Thank you so much everyone for your responses, I really appreciate it. To add some context I provide Health, Safety and Wellbeing guidance/advice/support to six Workforce Development Councils in addition to my own organisation which provides services to the six Workforce Development Councils in the Finance/HR/IT plus several other services unique to the Workforce Development Councils. For those that don't know much about the services that the Workforce Development Councils provides, you can find more information here https://ohuahumahi.nz/ . One of the functions is to assess (on request) training provider's delivery of vocational education across all Aotearoa New Zealand to ascertain that they're meeting the required standard of training. Hope this helps. Have a super Friday and a great weekend everyone.

Hi,

I'm a trained First Move trainer (Provention) and cannot recommend this training highly enough. Alison is great to work with.

Kind regards,
Sherralynne

Thanks for your message.

I haven't talked to the NZ Occupational Health Nurses Association and do wonder where they get their training from.


Kind regards,
Sherralynne

Thanks for your assistance.


Kind regards,
Sherralynne

Thanks Steve,

That course looks really interesting and I'll share the link with my manager.

Thanks for your assistance.


Kind regards,
Sherralynne

Thanks Alex,

I am aware that my predecessor attended a four day Hearing Screener training course in the South Island, but that no longer exists sadly.

Thanks so much for your assistance, I do appreciate it.

Kind regards,
Sherralynne

Hi Steve,

Thanks for your helpful links and comments.

My manager and I have looked at the TAFE course in Australia and it looks particularly good.

It is a pity that NZ doesn't have these kinds of training opportunities any longer. An MA in Audiology would be awesome! I wonder what the pre-requisites are for that course?


Kind regards,
Sherralynne

Hi Alex,

Thanks so much for you reply.

I am interested in hearing what your Mum's answer to this question is. My manager and I have looked at training courses available in Australia, as Steve H has kindly provided details for. The training courses available in Australia do require some clinical experience/placements and if I went down that track I would have to find a supervisor to oversee that. Am I correct in thinking that your Mum could potentially oversee that?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,
Sherralynne

Perhaps Covid19 tests can be mandated by an employer under Section 45? Interested to hear others thoughts on this.

An ICAM course would be a great step. A qualification like this is very well regarded

I have found that personalising the approach taken to H&S works pretty well. Tell your colleagues that the reason why there is a health and safety system in place is so that they can go home to their family/friends at the end of their workday.

Good luck.

I wish I could attend this question and answer session with Rebecca. Rebecca's book is superb and it opened my eyes to the major shortcomings of Health and Safety in NZ, which sadly continue to plague us. We need to improve our performance and cease putting Health and Safety in the too hard basket.

Thanks for writing your book Rebecca.

The Meercat concept is cute, and I agree it is a good conversation starter.

It brought back memories of the Telecom NZ adverts from the 1990s when they used Meercats and other animals to promote themselves.

Hi Robyn,

Thanks for sharing this interesting story.

When I was conducting site audits, I too would email the scope of the audit, listing out what I needed to see and who I was wanting to engage with, with an estimate of time. My audits invariably went over time, because I would always have unexpected questions or a manager would want to want to take me to another site. I was always keen to add as much value to my visit and would give preliminary verbal findings before I typed up my final assessment. I always highlighted my concerns verbally before leaving a site, so there were no surprises when the written report was sent out.

Is WorkSafe going to out their findings in writing for you?

Well done though for getting positive feedback and keep up the great work.

Hi Lynn,

I am interested in your response to the question of whether Health and Safety representatives should be compensated for the work that they carry out in their work place.

Do you have other duties to carry out too? Do you have elections to appoint new health and safety representatives? I was an elected health and safety representative in a medical laboratory company and we were required to be in our position for a period of two years. Some of my fellow health and safety representatives had remained in their role as their team's health and safety representative for much longer than two years, partly because people were not interested in stepping up to the task of being a health and safety representative. Our health and safety representative duties were additional to our position, however we were required to attend a specified number of meetings and training sessions during the year. We didn't have Senior Health and Safety representatives, everyone, barring the Health and Safety Manager and Health and Safety Administrator was on the same level and nobody had any extra duties put on to them.

We weren't compensated either, but we were in a privileged position to represent our colleagues and had the support of senior managers who really listened to our concerns and recommendations.

When I worked in healthcare as a H&S Rep, we had a quarterly award where the various teams submitted a health and safety initiative to the health and safety committee. The initiative was voted on and the winners were awarded with a company trophy, morning tea shout and a feature article in the staff newsletter. At the last health and safety committee meeting each year, afternoon tea was always provided.

I have worked in Health and Safety since 2015, after making a career change. I got bitten by tye Health and Safety bug when I was working in the medical laboratory industry and was elected by my team as their Health and Safety Rep. I got a part time health and safety admin role with a large charity and really grew in this role for nearly 3 years, undertaking site visits around the country, which allowed me to build many great relationships which I still value today. Working part time allowed me to study for a Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety and I graduated 12 months ago. My husband and I moved to another region when I got a new full time Health and Safety Advisor role, which I walked away from after 5 months for several reasons. I have since applied for over 60 roles around New Zealand and have been rejected because I don't have experience in forestry, agriculture, horticulture, construction or manufacturing. I have offered to work pro bono in an attempt to gain experience, but sadly haven't had any success there either. I have been fortunate to have picked up a contract position back with my original employer who gave me my break into health and safeth, which has given me a much needed confidence boost and exposure to more indepth health and safety matters, which I have enjoyed and has allowed me to grow again. My goal is to find a permanent role with more hours so that I can use my skills and knowledge to help others.

You have me laughing Andrew. Great response to somebody who believes that they can demand such things! Thanks for brightening my day!

A homeless person sleeping in a rubbish skip was tipped into a rubbish truck. The person driving the truck noticed movement seconds before the crusher was activated, which could have resulted in a fatality or serious injury.

Hi Jared. Thanks for your response. I agree with you entirely. Are you studying at SIT?