Hi Sarah,
My company offers a 1-day course by Zoom. Preventing and Managing Fatigue https://worksafereps.co.nz/health-and-safety-courses/preventing-and-managing-fatigue/ It has received very positive reviews but we do not offer it very often due to general lack of interest. The course does go in to stress as part of fatigue and looks at it from both a management and worker perspective. If you want to register your interest I can send you a course outline. Peter Scanlan, WorksafeReps

Good discussion topic. We have recently incorporated the Te Whare Tapa Wha model as part of our Creating Positive Workplaces (Preventing and Responding to Workplace Bullying and Harassment) course. The main reason for including it was to get a NZ perspective on health and wellbeing. Previously we had very Euro-centric definitions for health and wellbeing (World Health Organisation, UK Universities etc.). The Te Whare model is a much more holistic and relevant model for NZ (Pakeha and Māori). It also shows some commitment (albeit quite modest) to Te Tiriti. I do not see it as overly spiritual as this is only one out of five aspects to health and wellbeing in the model. Whenua, mental health, whanau and physical health also being equally important. I would personally welcome a deeper engagement with Māori on this and we are slowly incorporating this as part of our training frameworks. Like Aaron, I have no particular spiritual outlook on life, but I can accept that some people will focus on this aspect and others will focus on mental health or physical health. The reason I think it is helpful is that it covers all aspects of health and wellbeing, and most people will identify with at least one of these, and some with all of them.

Hi Sandra, my reading of the regulations (Worker Engagement, Participation and Representation) clause 7 (2) "Duty in relation to determination of work groups and the number of HSRs if the work group does not comprise all workers in BU" if s64(3) of the Act applies (setting more than 1 work group for the BU...would be inappropriate to the nature of the PCBU), the PCBU must have regard to: (i) the pattern of work, FT, PT, casual or fixed term etc. It appears to me from your info., that this clause would apply which gives the PCBU some wiggle room regarding the 1:19 ratio. s64(4) states that if (3) applies then the PCBU must ensure that workers are grouped in a way that most effectively enables the H&S interests of the workers to be represented, and takes account of the need for HSRs to be accessible to the workers they represent. Main point is that the ratio is not set in stone if there are circumstances where a PCBU has more than 1 work group, as per clause 7. I hope this is helpful.

Hi Sandra, WorksafeReps has a 1-day workshop for Managers that we deliver by Zoom. Details here: https://worksafereps.co.nz/health-and-safety-courses/managers-and-supervisors/

Grant Dalton's attitude is funny. But if one of his crew died due to a H&S process going wrong, the laughing would stop real quick. Dalton does not need to attend the briefing, but I hope he does not take that attitude if one of his staff wants to raise a H&S matter with him...

Kia ora Ali, thanks for the survey and reaching out to HSRs. I took the survey and it was very quick and easy to complete. I would encourage other Reps to respond. Cheers Peter

Hi Michael, WorksafeReps can offer online training for Reps if that is helpful? Info here https://worksafereps.co.nz/health-and-safety-courses/initial-hsr-training-online/

Hi Linda, Kiwirail and the RMTU (Union) have done a lot of work on fatigue. Suggest you get in touch with Karen Fletcher at RMTU. WorksafeReps has just started a new course on managing and preventing fatigue (1 day course for shift workers and managers).

I was talking with the H&S Manager of a large construction company who informed me that they did not have H&S Reps (as no one asked to be one), and just used their H&S Committee for H&S matters. I would be interested to know if others do the same thing. My concern about this is if an issue was identified (that required a PIN for the organisation to take notice) would the Committee have the power/influence to get the organisation to rectify the H&S concern?

Hi Antony. The DHB will have H&S Committees and H&S Reps. This might be a good avenue for discussion of entrenched attitudes to H&S. If there are areas of concern these can be discussed,and minuted, so that they are recorded. There can then be recommendations made to senior management from the Committee. If management fail to act on these recommendations, and the Committee/Reps believe that this failure may lead to serious harm (which might be psycho-social harm) then the Committee/Rep could take the matter up with WorksafeNZ. However, a responsible PCBU will act on such matters before it comes to that...hopefully. It may be that the DHB managers are not aware of their responsibilities under the HSWA 2015. If that is the case, then they probably need to seek out an appropriate training course, or do some research, to get up to speed.

Kia ora tatou
I am Peter Scanlan, National Director, WorksafeReps. We offer workplace health and safety training around the Country. I joined the organisation a month ago, and signed up to this forum yesterday. Pleased to be a part of this forum and the industry. In addition to workplace safety I am also very interested in the psycho-social areas of health and well-being, particularly poor management that may lead to workplace bullying, stress, overwork and worker fatigue.

Were they using the term "human error" as a polite way of saying the person was incompetent? I note the report goes on to give at least a half dozen additional factors as well as human error. Can even great safety systems, and controls prevent an incompetent person from doing a stupid thing? They don't really get to this point, and it is perhaps the most relevant reason for the injury. Was the person adequately trained in using a lathe (it says lack of instruction)? It mentions fatigue which is a very real factor for a factory worker; the energy drinks were probably to keep the worker awake. I agree with the writer, human error is not an adequate reason, and I think if someone does something stupid to cause an accident, then reports need to be clear about it, to avoid doubt.