• NOHSAC Technical Report 7
• Authors and Acknowledgements
• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• Executive Summary
• Summary of Issues
• 1   Introduction
• 2   Background
• 3   Occupational Health and Safety System
  • Occupational Health and Safety System
  • 3.1   Principles underpinning New Zealand’s occupational health and safety system
  • 3.2   International obligations
  • 3.3   Legislative framework
  • 3.4   National occupational health and safety budget
  • 3.5   The compliance and enforcement system
  • 3.6   The rehabilitation and compensation system
  • 3.7   The education and information framework
  • 3.8   Mechanisms to provide expert advice on occupational health and safety
  • 3.9   Collaboration and leadership
  • 3.10   The health and safety workforce
• 4   National Policy Framework
• 5   National Programmes
• Appendices
• References

3.9   Collaboration and leadership

International collaboration | Political leadership and collaboration | Collaboration across government agencies | Industry-based collaboration | Stakeholders comments on collaboration and leadership | Comments and conclusions

Each aspect of the system outlined in sections 3.5, 3.6, 3.7 and 3.8 contributes to the achievement of the same outcome: prevention of and reduction in the harm and suffering caused by work-related injury or disease. Every organisation involved in the system, from employees to Ministers of the Crown, has an important role to play in contributing to this outcome.

Section 3.9 sets out the mechanisms that provide for collaboration in occupational health and safety across the compliance, rehabilitation and education frameworks. It describes mechanisms to provide horizontal collaboration: ministerial committees, inter-agency groups and cross-industry groups. It also describes mechanisms for vertical integration such as the role played by organisations like the CTU, Business New Zealand and industry fora. This section also identifies stakeholder comments about the overall performance of certain collaborative components.

3.9.1   International collaboration  

New Zealand is involved in a number of collaboration and co-ordination mechanisms at an international level. Delegates from the Department of Labour, the CTU and Business New Zealand represent New Zealand at International Labour Office conferences.

3.9.2   Political leadership and collaboration  

A number of Ministers of the Crown have responsibilities for providing political leadership across the occupational health and safety system, including the Minister for Labour and ACC. This Minister provides leadership in the development of strategic directions for injury prevention and oversees the implementation of activities to achieve strategic outcomes. A range of other Ministers who oversee portfolios that impact on injury prevention and community safety also perform a political leadership role (eg, the Minister of Health and the Minister of Economic Development).

The project team notes that the establishment of a tripartite committee to oversee the implementation of the Workplace Health and Safety Strategy [action 12(1) of the Strategy refers] would also provide a mechanism for providing formal collaboration and political leadership. The establishment of this group is discussed in section 4.2.

3.9.1.1   The Injury Prevention Ministerial Committee

The Injury Prevention Ministerial Committee comprises the Minister for ACC and 11 Ministers with responsibility for agencies and portfolios that impact on injury prevention and community safety. It oversees the progress and implementation of the New Zealand Injury Prevention Strategy (NZIPS) and the specific injury prevention strategies made under the NZIPS, including the Workplace Health and Safety Strategy. The committee also provides direction to ensure that the government policies impacting on injury prevention are consistent, and that collaboration and co-ordination is maximised across government agencies, and between agencies and communities.

3.9.2   Collaboration across government agencies  

Collaboration across government agencies occurs through formal mechanisms like:

• a Memorandum of Understanding (eg, between ACC and the Department of Labour in regard to collaboration between the compliance and enforcement system and the rehabilitation and compensation scheme)
• Memoranda of Understanding and operation agreements (eg, in relation to collaboration between the compliance and enforcement agencies as discussed in section 3.5)
• inter-agency committees like the Workplace Health and Safety Strategy Government Agency Group (discussed in section 4.2).

Informal mechanisms, such as regular communications between government officials and between officials and the government’s social partners, occur on a regular basis.

3.9.2.1   Collaboration between ACC and the Department of Labour

Since the HSE and IPRC Acts give education and information provision functions to both ACC and the Department of Labour, collaboration across workstreams is very important. Collaboration between ACC (as lead agency for rehabilitation and compensation) and the Department of Labour (as the lead agency for the compliance and enforcement system) is governed by a Memorandum of Understanding and a more detailed operational agreement. These documents set out the relationship between the parties, and cover the following issues:

• Implementing the Workplace Health and Safety Strategy
• Co-ordinating the application of health and safety legislation to avoid overlaps and gaps in coverage and to promote efficiency
• Providing a seamless, responsive and consistent service
• Sharing information about organisations and claims.

3.9.3   Industry-based collaboration  

Industry plays a critical role in identifying the health and safety issues most applicable to that sector. Industry and sector stakeholders are also key partners in identifying and developing initiatives to reduce and prevent work-related harm. This section briefly describes some of the key mechanisms that provide for industry engagement in improving work-related health and safety practices. It covers both industry engagement with government agencies and sector-focused mechanisms.

3.9.3.1   Industry and government collaboration

ACC operates a Safer Industries programme, which involves close collaboration with identified industries to address industry-specific workplace health and safety issues. Committees involved in this process can include representatives from employers, employees, self-employed persons, unions, training organisations, technical experts, government agencies and employer groups. This programme is discussed in further detail in section 5.1.5.

Other industry health and safety groups include the Agriculture Safety Council, the Industry Safety and Health Advisory Group and MINEX Health and Safety Council (an industry-funded body to improve health and safety practices in the extractives industry). These groups tend to be established by the industry that they represent for the purposes of identifying and addressing health and safety issues. Representatives from these kinds of groups may be represented in a Safer Industries Group.

3.9.3.2   Leadership and collaboration within and across industries

There are a number of industry groups that provide leadership to industry groups on a range of issues, including but not limited to health and safety issues. These groups and the industry that they provide collaboration for are:

• the New Zealand Timber Federation (forestry)
• the Forest Owners’ Association (forestry)
• Federated Farmers (agriculture)
• Business New Zealand (general employer and business representative)
• the Road Transport Forum (transport)
• the Chemical Industry Council (chemicals)
• the Construction Industry Council (construction)
• the District Health Boards Health and Safety Group (health)
• Fish-Safe (Fishing)
• the Council of Trade Unions (general employee representative).

A number of these groups also have both formal and informal links with each other, especially if there are synergies between the operations of the industries.

3.9.4   Stakeholders comments on collaboration and leadership  

Stakeholder comments on collaboration focused on the clarity of leadership in the health and safety system: there was concern that the lead agency for delivering health and safety service is not clear.^lx

Two government stakeholders noted that the Department and ACC have been taking steps towards developing a single voice when talking to industry and the wider sector; although two health and safety professionals and one training organisation noted that the two agencies do not always speak the same language. Two stakeholders considered that more seamless service could be provided, with one of these stakeholders noting that the services could be integrated as a means of providing more consistent programmes.^lxi Five stakeholders also noted the need for the Department of Labour and ACC to share data about cases of work-related injury and disease and about the behaviour of employers involved in incentive programmes in order to ensure that resources are used in the most effective manner.^lxii Five stakeholders considered that there is a need to ensure that the interfaces between the key government agencies are sufficiently resourced to give effect to a truly whole-of-government approach.^lxiii

3.9.5   Comments and conclusions  

Addressing occupational health and safety issues requires a multi-disciplinary process. This means that strong partnerships and clear collaboration mechanisms across all levels are necessary to achieve good faith communications, commitment to agreed priorities and practices and, subsequently, good workplace health and safety practices and outcomes.

New Zealand has a range of mechanisms that provide for both formal and informal collaboration at a number of different levels of the system. These range from political leadership and co-ordination, to employee collaboration through involvement as health and safety representatives. Clear collaboration mechanisms exist at a political level, and the formalisation of the tripartite arrangement is likely to provide additional strength in this area. Collaboration between various industries and government agencies is provided through a range of mechanisms, and there have been some examples of success stories from cross-sector collaboration (such as the development of the ATV guidelines or the boat building guidelines).

Areas where additional collaboration could be fostered are found in the interactions between government agencies. For example, stakeholders raised a number of concerns about the effectiveness of the collaboration between ACC and the Department of Labour, including whether it is providing for consistent and cohesive services across the functions of the occupational health and safety system. An example of this can be seen in the data sharing processes between ACC and the Department (such as sharing of WSE data): knowledge of the workplaces in this scheme is a critical component in ensuring that workplaces proven unsafe can be followed-up by the compliance agency and corrective measures put in place. However, the Memorandum of Understanding appears to limit the Department of Labour’s ability to use data in this way. This is a critical issue that may need to be resolved to ensure that steps can be taken to deliver a seamless service between the compliance and enforcement system and the rehabilitation and compensation scheme. The Department of Labour recognises the importance of good collaboration between itself and ACC and has established a dedicated team to manage this relationship.

The health and safety system in New Zealand operates on a sliding scale between compliance and enforcement activities and rehabilitation and compensation activities. Education and information span these functions. The compliance and enforcement end of the spectrum provides information about how to comply with the legislative framework (which in New Zealand means undertaking all practicable steps and applying good workplace health and safety practices). The rehabilitation and compensation end of the spectrum provides information about preventing injuries. Strong leadership across the spectrum requires expertise, resources and a mandate. The mandate for leadership in compliance and enforcement activities is provided to the Department of Labour through the HSE Act although, as discussed in section 3.10, the current technical resourcing may limit the Department’s ability to deliver this effectively. A similar mandate for injury prevention is provided to ACC through the IPRC Act. An overlap in the area of leadership appears to occur between these two agencies in respect of education and information, since both agencies have a mandate. Clarifying the leadership functions is vital to ensure that opportunities for duplication and inconsistency are minimised and to ensure that an integrated and cohesive system provides for safe workplaces.

ISSN 1177-2239
ISBN 0-478-28059-9

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: Allen & Clarke. Occupational health and safety in New Zealand. Technical Report prepared for the National Occupational Health and Safety Advisory Committee: NOHSAC Technical Report 7: Wellington, 2006.