WorkSafe’s announcement that it is planning even further restructuring and cuts just months after losing 15% of its staff has alarmed the NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi.
“Our health and safety regulator is a critical component of our health and safety system, and we know it already has an undercooked capacity to deliver on its role,” said NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff.
“Taking more people out to save money to pay for tax cuts is short-term thinking that will have long term consequences for the health and safety of New Zealand workers.
“WorkSafe is now set up to fail. They have stripped down the organisation to its bare bones, throwing whatever they can to the so called ‘front line’ inspectorate, knowing full well that without a well-resourced support function, the inspectorate will be less effective.
“Everyone in New Zealand has the right to expect a safe workplace and to be able to come home safely to their family at the end of the day. Sadly, these cuts will mean more workers will be at-risk.
“This announcement is all smoke and mirrors. The fact remains that WorkSafe, remains well short of the numbers of inspectors the agency once had when it was created in 2013. At that time, we had 8.4 inspectors per 100 thousand workers (similar to Australia) and now it has been run down to 6.3 – a level we last saw when the Pike River disaster occurred.
“Compounding this problem is the lack of support, and the expectation in this latest proposal for inspectors to pick up more administrative and other functions on top of their day job. This makes a mockery of the claims to move resources to the front line.
“These proposals signal a further shift away from protecting workers from risks to their health and safety and towards a focus to responding to harm. WorkSafe has had to shrink away from its proper role to fit the budget.
“Our health and safety system relies on an effective regulator. This latest announcement demonstrates yet again that health and safety is just not a priority for the Government,” said Wagstaff.
