Hi Kathy, we subscribe to Responsible Care and they have always been good.

Hi Tracy, PPE, particularly safety footwear can be considered as consumable items. As you say just write it off if someone leaves shortly after getting a new pair. The policy you mention regarding deducting an amount from final pay is not in keeping with H&S legislation.

Psychosocial risks are a risk to health & safety, so for me it needs to be covered by our health and safety legislation. That was the general consensus at Worksafe's Mentally Health Work conference in 2022 and is supported by the NZ Business Leaders Forum, and the Institute of Directors. I appreciate the current Minister wants to go 'back to basics', however the psychosocial risks remain in their various forms and our PCBU's have a duty to deal with it. It is such a shame that, again, we have to look to Australia & the UK to find robust specific legislation on the topic. There is plenty of support and proactive work taking place in NZ amongst both HR & H&S business functions to understand and improve when it comes to psychosocial risk management.

Hi Keith
The employer could refer the employee to an independent occupational health Dr for assessment, and determine whether they could do alternative duties. In my experience a GP will usually sign them off, but if they do come back then they need a new certificate restricting what thy can actually do.

I'm not sure where you are located but Working For Health (in New Plymouth) or another OCC Health expert might be able to provide more advice.

On the second matter it's your word against theirs, even on the referral to HR, unfortunately. How would you prove it?

Hi Tracy,
If you're already aware of excessive temperatures that affect the workplace why aren't risk mitigation measures being taken? What will the H&S Committee do if you get a high temperature alarm? Do you need justification to get air conditioning installed? I think you need to do a risk assessment base on what you already know and include the people who work in the offices in the assessment process.

Done. It's been almost 18 months since Worksafe's Mentally Health Work conference, and a continuous learning journey.

How do you manage your business documentation overall? Do you have a defined review process?
Rather than looking at the definition of SOP as Safety versus Standard, what are your Safety Critical documents? This would help define critical document reviews. One school of though is that a regularly use procedure is actually reviewed each time it is used, but the important thing is that the people who use the procedure are included in its development and review.
I can recall a particular chemical unloading procedure that was in Rev 14 within a year of issue, because everyone had an opinion and kept making what in fact were minor changes that didn't warrant an actual Revision changed. The issue was an engineer wrote the procedure without consulting the operators who actually did the work.

Hi Leanne
This is a video that Todd Conklin often refers to, and it meets the brief of simple and high impact. I've used it numerous times.
Alligator Attack of Kenny Cypress

Our staff asked for an allowance, several figures were mentioned, and after some research we agreed on $400. The uptake has been good, no red tape or hoops to jump through.
We also provide Health Insurance at no cost to staff or their families. I'm carrying out market research to see what other companies are doing for their people so we can discuss all the potential options.
Peter's comment regarding hiring extra staff is a good example on addressing a psychosocial risk of continuous over overworking.

Hi Peter, I wouldn't say it's stirring the pot at all. We are working through our psychosocial hazard and risk evaluation. It's a great learning opportunity for all of us, and has support across our company. Our people asked for the allowance, which our leadership team support. I found that including addressing psychosocial risk in the business case for extra staff certainly helped.

Hi Sarah

We work on initial risk score. Our current standard is
low - 3 yearly
Medium 2 yearly
High - annually
Significant - management review following assessment.

However I believe the context of your companies operations must be taken in to account when deciding the review frequency.

Thanks Ange, we're looking at a similar offering. We already have health insurance in place, but I was asked to look in to what value of allowance was being offered as we're considering $400 per year.

Hi Joe, yes I had to check with our Finance Team. FBT does apply but our leadership team is happy with that.

Hi Keith, no offence taken. It is a good question though.

It's my first time dealing with sales environments where a couple of drinks seems to be the norm over a business lunch.

This came up in conversation today, and I'm keen to find out what the risk management approach is for companies that are sales orientated? Are sales staff permitted to drink at a lunch meeting? Do you set a limit i.e. 2 standard drinks?

This was very sad & annoying to read. For me, it emphasizes the fact the Worksafe do not have a visible or active enough presence in industry. If there were more Inspectors out in the field I suspect there would be far more improvement notices or prosecutions. The sad fact is that there are an overwhelming amount of PCBU's that simply don't bother or care about H&S because the Regulator is not proactive in Enforcement.

In November 2007, a warehouse in Warwickshire UK collapsed during a fire killing 2 firefighters who were searching the building for 2 unaccounted for members of staff. It turned out that the 2 staff had gone off site and not signed out.

Not all businesses have emergency wardens, not all visitors are supervised. A sign in sheet keeps a record of who has entered and left the building, and can be used as a roll call register in the event of an evacuation. It doesn't matter if its a building or a construction site.

I'd suggest that Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016, Section 14 Duty to prepare, maintain, and implement emergency plan is the Regulation that would cover this, and the sign in sheet is part of the risk mitigation.

In other organisations I've worked, in NZ & overseas, the Contractor H&S Assessment was a procurement function and carried out as part of the contractor engagement internal process. Once the contract was in place the H&S performance was handed over to the contract manager. As H&S team we assisted with the performance audit & report. We didn't use Pre-Qual providers.

Work which increases the exposure to the virus (e.g. Covid testing labs, MIQ facilities) requires controls to manage the risk of infections of workers during work — MattD2

I agree with Matt, it's a risk based approach. The Border Order requires border workers to be vaccinated and undergo regular health testing (swabbing). Healthcare workers who are at risk of exposure such as MIQ or Community testing stations or Emergency Departments are required to be vaccinated and undergo regular health monitoring as part of their employers terms of employment & Health & Safety risk controls.

Replace virus / COVID-19 with a different Biological Hazardous Substance, what controls & health monitoring would be reasonable? And would there be such a clamour of debate?

Hi Ian

It sounds like an allergy to latex or other material in the surgical masks. Interesting to know why the instruction is to use a surgical mask rather than cloth? Surgical ones are nothing special just 2 layers of fabric. The medical 'duckbill' mask has a round the mouth & nose fit and requires a fit test (in healthcare ). At least cloth masks can be washed regularly unlike the disposable ones. The MoH guidance is when a mask becomes soiled or wet it should be replaced. There are latex free medical masks, but not sure how widely available they are, you'd need to find a medical PPE supplier - I think there's one in Wanganui.

Hope this helps