Vanessa, I've been often underwhelmed when auditing or training on workplace health and safety cultures and there are often so little thought in place for any form of employee impairment / disability. Even heard from directly from employees where they have been forgotten during an emergency drill or were unable to access the disabled toilet during a 6 hour lockdown. It prompted me to read a bit more on the subject and I came upon a great document that the Office of the Ombudsman put out in February 2023. It's well worth a read - https://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/resources/removing-barriers-reasonable-accommodation-disabled-people-aotearoa . Good on you for the inclusivity at your place of work. I've started to include it as an question when auditing workplaces and 90% of the time there is nothing in place - so started to include commentary on it in the culture component and I give often sensible and simple recommendations on how they can improve the workplace for their impaired or disabled employees. NZ has still a lot of work to do in this space.
good on you for helping make a difference to this persons life. He has probably been beaten by systems for a while. This needs to be risk based. Ie: what are the risks if he is behind the tractor? I would break down each part of his expected duties - identify any risks and put controls in place. This takes some time but will be worth it. Making sure that people around them know and there are some really cool tools now with geotec. All the best with this one
Vanessa, my prior passion was working with people with an impairment or disability as an occupational therapist. So, I'm very pleased to read about you giving this chap a go as too many employers would put him in the hard basket. Apart from some written resources Workbridge were of absolutely no use to us for several hearing-impaired staff; however MBIE came to the party!!!
Great you will have an interpreter for induction process but an on the job a work buddy could be a strategy to consider also. You may find with your standard operating controls in place while workers are picking alongside the trailer that little extra provision is needed. Joseph and Darren are aligned with my thinking and as stated above "Having played sport with hearing impaired people I found they were easy to integrate and once people understood what was needed it was easy to manage.
Not knowing what language the person speaks and if there are meetings or updates, toolbox talks pre-shift etc you may find a couple of apps handy. Our staff have them loaded on their cell phones that are then placed close to whoever is speaking and it live transcribes. Androids - Play Store = 'Live Transcribe' and IPhones ...........may have a similar app?
As the chap only has a hearing impairment, you may consider asking him what is the best way for other people to talk to him. Intermediaries don't always work. Some tips when communicating with hearing impaired = No shouting, avoid background noise, rephrase if not understood the first time, using facial expressions and gestures, speaking slowly and clearly (not using Kiwi slang) and making sure your face is seen help the message receiver.
PS - some of our best workers are those with a disability or impairment; so pleased to have a job they are reliable, never take sick leave and contribute well within their work teams.
I appreciate your input. I've explored Workbridge, and I must say, there's an abundance of valuable resources available there!
When it comes to addressing discrimination, I'm thoroughly familiar with the Human Rights Act, especially given my role in Human Resources. Our team is wonderfully diverse, and I'm committed to equipping all employees with the resources they need to thrive and stay safe. In sharing my thoughts here, I've aimed to provide a clear perspective in order to receive constructive feedback.
I don't believe you are alone here,Vanessa. Reaching out to Workbridge could be a constructive step in finding valuable information about the current situation. Based on our experience with them, they were able to provide useful insights. It's worth considering reaching out to them for their expertise. Vanessa, I, too, would you get some helpful information from Workbridge, from whom we have resources and information in the past about a similar situation. You are not alone with this one.
A few years ago in the Wellington branch of NZISM we had a guest speaker who showed a device attached to a vehicle (eg, FLT) that could detect a pedestrian wearing a reflective strip and sound an alarm so the driver could stop. Somewhere, I have the brochure and had the website address .... (my filing system has failed me!).
The technology was practicable (it exists) and the cost was minimal (reasonable) so it would meet the requirements of the Act.
The 'legal' test is how you can "reasonably accommodate" a person. While health and safety can over-ride this, I think Joseph and Darren have given good advice on how this could be practicably met.
People with hearing impairments often have much better other senses to compensate. We see this with drivers - they are much better with their peripheral vision.
If everyone on the team is aware of the person's hearing impairment, plus you have good safety practices such as flashing beacons, etc, then the risk would appear to be minimal.
As there is a range of level of hearing impairment exactly how you would manage the risks associated with the work will depend on the worker. Making sure there are clear visual warnings (flashing lights, high vis etc) will be more important as will be establishing an agreed form of communication between workers to enable them to communicate instructions effectively.
Having played sport with hearing impaired people I found they were easy to integrate and once people understood what was needed it was easy to manage. The last part of the sentence is key as you will need to train and assist your other workers to help them understand what is required to help the new employee.
Finally, as an aside as discrimination for disability is a prohibited ground of discrimination under the Human Rights Act that may be where Keith is coming from.
Your insights underscore the importance of embracing diversity and inclusivity, values that both the company and I strongly endorse. I'm puzzled as to why my post may have been interpreted differently by you. My intention, which I want to stress, is to promote a safe and inclusive workplace environment through meticulous planning, ensuring the well-being of all individuals. I respectfully disagree with the characterization of the post as having "extremely negative connotations." Furthermore, as someone who has been in New Zealand for several decades, I'm uncertain how to interpret your use of "here in NZ." Mentioning organizations like Paralympics NZ and Whaikaha reflects a proactive approach to gathering information and support. Thank you for sharing your insights.
Hi team, we have recently had an individual apply for a position on our harvesting team that has a hearing-impairment. We employ individuals with working holiday visas. We obviously would like to give this person a chance but I'm unsure how to keep the individual safe from harm. The tasks are walking behind a tractor, cutting vegetables and placing them into a bin. What should I implement? I would get a sign language interpreter for the induction. Thanks for all input.
I used to work as a project engineer before I got into H&S. It was a while ago but we also used to write project standards, part of which included referencing the required legislative standards and added 'and any other relevant national or regional standards'. It is great that you are thinking of setting company standards over and above the relevant legislative standards. Your mechanical notes do seem to reflect some of the ASNZS 4024 1801 standard though. FYI the ASNZS 4024 1204 is the elctrical equivalent. We did specify electrical cabinet rating depending on the environment, for example, IP65 for dusty environments however, I think that may now be covered in more recent standards but am not sure. I am also 99% sure there are standards around sheathing of wiring as well. Another thing we used to specify was labelling of all wiring and breakers etc in electrical cabinets. Fault finding in complex machinery where the wiring isn't labeled is definately not fun speaking from experience, and is extremely time consuming.
My suggestion would be to look what the different applicable standards are over and above the legislated standards so that you are not doubling up and note them in your company standards as well, as not all standards are incorporated into law i.e. if you don't specify them then the contractor/supplier does not need to comply with them. I would also specify that 'sign off by a registered engineer confirming compliance to the relevant standards and legislation is required' at various stages possibly depending on the size of the job. You may or may not want to follow the PS1 to PS4 process with smaller jobs.
I don't know if that was helpful or not, you probably already have a lot of this in your projects standards anyway but thought I would mention.
It also sounds like some contractors may need to be held to account more for their works and I don't see any reason why the local contractors on the smaller jobs shouldn't be held to the same project standards. I know it is always a battle with the smaller contractors who are not used to working with project standards but as you have noted, safety suffers if they don't meet the standards you require.
For every project, the project engineer specifies the standards to be met, however, we commonly require the project engineer to state these specifics to meet the company standards. On projects where these have not been stated, such as small jobs or sites that engaged a local contractor, clauses are often missed as the contractor decides they are not needed because they normally don't do it.
For the mechanical points, we want to set the minimum standard for our company, regardless of what the risk assessment states. They are all above what is required by the standards, which we specify must be met in the contract too. They are also relevant to incidents and near-misses that we recognized could have been prevented by implementing these controls.
For the electrical, again, they are all above what is required by the standards. They are more workmanship-related than standards-related.
For the safety electrical, the specific standards are stated in the contract, however, we have had instances where they have completed the work, provided the wiring diagram, and sent through the safety documentation about a week later, which doesn't meet the required Performance Level and Safety Cat Rating. We are trying to get that sorted before they start so we can reduce the machines being down for multiple fixes.
The EHS team have their change management documents that cover off the completion side, this is to tackle the common engineering faults and issues before they occur.
Reading the lists, these all look like items a project engineer should be responsible for specifying during their process of engaging the contractors such as completing an FMEA, doing validation and having independent inspector sign off.
IMO cherry picking requirements from published standards is a risky move, and the project engineer should be quoting compliance with the applicable standard(s) for the job the contractor is being asked to complete. Sure, you can write an in-house document for the engineering team, listing company preferred brands of component or types of fixings if that helps standardise the process for the engineering team.
For H&S purposes I would be looking at the overall process, if you want to document it.
Have your engineers quoted published standards the job must be completed against?.
Do the contractors have an H&S policy and (where applicable) use licenced staff (eg electrician licence)
Is there an engineering, operational and H&S review before the job starts, during stages of the job and with each contractor?
On completion are there engineering, operational and H&S reviews and signoffs (eg FMEA, validation, drawings update, inspections - electrical / HSNO have been done, staff work instructions and training completed, H&S risk register updated...things like that