High workplace injury rate forces safety target reset

The Government will recalculate its 2020 goals for improvement in workplace safety after it emerged that injuries at work were being undercounted.

New Zealand has a poor record of workplace safety, and the Pike River mine disaster led the Government to target a rapid reduction in the number of men and women hurt or killed at work.

Its aim is to reduce serious injuries from 2012 levels by 25 per cent by 2020. But on Thursday, Statistics New Zealand released grim figures showing a rise in the number of work-related claims to ACC in 2014.

The rise in claims to 226,100, including 28,100 for more serious injuries, was in part due to the inclusion for the first time of ACC claims handled by ‘‘accredited employers’’, which are those allowed to handle ACC claims themselves.

New Zealand Safety Council chief executive Andy Loader said the increase caused by collecting more accurate statistics would make it harder for the Government to attain reduction targets.

But Workplace Safety Minister Michael Woodhouse said the ‘‘baseline’’ against which progress is measured would be recalculated.

‘‘The Government remains committed to achieving its goal of at least a 25 per cent reduction in serious injuries and fatalities in the workplace by 2020,’’ he said.

He added: ‘‘The change in reporting by Statistics NZ means that the figures have been adjusted to include a fuller range of data, and the baseline will be reset using this updated data so that we are comparing like with like.’’

Woodhouse said the new data would bring more certainty about what effects the changes to health and safety laws would have on the numbers and progress.

He said: ‘‘This will become more clear when we reach the midpoint of our target in 2016.’’

The rise in claims masks a more encouraging trend, however.

Legislation alone is not enough. We also need an attitude change. Michael Woodhouse Workplace Safety Minister

The overall rate of injury claims was 111 claims for every 1000 fulltime equivalent employees in 2014, and that has been improving every year since 2002, though the rate of improvement has now slowed.

‘‘The Statistics New Zealand data . . . confirms that the longterm trends are heading in the right direction,’’ Woodhouse said.

‘‘Any death in a workplace is one too many, so it’s important we improve our record.

‘‘But legislation alone is not enough. We also need an attitude change towards health and safety in the workplace.’’

Men, especially self-employed men, are the most likely to suffer a workplace injury, the Statistics New Zealand data shows. Younger workers and the oldest are also over-represented in the figures.