Take workplace illness seriously

New Zealand’s largest union is calling on the Government, ACC and the Department of Labour to get serious over workplace deaths and illnesses in the wake of a critical report.

The Surveillance of Occupational Disease and Injury , released yesterday, says that it is unacceptable that agencies are unable to accurately measure how many New Zealanders are dying or being injured at work, or the main causes of accidents and deaths, and therefore have no effective strategies to reduce the death and injury rate.

Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union national secretary Andrew Little said that the report, by the National Occupational Health and Safety Advisory Committee (NOHSAC), was a wake-up call to those in charge.

"We’ve known this for a long time, but now there’s no excuse for the people who are supposed to be protecting workers at work not to know too," he said.

"Every day we deal with people whose lives have been affected by workplace accidents, illnesses or deaths, and far too often the fact that these conditions were caused by working conditions is not officially acknowledged, let alone compensated for."

Mr Little said that situation was particularly bad for people suffering conditions which developed through gradual exposure, or took a long time to manifest, such as asbestosis and the effects of working with PCPs.

"Recently, we’ve helped a member who developed skin cancer while working on the ramp at Air New Zealand," he said.

"His condition was diagnosed in 1990, but has only just been accepted by ACC as a workplace injury. That time delay is totally unacceptable."

Mr Little said that diagnostic criteria to determine whether conditions were work-related or not had to be realistic.

"We’ve got to remember that the real goal is prevention of injury, and effective treatment and compensation when injuries occur," he said.

"In many cases ACC and the Department Labour want proof well beyond the reasonable doubt test, and it’s often just too high a hurdle."

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For further information contact Andrew Little on 0275 513476 or Adelia Hallett on 021 910037.