Health & Safety – HRtoolkit

The truth is not always obvious

Posted on June 29, 2015 - 6:03 pm by Lisa Mackay

Employers frequently are faced with, what looks like an obvious issue, but it is not always so obvious. And they get frustrated with employees who are presenting many or all of the following issues:

Frequently late
Not paying attention to detail
Drop off on performance
Frequently calling in sick, particularly on Friday’s and Monday’s
Poor team work

In most cases it is purely laziness/boredom and what the employee needs is a disciplinary warning.

However, the following two cases show a different outcome:

Case 1

Sally had been with the company for about 2 years, during the first year her performance was great, but over time it had started to slide. She was displaying all of the above issues, and so was invited to a disciplinary meeting.

It transpired that, when Sally had started, 2 years ago, she was a solo mum with a 6 month old daughter. Because she was worried this may harm her chances of getting the job she hadn’t admitted it. Fast forward 2 years and she has a toddler who she is not coping with, and the baby daddy had custody every second weekend (coinciding with the Mondays that she was frequently calling in sick because she had a hangover from partying!).

The outcome was that she did get a disciplinary warning for the calling in sick with a hangover. However, we were also able to make arrangements to help her better manage her childcare. I.e. later starts to better coincide with the day care.

Case 2

After about 5 years great service, the last 6 months had seen a dramatic change in Fred’s behaviour. So he was invited to a disciplinary meeting.

At the meeting Fred broke down. He had been diagnosed with terminal Kidney failure about 6 months earlier, and his only hope was a transplant. The frequently calling in sick coincided with his dialysis treatment which was really knocking him for six.

For Fred work was the only place he was “healthy”, all his friends and family were treating him like he might drop dead tomorrow. So he hadn’t wanted anyone to know the truth at work until it was absolutely necessary.

Obviously they didn’t give Fred a warning!! However, the unplanned absences, and poor attention to detail did create pressure on the rest of the team. So we moved Fred to a slightly different project based role which meant that if he wasn’t there others didn’t have to pick up his workload. We also arranged for him to be able to work from home on days when he was not so up to it. And they did this without having to tell any of his colleagues the truth about what was going on.

Fred got the transplant and made a full recovery!

Never presume what the outcome will be. Find out the facts and then make decisions with the HRtoolkit tools!

Are you prepared for the health and safety law changes?

Posted on March 22, 2016 - 10:00 am by Lisa Mackay

The Health and Safety at Work Act (HSW Act) comes into effect on 4 April 2016

The aim of the new Health and Safety at Work Act (HSW Act) is to reduce New Zealand’s workplace injury and death toll by 25 per cent by 2020. Our current track record is poor to say the least, with New Zealand workers twice as likely to be killed or suffer serious harm compared to Australia, and six times as likely as those in the UK. The Acts key emphasis is on everyone in the workplace being responsible for health and safety.

What do I need to do?
The new legislation shifts the focus from monitoring and recording health & safety incidents to proactively identifying and managing risks so everyone is safe. All business owners need to be able to produce the relevant documentation to demonstrate the following health & safety practices are performed their workplace (regardless of the size of the business):

Identify health & safety hazards and risks, and take steps to prevent these from happening
Make sure your health & safety policies are led by management, understood by all staff and reviewed regularly
Hold regular training on health & safety matters
Engage workers in health & safety matters that affect them
Support all officers to get up to date with health & safety issues and key risk factors
Report and monitor health & safety goals
Regularly review any incidents
Carry out frequent health & safety audits

Our Health & Safety Toolkit will help you begin your company’s commitment to a safe and secure workplace.

The Health & Safety Tookit includes a manual with:

A current signed health & safety policy
A register of identified hazards including methods of assessment, elimination, isolation or minimisation and dates for regular review
Incident, accident and near miss investigation and documentation processes
How to manage workers who have an accident/illness involving time off work
An emergency and response plan, first aid training and equipment
Employee training in health & safety matters
A safety induction process

And because our tookit is all about health & safety, we have included a template for your health & wellness policy. As an added bonus, our health & safety manual is mapped against the New Zealand Workplace Safety Discount, giving you the opportunity to save money on your ACC payments.

To comply with the new legislation, you business needs to consider the following:

A current signed drug and alcohol policy
A health & safety team which meets regularly and includes workers
Recorded health & safety meetings with your workers
A management system for hazardous materials
A commitment to allow nominated workers the time to develop and improve health & safety at the workplace (this is vital if you are working in a high risk industry or if you have over 20 workers)
A current training register recording dates and type of training provided to workers and regular visitors to the workplace
A method of capturing, recording assessing and investigating safety audits, injuries, near misses, hazards and property damage
Documented safe operating procedures for repetitive tasks (SOP’s)
A library of operating manuals for equipment
A traffic segregation plan
Appropriate and current emergency signage
A current building warrant of fitness including most recent compliance schedule

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Having a safe workplace will save you money and give you peace of mind. It’s easier and cost effective to get it right the first time, let HRtoolkit show you how.

Healthy workplaces improve productivity

Posted on September 8, 2016 - 10:10 am by Lisa Mackay

Productive and engaged employees drive competitive advantage in all organisations, but having a healthy team is especially important in small businesses.

Research suggests that a healthy workforce improves company productivity by:

Attracting superior quality staff
Reducing the rate of absenteeism and time lost
Enhancing on-the-job time utilization, and decision making
Improving moral which in turn lowers staff-turnover

The establishment, and continuous improvement, of a health and wellbeing policy is integral to business success. And with a few extra steps, you can secure the well-being of your entire organization. Let HRtoolkit show you how.

How to support your health and wellbeing policy

Posted on September 8, 2016 - 10:43 am by Lisa Mackay

The evidence is overwhelming that engaged employees drive competitive advantage. And that the establishment and continuous improvement of a health and wellness policy is integral to business success.

A healthy work environment

Promoting a healthy work environment means all employees are responsible and accountable for their own health, safety and wellbeing. The company will take responsibility for health and safety procedures, however, employees need to be aware of their responsibilities and comply with the business’s health and wellness policy.

Suggestions for company commitments

When developing a health and wellness policy with your employees, consider what your company may be able to offer. You could consider:

Flexible working arrangements. Legislation allows employees who have caring responsibilities to have the statutory ‘right to request’ flexible working arrangements.

Budget advice. The Citizens Advice Bureau gives free seminars on budget advice.

Employee walking groups during lunch breaks. Walking groups could be extended to having teams compete against each other as to who can walk the furthest during a specific time period.

Funding events, teams and group activities. A walking group competition could be extended to events such as ‘Round the Bays’ or you could help employees put together social sports teams.

Allowing mothers to express breast milk at work. The 2008 Infant Feeding Amendment to the Employment Relations Act 2000 requires employers to provide unpaid breaks and/or facilities for employees who wish to breastfeed their infants or express milk during working hours.

Massage, yoga, pilates or gym membership for employees. These activities don’t need to be funded by the employer, it may be a case of arranging them to occur in-house and at a reduced price.

An employee assistance programme. An employee assistance programme is a service that provides staff with a free, confidential source of advice on issues of concern to them.

Allowing employees to cash up leave. Legislation allows employees to be able to ask their employer to pay out, in cash, up to one week of their minimum entitlement to annual holidays per year.

In New Zealand, you have a legal responsibility to provide a safe working environment for your employees. And with a few extra steps, you can secure the well-being of your entire organization. Let HRtoolkit show you how.

Council and contractors fined $255,000

Posted on August 30, 2017 - 12:02 pm by Lisa Mackay

In October 2016 the Auckland Council and contractors were required to pay $255,000 over the death of a 19 year old refuse worker.

Refuse worker Jane Devonshire was killed in August last year when a rubbish truck, owned by Auckland Council contractor Onyx, went over a cliff in Birkenhead on the North Shore. Devonshire, of West Harbour, was in her fifth week on the job working as a rubbish runner. She was standing on the left side of the cab when the brakes failed, causing it to careen 120m down a hill and off a cliff. The North Shore District Court heard at sentencing today that Devonshire was thrown from the truck and was crushed when it landed on her.

Court findings
The truck was found to be overdue for a major service, brake issues had been identified but not rectified and the warning lights on the dashboard weren’t working.

Two weeks earlier, the same truck broke down on the side of the road and the mechanic identified the third axel break linings were low. A job card was filled but got missed in a pile of paperwork until after the incident.

The parties charged were: Auckland Council, Veolia ES Technical Solutions which was contracted to collect rubbish bags, N P Dobbe Maintenance Limited which was contracted to maintain the fleet, and Truck Leasing Limited, which owned the trucks.

They were all charged under the Health and Safety in Employment Act with failing to take all practical steps to ensure employees were not harmed.

Auckland Council was found to have insufficiently audited its subcontractors
Veolia insufficiently oversaw its fleet and did not keep sufficient records. The company was also already on notice following another rubbish truck death in 2007, only a few streets away from the incident involving Devonshire. Veolia accepted it inadequately supervised the maintenance of the fleet and there were inadequate communications between the three subcontractors. Since the incident, Veolia had changed many of its practises including bringing maintenance in-house, more inspections and a renewed focus on training.
N P Dobbe was found to have inadequately maintained the truck. The company accepted they were at fault but said no one person was totally responsible.
Truck Leasing Limited has been also been charged for insufficiently monitoring its fleet but has pleaded not guilty. It will defend the charge over a six week trial set down for next year.

It is imperative that you monitor and understand the safety standards of the companies you subcontract work to. Let HRtoolkit show you how.

Download our Health and Safety Toolkit and use our tools to request your contractors health and safety plans, standards, policies and procedures.

Case study: Lift maintenance

Posted on August 30, 2017 - 12:17 pm by Lisa Mackay

A human resources company leasing premises in a multi-tenanted office block has concerns about lift maintenance but who is legally responsible?

In this case, there is a shared duty of care for lift maintenance in a multi-tenanted office block. All businesses have a duty of care as a person conducting a business or undertaking to ensure the health and safety of their workers and clients visiting its offices.

At the same time, the building owner and property manager have duties as persons with management or control of the building to ensure people can safely enter and exit the building and that the building is safe and without risk to others.

A company contracted to maintain and repair lifts (maintenance contractor) has a duty to ensure that its workers and other persons are not put at risk from work carried out as part of its business.

Each of these duties is subject to what is reasonably practicable, so what is best practice?

Stage 1: Consultation

The human resources company consults the property manager to find out what arrangements are in place for the proper maintenance of plant such as air-conditioning systems and lifts.

Before maintenance is to be carried out on the lifts the property manager consults with the maintenance contractor, the tenants and the cleaning contractor so that all duty holders know of the work and what they each need to do to ensure the safety of persons in the building. This includes identifying the best time for the work to be done, how the work area will be barricaded and what information, if any, the finance company will need to give to its workers and clients.

As the work proceeds, the human resources company informs the property manager and the maintenance contractor of any concerns or incidents, to enable these to be considered and any changes made.

Stage two: Cooperation

The human resources company and other tenants cooperate with the maintenance contractor by complying with contractor’s safety procedures.

Stage three: Coordinating activities

The human resources company ensures that its workers and clients do not use the lifts during the maintenance work and that they have another safe means of entry and exit.

The maintenance contractor works with the property manager to schedule maintenance work so that it does not interfere with the safe movement of persons in the building, as far as is reasonably practicable.

One of the key challenges for businesses is the positive obligation to “consult,cooperate and coordinate” with other businesses including contractors.

This piece of legislation in the HSWAct 2015 has been introduced primarily to reduce the risk to workers arising when several businesses work together. As the number of parties involved increases, so do the risks to the health and safety of workers – arising from miscommunication between parties.

It is imperative that you monitor and understand the safety standards of the companies you work with. Let HRtoolkit show you how.

Health and Safety law update

Posted on August 30, 2017 - 12:26 pm by Lisa Mackay

One of the key challenges in the new health and safety legislation is the positive obligation to ‘consult,cooperate and coordinate’ with other businesses including contractors.

Read more about how this can go wrong here

It is clear to see that communication and cooperation between parties is essential to worker safety. The law is also clear and failure to do so may result in penalties.

Examples of multiple PCBU workplaces include:

The owner of a shopping mall like Westfield PCBU’s may include; the manager of the shopping centre, each of the businesses operating from shops in the shopping centre and those carrying out activities such as security, cleaning, rubbish collections and shopping trolley collection
A service station owner, the service station operator (if different from the owner), the mechanic (if running a separate business), the contractor carrying out the supply of gas cylinders to the public at the service station and the operator of an attached fast-food outlet
The principal contractor on a construction site, sub-contractors engaged by the principal contractor, sub-contractors engaged by the sub-contractors (including self-employed contractors), along with the client engaging the principal contractor and suppliers.

Consultation questions to consider when there are multiple PCBU’s on site are:

What activities will each PCBU will be performing?
How, when and where and what plant or substances may be used?
Which PCBU has control or influence over aspects of the work or the environment in which the work is being undertaken?
How will the activities of each PCBU affect the work environment?
How will the activities of each PCBU affect the choices of others?
How can we identify the workers that will be involved in the activity and who may be affected by the activity?
What procedures or arrangements may be in place for the consultation and representation of workers, and for issue resolution?
What information may be needed by another PCBU for health and safety purposes?
What each PCBU knows about the hazards and risks associated with their activity?
Whether the activities of others may introduce or increase hazards or risks?
What each PCBU will be providing for health and safety, particularly for controlling risks?
What further consultation or communication may be required to monitor health and safety or to identify any changes in the work or environment.?

Cooperation

In short you need to show good faith, communicating and cooperating with other PCBU’s in a timely manner. This means any action or inaction on your part should not compromise the health and safety of others working around you.

Coordination

You need to think about organising and planning activities to ensure that measures put in place work effectively to control the risk. The duty to coordinate is ongoing. Where work is not effectively coordinated, PCBUs should consult further to determine what should be changed.

Non-compliance

It is an offence under the HSWA for a PCBU to fail or refuse to comply with its duty to consult, cooperate or coordinate with other PCBUs. An offending PCBU is at risk of a conviction and be liable to a fine not exceeding $20,000 in the case of an individual PCBU, or for any other PCBU a fine not exceeding $100,000.

It is imperative that you monitor and understand the safety standards of the companies you work with. Let HRtoolkit show you how.

Do I need to pay people after a natural disaster or emergency?

Posted on April 11, 2018 - 2:01 pm by Lisa Mackay

The following guidance is copied from the Employment New Zealand Website

If a natural disaster or other serious event happens, the health, safety, and security of people should be the main concern of all employers and staff. This comes before thinking about the interests of the business or organization. Employers and employees should remember to keep in regular contact and deal with each other in good faith.

The workplace after a disaster or emergency
Pay and leave if an employee is not working after a natural disaster or emergency
Employees’ right to refuse work for health and safety reasons
Employee checklist of things to think about
Employer checklist of things to think about

1. The workplace after a disaster or emergency

After a disaster:

Always follow the advice of the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management – they’re the experts.
Be careful, exercise care and good judgement at all times.
If there’s damage to any buildings, be alert and cautious if you’re entering affected areas.
Never enter areas cordoned off for safety reasons – you could put yourself or others at risk.

Building assessments and re-entry after a disaster

Following an earthquake or a significant aftershock:

It’s primarily the building owner’s responsibility to ensure that buildings are assessed to determine whether they have withstood the event and remain structurally sound (in accordance with the Building Act 2004).
Employers who occupy the building should follow the owner’s advice and be satisfied that the owner is performing their role. If an engineer or other competent professional advisor advises to not re-occupy the building, the building should not be re-occupied.

When an assessment is necessary

If the local council advises building owners to conduct assessments following an emergency.
If the owner or employer thinks the building might have been damaged in some way (you or others might see cracks in the building or if buildings similar to your building have encountered problems).
If there are any known structural weaknesses in the building that previous assessments have identified and have been brought to the attention of owner or employer.
If the aftershock is of similar size to the original earthquake. A reassessment should be made particularly if structural damage was observed, but after smaller events it may not be necessary.
For more information read WorkSafe New Zealand’s(external link) position statement. The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 also supports this approach. The owner and the employer are both PCBUs(external link), and have duties to consult and engage with each other, and to work together in relation to the health and safety of workers and others affected by their respective businesses.

Building re-entry

If there’s any chance that a workplace may not be safe, employers should make a careful external visual inspection before allowing staff back in. If during an external visual inspection you see cracks or you have the slightest doubt about the integrity of the building, do not enter – get an expert assessment before you go in.
If the employer’s external visual inspection is clear and damage is unlikely, you should still make an internal visual inspection before you let staff back in the building. If you have the slightest doubt about the integrity of the building, exit immediately and get an expert assessment report before you go in again. When making an internal visual inspection or entering the building for the first time, as a precaution you should:
- Be on alert as the contents of the building may have shifted and material may have fallen. There might be new hazards or risks (eg spilled liquids or damaged racking for stored goods, uneven or damaged floors).
- If you know there are chemicals or other dangerous materials in your workplace, make sure you’re protected with appropriate protective gear and be careful when you first go in. Stop – look – assess – and don’t take any risks. If you’re unsure or have any concerns, there are professionals who can help you make your workplace safe.
- Treat all services as live and avoid any exposed wiring.
- Make sure there is at least one clear exit (wedge open a door and keep your exit path clear from debris).
- Wear a suitable safety mask (in case of dust), safety helmet and safety googles.
- Take a torch if necessary.
- Have someone keeping watch outside who can go for help if you strike a problem and can’t get out.
- Assume any water eg dripping onto floors is contaminated with sewage.
If you know or suspect that there may be hazardous dusts, such as asbestos or silica, in your workplace, contact WorkSafe New Zealand(external link) or seek professional assistance before entering. A simple dust mask may not project you from exposure and appropriate respiratory protective equipment must be selected, fitted and worn by someone with sufficient training to wear it properly and ensure that it’s effective.

2. Pay and leave if an employee is not working after a natural disaster or emergency

There are different reasons why an employee doesn’t work in this situation. These can include:

An employer may be unable to provide work for employees who are willing and able to carry out their agreed hours of work.
An employer may be unable to provide a suitable and safe workplace for employees who are willing and able to carry out their agreed hours of work.
Employees can’t access the workplace because of restrictions not directly related to their own workplace and out of their employer’s control (eg road closures, safety issues relating to adjoining buildings, evacuation due to flooding or tsunami risk).
An employee (or their dependant) is sick or injured and unable to work.
An employee has to care for a dependant because usual care is unavailable.
An employee is willing and able to work but their usual mode of transport is unavailable.

Employers and employees can’t assume that time away from work in these circumstances would be either paid or unpaid without looking at the employment agreement, workplace policies and the specific circumstances. The employer and employee should look at their employment agreement to see if this type of situation is covered. If it’s not in the agreement, then it is up to both parties to talk about it in good faith and agree what the time away from work will be classed as.

If the employee’s partner or dependent family member isn’t injured or sick but he or she requires care, eg because their child’s school is closed, the employee can’t take sick leave. In some cases, employees may be able to continue to work while caring for their family, if the employer and employee agree to this arrangement. If it’s not appropriate or possible for staff to continue working, employees and employers will need to agree on what basis the employee is off work.

Options for leave and payment

Annual holidays
Anticipated annual holidays or additional annual holidays
Using an entitled alternative holiday
Special leave, either as provided for in employment agreements or workplace policies or by agreement between the employer and employee
Leave without pay
Employees can take sick leave if their partner or dependents are injured or sick and they have sick leave available or the employer agrees to extra sick leave
Other paid or unpaid leave either as provided for in employment agreements or workplace policies or by agreement between the employer and employee
Advance on wages

Whichever option the employer and employee agree on may depend upon the circumstances, including the nature and extent of the disaster and how long it lasts for. Once all leave entitlements under the Holidays Act 2003 and any negotiated additional leave or any anticipated leave entitlements run out, employees and their employers will need to consider further options in good faith (and consider the impact these options will have on business recovery later).

There are special rules for shift workers relating to the cancellation or early ending of a shift.

Shift workers

If an employee is a shift worker and is willing and able to carry out their agreed hours of work, but their employer either

can’t provide them with work, or
can’t provide them with access to a suitable and safe workplace,

this is considered a cancellation of the employee’s shift.

Whether an employee is entitled to compensation from their employer for ‘cancelling’ these agreed shifts or ending a current shift early will depend on the terms of their employment agreement, the date of their employment agreement, and the specific circumstances of the cancellation.

If the date of an employee’s employment agreement was April 1 2016 or later, their employment agreement and employer must comply with the shift cancellation requirements of the Employment Relations Act 2000.

This means their employer can’t cancel one or more of their shifts unless:

the employment agreement has:
- a reasonable period of notice for cancellation, and
- reasonable compensation payable to the employee if the employer cancels a shift without giving reasonable notice, and
the employer either gives the employee the above notice or pays the reasonable compensation above, and
cancelling the shift doesn’t breach the employment agreement.

If the employment agreement doesn’t have a valid shift cancellation provision and the employer cancels a shift anyway, the employer must pay the employee what they would have been paid if they had worked the shift.

Employers must also pay employees what they would have been paid if they had worked the shift if:

the shift is cancelled but the employer doesn’t tell the employee until the start of the cancelled shift, or
the rest of the shift is cancelled when the employee has already started the shift.

In this situation, the remuneration the employee gets when the shift is cancelled is included in their ordinary weekly pay and relevant daily pay.

If the employer doesn’t comply with the law in relation to providing reasonable notice or reasonable compensation for shift cancellation, then the employee may be able to raise a personal grievance.

If an employee’s employment agreement is dated before 1 April 2016, their employer has until 1 April 2017 to comply with the shift cancellation provisions of the Employment Relations Act 2000. Employees may still be able to claim compensation, depending on what their employment agreement says. Employees, who are unsure of whether their employer is required to compensate them, should seek further advice.

If an employee is not entitled to compensation for shift cancellation their employment agreement may have other options relating to a disaster that apply to their situation. If none of these apply, they can still discuss options for leave and holidays with their employer in good faith. This may also apply when the current roster ends if the employer and employees have not agreed to a new roster

Hours of workhas more information.

3. Employees’ right to refuse work for health and safety reasons

If it’s not safe to be at work, employees can stop work because of health and safety concerns under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. Alternatively, they may be able to take strike action under the Employment Relations Act 2000. If the employee and employer have made reasonable efforts but still haven’t been able to resolve the issue, they can use the problem solving framework under the Employment Relations Act 2000 or ask WorkSafe New Zealand(external link) for help.

Refusing to work under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015

An employee has the right to stop work, or refuse to carry out work if they think that doing the work would expose them, or anyone else, to a serious risk to health or safety from an immediate or imminent hazard. A trained health and safety representative may also direct employees to stop unsafe work.

If you have stopped work because of health and safety reasons:

You need to let your employer know as soon as you can that you have stopped work and why. This should include explaining what your concerns are to your employer eg point out or explain cracks in the building structure that you have seen.
Your employer may give you safe and suitable alternative work at the same or a different location until it’s safe for you to return to your normal work.
You need to make reasonable efforts to resolve the issue with your employer in a timely, final and effective way. You can’t just refuse to work and then do nothing. Both you and your employer must act in good faith.
Once you’ve tried to resolve the issue with your employer, you don’t have to start work again if you still reasonably believe that you or another person would be in danger.
Your employer can’t treat you adversely because you stopped work due to health and safety concerns. This includes being dismissed or made to resign, not having the same terms of employment, conditions, opportunities for training and promotion as other people with similar qualifications, skills or experience, or being threatened with any of these.

Worksafe New Zealand(external link) has more information about your rights and obligations.

Strike action and lockouts for safety or health reasons

Employees can take lawful strike action or employers can lock out employees, if they’ve reasonable grounds for believing that it’s justified for safety or health reasons.

Strikes and lockouts has more information.

4. Employee checklist of things to think about

Take care of your own health and safety. This includes when you’re in the workplace and also if you’re at home (eg you may be suffering from stress or anxiety associated with the disaster). For many people getting back to work and normal life as quickly as possible can help to reduce anxiety and stress.
Take care of the health and safety of your dependants. If you’ve a dependant who is injured or sick then you may be able to use dependant sick leave to care for them.
If you’re not coming into work, do your best to make sure that your employer knows this and that you apply for the correct leave type to suit your situation.
If your workplace is safe and you plan to return to work, make sure that:
- Your transport is organised – check out public transport availability, carpark building availability, alternative routes in case of road closures. See whether you can car pool with workmates, you could ask your employer to facilitate this for you.
- You continue to exercise care as you travel to work, even if your workplace is safe, you may be travelling through areas that have increased risk.
If your workplace is not safe, you can refuse to work.
Act in good faith and be honest with employer about how you are feeling and any concerns you have. If you are finding your return to work difficult, get help and support, your workmates (and employer) are probably experiencing similar feelings to you.

5. Employer checklist of things to think about

Take care of the health and safety of your team, yourself and your customers/clients.
If the workplace isn’t safe, don’t require your staff to work there. Make sure it’s safe first.
Staff communication and support are very important. Following a disaster, contact staff as soon as possible to advise them of the workplace situation and your expectations of them. Give them updates even if they are not required to be at work so that they know what is going on. Use texts and social media where possible to minimise overload of the telecommunications network. Remember staff may be under additional stress, provide them with support and help and show your concern. This could include access to an employee assistance programme for counselling, having a team debrief, daily blog or email.
If public transport is unavailable or reduced, think about facilitating car pools among staff. Smaller employers could organise carpooling with other employers nearby. Consider any impact on staff getting to work on time and whether you can be flexible.
Consider wider infrastructure issues (eg road closures, power outages or water restrictions) and the impact of these on staff getting to and from work and whether you can be flexible.
In an extraordinary event, you may need to approach things differently. This may include temporarily changing your leave policy, letting employees work flexibly, or a adopting a flexible approach to staff make personal phone calls to check on family during the workday.
Think about any negative impact on staff pay (eg processing of payroll) and try to minimise this.
Act in good faith and be honest with staff about the situation. You can provide them with an expert report showing the workplace is safe, this will reassure them. If an employee has a concern about the workplace being unsafe, ask them the specifics of their concern (eg have they seen cracks) so that you can investigate.

Coronavirus and the Workplace 16 March 8am Update

Posted on March 16, 2020 - 4:00 am by Lisa Mackay

With 8 confirmed cases of the Covid-19 (coronavirus), many New Zealand businesses are currently reviewing or preparing their infectious disease outbreak response plans, as part of their health and safety. Key objectives businesses should cover include:

Reducing potential transmission among your employees
Identifying people who are at higher risk due to health complications
Maintaining business operations – including checking stocks and suppliers
Minimising potential adverse effects through disruptions to your supply chains

Key considerations to protect and educate your workforce whilst ensuring business continuity are:

Encourage sick employees to stay home
If an employee shows up to work sick, send them home
Practice social distancing (no handshakes/hugs/hongis/hi-fives!)
Increase routine cleaning of the workplace environment especially surfaces, keyboards, desks, kitchen/eating areas
Ensure your air conditioning maintenance is up to date
Don’t forget your mobile workers – provide alcohol wet wipes in vehicles
Check-in with staff who are currently travelling overseas, and have a log of anyone returning or going overseas, including destinations
Advise employees of company protocols for employees returning from overseas travel –especially now the NZ Government has enforced a 2 week isolation for people coming into NZ from other countries (other than the Pacific Islands)
Think about work from home arrangements, what resourcing could be required.
Prepare/monitor for a possible increase in absences due to illness in employees and their family members
Explain what human resources policies, workplace and leave flexibilities you currently have or may put in place, (5 days sick leave is the minimum employment standard, you need to weigh up whether the business can sustain any more than this or will staff use annual leave?)
Implement plans to continue your essential business functions in case you experience higher than usual absenteeism.
Cross-train personnel to perform essential functions so that the workplace is able to operate even if key staff members are absent
Communicate regularly with all employees

Regarding sick leave

The statutory entitlement is 5 days sick leave per annum. If a worker is required to isolate you will need to decide as a business, what is a sustainable position for your business – given you may have several staff in self-isolation.

This pandemic is an exceptional situation, and you may have a staff member who has used all their sick leave, as an Employer you must have a conversation with them regarding whether they would have unpaid sick leave or use some annual leave – ultimately it is the employees decision

Keep communicating to your staff

Ensure you communicate regularly with your employees, letting them know there will be a series of communications as the status (spread or containment) of the virus changes.

Your safety and business plan should be adaptable to the changing circumstances and involve input from your employees as you develop and review your workplace safety and operational plans. It is important that employees have a clear understanding of the facts about the COVID-19 virus. They need to also understand what your workplace expectations are to prevent the spread of the virus and minimize the impact on the business and your protocols regarding people who are unwell. Click here to receive your free HRtoolkit letter to staff which provides a great working template for your communications about COVID-19. Click here to receive a fact sheet on COVID-19, for your staff, its important they have the correct information about the virus, our fact sheet is taken from World Health Organisation sources and the NZ Ministry of Health, current as of 8am 16 March 2020

BUSINESS TIPS TO HELP SME’S SURVIVE COVID -19

Posted on March 18, 2020 - 9:42 pm by Lisa Mackay

As businesses start to feel the pinch of COVID-19, here are some measures to assist you to adapt your current business practices, take advantage of the Government assistance, and how to consult with your employees if more serious measures are required.

As strict self-isolation measures have been instituted, we have seen tourism grinding to a halt, and knock on effects in hospitality and other sectors. Locally too we have seen thousands of planned events cancelled or postponed, which is having a real effect on businesses. In response the Government has announced suite of comprehensive support mechanisms for businesses impacted by COVID-19 health protocols. The Government support package aims to keep as many people in employment through this period as possible. This is great news, and, as business owners, we also have to do our bit to ensure we are doing all we can to weather this storm.

Measures being adopted are:

Postpone big events early – Late cancellation of events has a huge knock on effect. Keep your attendees informed of your thinking and/or postpone earlier rather than later so that everyone can make alternative plans
Postpone overseas travel
Talk to staff who are planning overseas trips – Any person leaving NZ now faces the risk that, on their return they will have to either serve a 14 day self-quarantine period, or they may find that one or more Border along their travel route has been closed and they can’t get back to NZ. Have an honest discussion with them about how you would respond if they decide to take the trip with that knowledge.

It is not available to those who can work from home during the period of self-isolation, and who can be paid normally by their employer.

Areas we are covering:

Ideas to help your business adapt
Who pays for self-isolation time?
Need to cut staff costs, at least temporarily?
Risks of reducing wages paid?
Ways to reduce Staff costs
Consultation process
Free consultation template
Need more help?

Ideas to help your business adapt –Think outside the box!

Although the business impacts will vary, one thing is for sure – we all need to be thinking how can we do business differently? Especially in the face of our requirement to practice social distancing to fight back against the spread of COVID-19.

Here are some ideas to assist your businesses maintain social distancing and keep working

Office based workers

Prepare and set up systems for remote working – though you may not need to close your office at present, businesses need to be thinking about how you can work from home, if self isolation is required, having your systems in place, will assist with your business continuity planning. Consider:
1. Cloud based systems – can your team members access work remotely?
2. Do you have enough laptops to facilitate work from home arrangements?
3. Diverting work phone numbers –to private phone numbers/mobile numbers
4. Can you issue pay as you go temporary mobile phones for workers to work remotely?
Virtual meetings – do you need to meet face to face or can the meeting be managed by phone or video conference- there are great facilities that many businesses are using already; Zoom /Skype and Facebook

Retail

If you have fewer customers coming through the door consider:

Can you offer delivery services for customers? Rather than waiting for customers to come to you and can you deliver to your customers? Remember that deliveries can be dropped off on doorsteps without having to compromise social distancing protocols.
Do sell through your website?, or could you adapt your website to allow for this? Adapting a non-e-commerce website may be expensive and time consuming, but you may be able to do ‘work arounds’ such as phone or e-mail orders with payments made by internet banking or over the phone

Tourism

With the significant drop in overseas tourists what can you do to attract the local market?

Specials for locals? Not only is this a good way of getting some business in, it is also a good way to promote your attractions to those people who live locally. Word of mouth referrals are a great way to get business, but the locals can only rave about you if they have experienced your tourist attraction. So use the quiet time to get a few more “Ravers”
Using Grab-a-deal types of online specials to stimulate your business.
Promote to the domestic market? There is a large pool of New Zealanders who have had to cancel or are in the process of cancelling their overseas trips. This is if you will excuse the pun – a “captive market”.

Hospitality

Look at your processes and service and reduce contact points– already many cafes are not accepting keeper cups (as an interim measure). Serve coffee without the lid on -giving your clientele the ability to pop the lid on themselves
Have hand sanitiser by the eftpos machine and at key areas in your café.
If your foot traffic has reduced consider offering a delivery service, or utilise Uber Eats to facilitate your food sales, consider pre-prepared meals – this has proved successful in other countries with COVID-19

Workers who go to multiple places of work (e.g. Trades)

For Tradies working on mixed sites, it is more difficult to maintain social distancing. Some ways to limit risk may be:

Have clear communications and expectations on how your tradies would like to be communicated to regarding any COVID-19 incidences (A site noticeboard)
Ensure tradies have alcohol wet wipes in their vans
If tradies are doing private work, they should phone and check if anyone is self-isolating at the residence. Check if they job can be delayed until the end of the isolation period, or there is some other way they can be kept apart from your workers?
Reinforce social distancing protocols e.g. no handshakes, Hongi’s, high-fives or Hugs , keep a few meters distance between people, use hand sanitisers
Ask if they work can be completed at a time when no-one it home

Supply chain issues?

Can you source from within NZ? Do you need to offer that particular product, or is there an alternative? Proactively preempt issues and keeping your customers informed is essential. So, look at what you provide that comes from overseas, and work out your contingency plans. Supply chain issues were felt from China long before the borders were closed because the Chinese companies simply didn’t have the workers at work to fulfil the orders.

Who pays for self-isolation?

The government has mandated everyone returning from overseas (except the Pacific Islands) has to self-isolate for 14 days. If you are required to self-isolate – who pays, when most people have only 5 days sick leave per annum?

The government’s relief packages for businesses can assist. The government will pay

$585.80 per week for a full time employee (20 hrs or more)
$350.00 per week for a part time employee (less than 20 hrs).

Wage subsidies will be available for all employers that are significantly impacted by COVID-19 and are struggling to retain employees. The scheme will be open to sole traders and the self-employed as well as firms.

Category Archives: Health & Safety