It is unfortunate that important debate on workplace safety has been undermined by intemperate media comment, says BusinessNZ.

Chief Executive Phil O’Reilly says claims about ACC safety training have been regrettable and BusinessNZ has so far refrained from commenting on them because it has not been possible to have constructive dialogue in the context of overblown media comment.

“Key issues are that New Zealand’s health and safety has just been changed and more stringent focus is needed on the goals of improving workplace safety. The ACC and the Government are central to this goal, and BusinessNZ and the CTU as the largest representatives of people in the workplace also have a critical role to play. Tripartite cooperation has been critical in the development of the new health and safety regime and it is regrettable that this may have been undermined.

“For the record, BusinessNZ utterly rejects mistaken allegations made by lobbyist Jordan Williams since repeated by the ACC Minister.

“The BusinessNZ family’s involvement has been completely ethical at all times, and I am confident that this is also the case with the involvement of the CTU and Impac Services.”

The goals and outcomes of the ACC courses appear to have been misunderstood, Mr O’Reilly said.

The training part-funded by ACC is being run according to the brief set by ACC and is achieving the outcomes it was set up for.

The objectives include ensuring that health and safety reps are able to reduce and remove workplace hazards, co-develop safety plans for their workplace, promote safety management among their co-workers, and train others to do the same.

“The course objectives are clearly specified and are being successfully delivered according to specifications.

“Contrary to claims by Mr Williams, the training objective is not set in terms of reducing the number of workplace accidents in New Zealand.

“While this is obviously everyone’s overall goal – and the ACC training courses are no doubt helping to achieve the present overall reduction in workplace accidents – it would be ridiculous to expect a national goal to be achieved solely by two-day training courses for safety reps.”

Media reporting of uninformed assumptions by Mr Williams appear to have led to the Minister’s comments, Mr O’Reilly said, and he had since received assurances from the Minister that she had not meant to impugn the integrity of the BusinessNZ family.

Mr O’Reilly said he hoped the discussion would now move on to the important goal of improving safety in the workplace.

“The BusinessNZ family – BusinessNZ, EMA, Business Central, Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce, and the Otago Southland Employers Association – is heavily engaged in improving health and safety practice in New Zealand workplaces.

“The ACC-funded courses are a small part of this work. The BusinessNZ family invests significant resources in health and safety training and promotion and is almost certainly the biggest self-funded provider of health and safety guidance in New Zealand.

“With the changes to health and safety legislation being implemented now, it is important that companies, employees, safety reps and the general public all focus hard on the actions needed to get safer workplaces. Hopefully the intemperate media debate in the last two days will not distract attention from that goal.”

Contact Kathryn Asare 021 555 744

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