Articles

Listening to Employees’ Health and Safety Ideas

We often hear "Why say anything or make suggestions for improvements to health and safety?  Nobody listens!" when discussing health and safety ideas and improvements with employees of businesses. If you are a health and safety auditor, this is a red flag statement, and it’s the catalyst to start to dig...

Are Changes to Health and Safety Legislation Necessary?

Sometimes specific events in life create memories in which you never forget where you were and what you were doing at the time. On the 19th of November 2010, the day that 29 miners died in the tragic Pike River Mine explosion, I was at home having a coffee with my...

Setting Health and Safety Goals

Those who work in/for businesses that have ISO 9001, 1400, or 45001 health and safety systems in place, will be aware of the requirement to have documented and measurable business goals/objectives in place to meet the relevant standards. Those businesses that went down the ACC Workplace Safety management practices route will...

Walkway Markings and Safety Barriers

Are they necessary? Recently, there have been several prosecutions relating to forklift fatalities and serious injuries, resulting from workers being struck by forklifts or being in the wrong place. A common fault that I have often seen over the years is that safe walking lanes are either disregarded, they have faded, they...

Learning from Inspections and Audits

Inspections and audits are an important way to make sure that everything in your business is working as it should be, as safely as it should be. Scheduled Business and Property Inspections Often, it’s the small and simple things that can go wrong. How often does your business undertake an inspection of its...

Hazard Controls

Previously, we have written about the health and safety terms of the methods of “risk assessment” and the definition of “all reasonably practicable steps”. The following is an opinion of how these can be applied when managing hazards and risks in your business. Case Scenario You have had a serious notifiable accident in...

Can AI Be Used To Complete Tōtika?

Before we get into the content of this article, let's revisit the definition of what an audit is. Auditing is defined as the on-site verification activity, such as inspection or examination, of a process quality (ISO 9001), health and safety system (ISO 45001), or any other compliance requirement, to ensure that...

90 Day Trials for Employees

"If he smells like a mechanic, he will be employed." These were the desperate words of one garage owner, in a situation that unfortunately turned pear shape and became very costly for the owner when it went to the Employment Court. Why? Because like so many other small to medium sized enterprise...

Who has to supply PPE?

With summer just around the corner and winter to follow, a question that is often asked is "Who is responsible for the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) to employees and others in the workplace?" Here are several processes that should be considered when managing a company’s PPE, its distribution, use,...

Health and Safety for Contractors Onsite

What health and safety documentation do I need on site? We often get asked these questions: Do I (or my employees) have to have all my health and safety systems with me, when onsite? Do I have to have the machine-specific safe work method statements/safe operating procedures (SOPs) attached to all...