Page 72 - Build 151

Health and safety
Show me how
After 20+ years in workplace health and safety, including at Hawkins Construction and Site Safe, Andrew Confait knows plenty about construction safety. He tells Build what businesses must do to prepare for the upcoming changes to H&S.
BY ANDREW CONFAIT, GENERAL MANAGER – MEMBERSHIP & POLICY, SITE SAFE NEW ZEALAND
WITH AN UNDERSTANDING of how health and safety in construction works, I’ve got a fair idea of what needs to be done to help the industry. Many companies want to be doing the right thing for their employees or at the very least want to satisfy the demands of a tender.
Helping SMEs with the what and how
I'm nding that small and medium enter- prises (SMEs) need assistance to understand what they need to be doing and, impor- tantly, how they can do it. I refer to this as ‘show me how’.
There is a lot of confusion and trepidation surrounding the new legislation due in April 2016, and many companies are scrambling to piece safety plans and policies together. While the safety policy on the wall might look promising, in many situations, there can be chaos in the background.
SMEs make up over 80% of Site Safe membership, and this gure is largely representative of the whole sector. These are companies with 1–20 employees that, due to their size, usually cannot a ord the luxury of a dedicated health and safety professional. You often only see a full-time health and safety role or representative in companies with nearer 50 employees.
H&S must be a ordable and easy
That’s why I believe the industry needs to make health and safety a ordable, acces- sible and expressed in easy to understand language. Packages are needed that can be adapted to a company and make safety convenient to everyone.
Having SMEs up to speed with health and safety has many bene ts. It improves pro tability with more skilled workers, less absenteeism and reduced costs associated with injuries.
The true costs of accidents and incidents on site can have a signi cant impact on the busi- ness. Employees are often much more engaged in the business through improved health and safety participation. Good health and safety also
fosters improved communication in other areas of the business.
Excuses no excuse
So why are we in this position with struggling SMEs? It’s not always the businesses themselves. It’s the nationwide attitude of New Zealanders towards health and safety, such as ‘she’ll be right, I’ve been doing it like this for years’.
Common excuses repeatedly crop up – it costs too much, there’s not enough time or it takes longer to do the paperwork than the job itself.
70 — December 2015/January 2016 — Build 151
FEATURE SECTION