Health and safety in NZ

In my experience, it is little more than window-dressing. The grandiose policy statements seldom translate out into the reality of the workplace. When they do, they focus on trivia while ignoring elephants in the room.

One great example is workplace drug-testing. One does not have to be on the good side of the bell-shaped curve to realize that operating heavy plant & machinery whilst under the influence is a bad thing.

But then one day after two employees are fired for being totally pissed on the job, there is the big drug test for all. The senior manager who turned up for this stated that if anyone was found positive, this would mean company-wide testing- and it is a big company.

So 60% of the staff failed.

The reality was that if this was the trend nationwide and if they were all fired- as SHOULD have happened- that would be a near death-blow to the company.

Two years later there have been no more drug tests, even after serious incidents and 'accidents'

H&S is back to safety boots and orange overalls.

The hard stuff is just too hard.

Ever wonder why so many die in forestry?