DoL’s plan for the year

The Department of Labour will in the next year focus on reducing seasonal fatality spikes in summer and autumn, workplace carbon monoxide poisoning incidents, and safety issues within the adventure tourism sector.

The department’s Workplace Services business plan for 2009/10 (year ending June 30) says initiatives will be developed at national level to address these three areas of concern, while regional offices will select projects from a list of themes, business types, industry sectors, exposures, and alignments with ACC priorities.

Themes listed include older and/or vulnerable workers, Maori and Pacific, workplace violence, and use of vehicles for work purposes.

Business types include nail bars, entertainment (noise), spray painting, abrasive blasting, SMEs, and LPG refilling sites.

Particular industries identified include cleaning, healthcare/caregivers, veterinarians, hairdressing, and the boatbuilder/fibreglass industry.

Workers exposed to noise, manual handling, oxidisers, solvents, wood dust, and welding will also be a focus.

The department’s recent focus on becoming a “modern regulator” is reflected in an internal focus on developing a service strategy for its HSNO work and integrating it into its wider OHS work. A similar strategy will be developed for occupational health, as well as an overarching strategy to integrate delivery of all the department’s OHS services.

A further internal focus will be to improve the department’s practice by developing guidance to support the new enforcement policy released earlier this year, as well as improving decision auditing processes.

The recent formal link between the DoL and NZISM is reflected in the plan’s intention to build a capability programme for health and safety inspectors, including supporting inspectors’ membership of professional associations.

The plan also lists anticipated outputs in terms of visits, incident investigation and enforcement activities. In the 2009/10 year, the DoL expects to visit 3500 workplaces to provide OHS information, to complete 5500 workplace assessments, and to complete 6000 investigations of OHS incidents/complaints.

Anticipated outputs related to hazardous substances are listed separately, and include 1000 workplace information visits, 4000 workplace assessments, and 150 investigations.

This story appeared in Safeguard Update newsletter of 21 September.

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