• The evolving work environment in New Zealand: Report to the Minister of Labour
• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Identifying New and Emerging OHS Risks
• The Evolving Work Environment
• Implications for Surveillance, Policy and Research
• Lessons and Conclusions
• Recommendations
• References

Foreword

A healthy, productive workforce is vital to New Zealand’s future. Along with other western industrialised nations, we are facing unprecedented changes in who works, where and how they work, when they work, and the nature of hazards to which they are exposed while at work. Increasingly, it is being recognised that traditional approaches to managing occupational health and safety are not well adapted to meet the new challenges in this rapidly evolving work environment. “Business as usual” in occupational health and safety will not serve New Zealand well into the future, and as previous NOHSAC reports have documented, it has not necessarily delivered particularly well in the past.

The 10th technical report commissioned by NOHSAC, The evolving work environment in New Zealand – implications for occupational health and safety¹ seeks to bring together an overview of these challenges. It has the usual limitations regarding lack of robust information for New Zealand in some areas, and the need to extrapolate from similar countries and economies. Compared to previous NOHSAC reports, it has the additional limitation that as yet there are no clearly successful international models to follow. However, the technical report identifies a number of steps that can be taken.

We cannot respond proactively or even reactively to risks that we do not have the capacity to monitor. Surveillance systems are needed that are adapted to capture the changing scale and nature of OSH risks as the work environment continues to evolve. Regulatory arrangements that were designed to work for a more homogeneous workforce engaged by clearly distinct, formal workplaces need to become more sensitive to the risks associated with an increasingly fragmented labour market.

Challenges posed by the evolving work environment are relevant to the work of a number of other government agencies in addition to the Department of Labour, including the Ministry of Health, Accident Compensation Corporation, Environmental Risk Management Authority, Civil Aviation Authority and Maritime New Zealand. Along with the challenges created by change come opportunities for innovation and leadership. We have choices to make that will influence economic and social conditions in New Zealand in the short, medium and long term.

ISSN 1177-2239
ISBN 978-0-478-33371-8

This document is available on NOHSAC’s website www.nohsac.govt.nz. It can be freely quoted, copied and circulated with appropriate acknowledgement. The suggested citation is: Gander P, Pearce N, Langley J, Wagstaffe M. The evolving work environment in New Zealand – implications for occupational health and safety. Report to the Minister of Labour: NOHSAC: Wellington, 2009.