available in English. It had since been translated into five languages, Worksafe said.

Inspectors were told to be aware of at-risk workers in their assessments, but the assessments were not focussed on the issue: ‘‘The evaluation found that there had not been a systematic approach to engaging or educating at risk workers,’’ the report said.

While there was high awareness of safety risks, there was less focus on health risks such as tiredness and mental health.

‘‘While fatigue was also quite widely acknowledged as being an issue for some workers, there was little discussion of addressing this, with some foreman/principals talking about encouragement of hydration during the day, but few addressing monitoring hours worked or ensuring breaks were taken,’’ the report said.

Worksafe assessments manager Jo Pugh said the report acknowledged the hard work from various organisations to lift health and safety standards. ‘‘While there is always room for improvement, Worksafe is proud of what the rebuild programme has achieved with our partners.’’