Jeff Sissons: Institute of Safety Management CEO voices concerns with WorkSafe changes

Safety experts are sceptical about a new Government directive for WorkSafe. 

The health and safety regulator has been instructed to shift focus from enforcement, to offering advice. 

Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden says it is currently feared for its punitive actions - and not appreciated for guidelines. 

But the Institute of Safety Management's Jeff Sissons says that characterisation from the Minister is not what he hears about the agency.

"Most employers haven't seen or heard much of WorkSafe. I take the Minister at her word, she's heard from some employers - but that's certainly not something I've come across."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Afternoon. The government has today announced a drastic overhaul of
work Safe. Instead of enforcing workplace safety, it will now
offer advice to workplaces on how they can be safer.
There's also that new road cone tip line. Jeff Sissons
is the CEO of the New Zealand Institute for Safety Management.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hey Jeff, Hey Heather, how are you well?

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Thank you? Do you like it?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
We're we're skeptical. There's a lot of stuff on the
face of this announcement that sounds good, like focusing on
the things that matter, do better guidance, inspect. This should
be clear and more helpful. So far, so good, But
we think that these reforms are really wishful thinking because
work Safe has been cut over the last couple of years,

(00:43):
and now the minister wants the skeleton to dance because
there's no more money in the budget here.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Well would they, wouldn't they simply? I just assumed that
they would redirect the resources they had been using for
enforcement into offering advice, wouldn't they.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
They're still they still have to enforce things worth remembering
that this is criminal law. Often somebody has died here
and we wouldn't say to the police we want you
to just provide more advice and stop stop enforcing the
criminal law. And work Safe's already lost twenty percent of
their staff, so we think the cupboard is really bear here.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Okay, do you agree with the minister that employers are
afraid of work safe prosecutions?

Speaker 2 (01:25):
It's not something that I've heard very often. To be
honest with you, really, most employers haven't seen or heard
much of work Safe. So I take the winner's threat
of words she's heard from some employers, but it's certainly
not something that else.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Is that not? I mean, let's use the road cone example,
which is the example that's being used today by everybody.
Is that not? Does that not the idea that perhaps
the traffic management companies or the roading authorities are afraid
of prosecution? Does that not go some way to explaining
the abundance of road cones and how overly cautious they are.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
It's important to remember that work Safe is not responsible
for the road cones. That sends ZTA. They had some
really fiendishly complicated, dodgy guidance.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Will they not interpret it interpreting what work safe was doing?

Speaker 2 (02:14):
No?

Speaker 1 (02:14):
No, it looks completely related, is it?

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah? And now work Safe is carrying the can for
that by way of this hotline, and work Safe inspectors
can't tell people to have less road cones or do
less it's really just distracting work Safe from the job
that they should have of keeping people safer. It's worth
remembering here that New Zealand. You're sixty percent more likely

(02:37):
to die in New Zealand than in Australia and six
hundred percent more likely than in the UK.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Interesting. Hey, thank you very much, Jeff. That was really interesting.
That's Jeff Sison's chief executive officer of the New Zealand
Institute of Safety Management.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
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