Lost workers remembered on Memorial Day

Today marks International Workers’ Memorial Day – a time for workers and employers to reflect on the importance of health and safety at work, says Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson.

Last year 77 people died at work in New Zealand. Of those, 29 were the Pike River miners.

“No one should be injured, let alone die from doing their job and it’s appropriate that today we reflect on those who have suffered because of their work,” Ms Wilkinson says.

“Workplace deaths and injuries cost the country aproximately billions of dollars a year. The emotional toll on workers, their families and friends is immeasurable.

“Safety should be part of the culture at work – it is good for business, productivity and staff morale. We all must do our part to ensure health and safety initiatives are at the forefront of business planning.”

The Department of Labour recently launched the National Action Agenda, sharpening our focus on reducing the work toll in five key sectors which have consistently high levels of workplace deaths and injures. They are construction, forestry, agriculture, manufacturing and fishing.

“This sets very clear goals which allow us to make a very real difference to the work toll by the end of 2013. Next month I’ll be launching the first of these sector plans, for the construction industry,” Ms Wilkinson says.

“Last year we set up the Business Leaders’ Forum, bringing together business and government leaders committed to delivering more effective health and safety - so far more than 125 leaders have signed up to the goal of achieving zero harm workplaces.

“We’re also taking a new approach to targeting serious harm – one problem we’ve started tackling is quad bike safety, focusing on reducing the number of these accidents on farms.

“We’ve seen greater awareness about safety issues since the project kicked off in November, but there’s still a long way to go.”
 

The statistics are supplied from the Department of Labour and show the number of fatal work-related incidents reported to the Department under the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992. They do not include fatalities from long latency diseases caused by exposure to hazardous substances, nor do they include deaths in the maritime or aviation sectors or fatalities due to work-related road crashes. These are investigated by Maritime New Zealand, the Civil Aviation Authority and the New Zealand Police respectively.