Darien Fenton

Labour’s Health and Safety policy was released in Greymouth today calling for a fundamental change in how New Zealanders approach workplace health and safety, says Labour’s spokesperson for Labour Issues Darien Fenton and Labour’s West Coast based List MP Damien O’Connor.

In the past year 85 New Zealanders lost their lives in workplace accidents.

“Preventing accidents must be more than a box-ticking exercise for employers. The National Government is simply not giving workplace health and safety the attention it needs,” Darien Fenton said.

“While New Zealanders mourned the loss of 29 lives at Pike River and worried about what might happen with the Rena, health and safety is an issue that too often flies under the radar.

“Yet somehow the consequences of workplace accidents and their effects on families, health and productivity remain absent from the national conversation on safety.

“The workplace needs a wake-up call.”

Damien O’Connor welcomed the launch of the policy on the West Coast.

“It’s fitting that this is being launched on the Coast, where Labour’s fight for strong health and safety rights in the workplace was born.”

Darien Fenton said fundamental to improving Workplace Health and Safety is worker participation, involvement of trained health and safety representatives and effective enforcement, all of which have been scaled back under the National Government.

“Labour is committed to elevating these concerns so they are taken as seriously as our road toll. We will establish a Commission of Inquiry into New Zealand workplace Health and Safety to benchmark New Zealand internationally and direct change,” Darien Fenton said.

“This could include moving to a requirement for legislated workplace standards, rather than the “self-regulation” of the current approach.

“New Zealand’s record of workplace accidents and injuries is not improving yet other comparable countries are consistently doing better.

“Labour has already committed to reinstating check inspectors in mines. We want miners and their families to feel reassured that when they enter a mine everything that can be done to keep them safe has been done. National removed the requirement for check inspectors in 1992 and miners themselves have called for their return.

“A priority for Labour will be to legislate for mining health and safety standards, having identified Queensland’s mining safety regulations as the model to emulate.

Darien Fenton said hazardous industries such as construction, farming and road transport are also high on Labour’s agenda. Several accidents in the past year have shed light on poor safety standards in the trucking industry in particular.

“Labour will institute a safe rates system in the road transport industry and investigate whether labour standards are a factor in other high risk injuries.

“Labour is committed to creating safer workplaces, preventing accidents by raising standards and insuring that injured workers are given adequate support to reach a full recovery,” Darien Fenton said.

National’s plans to deal to workers’ rights go against international best practice and will do nothing to stimulate our already low-wage economy, says Labour’s spokesperson for Labour Issues, Darien Fenton.

“Slashing collective bargaining provisions won’t create a single job, while removing the requirement to conclude negotiations is likely to result in prolonged industrial disputes with no incentive for either side to settle.

“It’s the same old, same old. It is the Employment Contracts Act in drag. These same ideas were tried in the 1990s and they failed.

“Youth unemployment ballooned, wages were cut, and the gap between New Zealand and Australia widened,” Darien Fenton said.

“This Government has no ideas on how to improve wages and productivity, and no ideas on how to improve the economy.

“Enabling employers to opt out of multi-employer bargaining will put major agreements at risk in the health sector and in key manufacturing industries such as the Plastics and metals industries.

“And putting workers straight on to individual agreements when they start work is a sop to big businesses already making huge profits, courtesy of hard-working low-paid staff. It will ensure collective agreements are further undermined and workers denied a genuine choice to join a union.

“Allowing bosses to partially reduce pay where employees are taking action such as overtime bans or a work-to-rule during negotiations also weakens the ability of Kiwi workers trying to improve wages and conditions.

“These changes will make it harder for thousands of Kiwis to get a fair deal at work and they will destroy years of working towards improving workplace relationships,’ Darien Fenton said.

“With this kind of industrial law in place John Key will have successfully steered the country backwards, with low wages and long hours becoming our point of competitiveness.”

Workers and small business in the upper North Island taking the brunt of the fallout from the Maui gas leak must be kept well-informed, says Labour’s spokesperson for Labour Issues Darien Fenton.

“It’s been a rough ride for many businesses this year, and setbacks like this so close to the holiday season are a kick in the teeth for everyone involved,” Darien Fenton said.

“What this incident highlights is the importance of risk assessment and management. No one is disputing that accidents happen, but for smaller less insulated companies and their staff, a week off work can send the books quickly into the red.

“While Vector CEO Simon McKenzie is managing the crisis well, I am concerned to hear that some workers are being asked to take annual leave to mitigate losses.

“Larger companies have the resources, including insurance cover, to see their staff through difficult periods without resorting to forced annual leave. I encourage those employers to stand up and support their often low-paid workers already struggling to make ends meet.

“Smaller companies are getting through with a good dose of Kiwi ingenuity, the support of loyal clientele and their staff. But if the issue is not resolved soon any questions over liability need to be addressed in good faith.

“The incident demonstrates the folly of National’s law change allowing workers to cash up their fourth week’s annual leave. A holiday in tough times is sacrosanct. Kiwis are hard-working and proud, and don’t deserve to be short-changed before the holiday season.

“Conditions are difficult and the repair effort needs to be balanced with managing even further risk. The scale of losses will be defined depending on the duration of the outage, but in the meantime the Government must ensure it is present in the process, and workers must not carry the burden of losses,” Darien Fenton said.