The Facts On Workplace Deaths

Friday 30 August

Last year the Occupational Safety and Health Service (OSH) investigated 73 workplace fatalities. The cause of death varied; they were strangled, burnt, shot, beaten, decapitated, electrocuted, drowned and crushed to death.

All of these victims had at least two things in common, they were at a place of work and now they are dead.

These 73 deaths were the cases OSH were notified of and investigated. This number is the worst we’ve ever recorded since the introduction of the Health and Safety in Employment (HSE) Act in 1993.

However, contrary to claims made in the National Business Review on August 2nd by Peter Tritt, OSH has not changed the basis upon which it reports workplace accident figures.

The fatality figures which OSH releases are determined by the deaths that are notified to, and investigated by the Service, and which come within the coverage of the HSE Act. They have been notified and reported on exactly the same basis for the last ten years.

The premise behind this legislation is pretty simple; workplaces should be safe for everyone - workers, visitors, and passers-by. The Act seeks to achieve this by requiring persons with duties to take reasonable steps to prevent harm to a range of people.

So, as well as imposing duties on employers in relation to their employees, the Act also imposes duties on self-employed people for their own safety. It places a duty on people in control of places of work in relation to the safety of members of the public in, or in the vicinity of, places of work.

Consequently, the reported figures for workplace fatalities investigated by OSH have always included self-employed people and members of the public, as well as employees; and have also included deaths arising from intentional harm in places of work.

The duties on employers and employees have not changed in 10 years. That the number of workplace fatalities notified to and investigated by OSH in the year ended 30 June 2002 is significantly higher than in previous years is not a result of "fiddling the figures".

There are, of course, more people working in high-hazard industries such as farming, forestry and construction, as well as in new types of service industries. This means people are exposed to different hazards to those traditionally seen in factories and offices.

So, just as we recognise falls from height as a workplace hazard, particularly in the construction industry, we must also recognise that workplace violence from criminal activity is a hazard faced by persons at work. The employer of a fast food delivery worker should be taking reasonable steps to protect its employees, just as employers in the banking sector and the public service must. The steps may well be different, but the principle is the same.

Sadly, the fact is that these 73 people were just some of the hundreds of New Zealanders who died in workplace accidents and as a result of workplace illness.

OSH does not investigate all workplace deaths. Those that occur in the aviation and maritime sector are investigated by other agencies. There are an estimated 400 work-related fatal illnesses every year, from things like occupational cancer.

This figure is supported by a recent study by Dave McLean(1) of the Wellington School of Medicine that estimated the number of deaths from occupational disease in New Zealand to be between 250-600 per year. The basis for this range was a widely agreed estimate that 4%(2) of cancer deaths are due to occupational exposures.

Consequently, the total number of workplace deaths reported by OSH does not represent the total toll for New Zealand. The true cost of work-related death is under- acknowledged by New Zealanders.

Research sponsored by OSH and Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), carried out by the Injury Prevention Research Unit of Otago University and published in 1999, identified 820 work-related deaths from 1985 to 1994. Of these, OSH recorded only 327. Many of these deaths fell outside OSH’s jurisdiction at the time (for instance, deaths arising from aviation and maritime accidents) but many others should have been notified.

More recently, a comparison of OSH records with data held by the Accident Insurance Regulator relating to compensation for work-related fatal accidents, has indicated a continuing shortfall in notifications to OSH.

Until now, no single agency has had overall responsibility for reporting on all workplace injuries and deaths. However, from 1 July 2002 Statistics New Zealand has been appointed by the Government as injury information manager who will collect, collate and publish comprehensive figures across all agencies that investigate workplace deaths. This will include all agencies concerned with workplace health and safety, such as ACC, OSH, the Land Transport Safety Authority, the Marine Safety Authority and the Civil Aviation Authority.

With this comprehensive data, we will begin to see the true cost of workplace death and injury to New Zealand, and all parties concerned will have the information to better target action to minimise risks and prevent work-related injuries and deaths.

Nobody should die in the workplace. The 73 deaths investigated by OSH last year are an appalling waste of life and a source of immense suffering to the victim’s families, friends and workmates, as well as an economic cost both to their employers and to the country as a whole.

We must stop debating numbers. We must start working together to solve the problem.