Source:
The first Privacy News of 2025 covers the release of the Biometrics Code and how to give feedback on this, a new case note about personal information being published to a website, and the introduction of OPC’s Māori reference panel. There is also a notice about new translations of our privacy brochures – we now offer them in Traditional and Simplified Chinese, and Vietnamese.
Read the January 2025 issue.
Source:
Print | Email this page
Our brochure covers New Zealander’s privacy rights, what to do if your personal information is taken, and how to make a complaint to us. It also includes our contact details. We find these are popular with GP clinics, Citizen’s Advice Bureau outlets, and libraries.
These brochures can be printed from a home or office computer. They are double sided, with an English translation on one side.
Please note, we are unable to provide professionally printed versions of this brochure. View professionally printed options.
Download our privacy brochure in Traditional Chinese (PDF, 1.78MB)
Download our privacy brochure in Simplified Chinese (PDF, 1.78MB)
Source:
AI-driven hazard detection is coming to timber manufacturing, thanks to a new agreement worth nearly half a million dollars between WorkSafe New Zealand and a major player in the wood processing industry.
Claymark, New Zealand’s largest manufacturer and exporter of premium pine products, is putting $481,000 into a range of initiatives. It comes after a worker had two fingers amputated in a machine at Claymark’s Rotorua factory in February 2023.
WorkSafe’s investigation found the machine was unguarded and there was an ineffective system for maintenance. Training and supervision of workers also fell short.
WorkSafe has now accepted an enforceable undertaking (EU) from Claymark. An EU is a binding commitment to fund and resource comprehensive health and safety improvements. Claymark’s EU includes:
We are sharing details of the investment to coincide with World Day for Health and Safety at Work, which this year focuses on the impacts of digitalisation and artificial intelligence on workers’ health and safety.
“We are looking forward to seeing Claymark pioneer its AI innovation to benefit the timber processing sector more broadly. Agreements like this are all about enacting positive improvements from an adverse event,” says WorkSafe’s Head of Regulatory Services, Tracey Conlon.
“The initiatives align with WorkSafe’s priority plan for manufacturing, which is one of the most high-risk sectors for workers in Aotearoa. Unsafe machinery is a persistent problem in the sector, which businesses cannot overlook.”
EUs are a way for WorkSafe to hold businesses accountable for health and safety breaches. WorkSafe monitors progress on the agreed commitments and can seek a court order enforcing them if they are not upheld. WorkSafe’s role is to influence businesses to meet their responsibilities and keep people healthy and safe.
Read the Claymark decision document
Find out about enforceable undertakings
At Claymark, the health, safety, and wellbeing of our people is our highest priority. An incident involving one of our team members has had a significant impact – both physically and emotionally. We acknowledge the effect this has had on the individual, their whānau, and our wider community, and we are committed to learning from this experience to ensure safer outcomes for everyone.
Through our enforceable undertaking, we see a valuable opportunity to drive meaningful, people-focused change – both within Claymark and across the wood manufacturing sector.
Our key initiatives include:
This is about more than compliance – it’s about creating a workplace where our people feel informed, supported, and safe. Claymark is committed to continuous improvement and collaboration as we work towards a safer, stronger future for our people, our industry, and our communities.
On 27 February 2023, my life changed forever. While performing my job, I suffered an injury that resulted in the amputation of two fingers on my right hand. Since that day, I’ve undergone three surgeries to address the damage, and while recovery has been challenging, I remain hopeful about the possibility of prosthetic fingers in the future.
Everyday tasks I once took for granted like writing, showering, even holding objects, now require patience and adaptation. Music, which has always been a passion of mine, has become a bittersweet pursuit; playing the guitar and trumpet now demands creativity and resilience as I relearn techniques with my altered hand.
Throughout this journey, my wife, children, and wider whānau have been my rock. Their unwavering emotional support and practical help have carried me through the darkest moments of my recovery. I cannot overstate how grateful I am for their love and strength.
I’m deeply appreciative of Claymark’s commitment to workplace safety improvements outlined in this agreement, many of which I’ve witnessed firsthand. At 51, retirement isn’t an option I’m ready to consider which is why I feel fortunate to continue contributing to Claymark’s team. While my path forward looks different than I once imagined, I’m determined to adapt and keep moving ahead, one day at a time.
Source:
WorkSafe New Zealand has opened its first intake of health and safety inspectors for 2025, and is keen to hear from anyone with an interest in making work safer in Aotearoa.
Inspectors are our frontline eyes and ears across the motu. We are adding up to 60 new recruits this year, each of whom will get full training and development.
This is an opportunity for people starting their career, looking for a change of career, or considering a meaningful way to repurpose their existing skills. You’ll need to be communicative and resilient, have an inquiring mind, and be an effective problem solver.
“We are currently integrating the full range of assessment and investigation work in our inspectorate. This will create a supportive training ground for our incoming inspectors to springboard from,” says WorkSafe’s Head of Inspectorate Rob Pope.
WorkSafe is investing an extra $2.7 million annually into growing its inspectorate. This is part of our new strategy to target the sectors with highest work-related harm – construction, manufacturing, forestry, and agriculture. While a background in these sectors would be highly advantageous to working for WorkSafe, it is not essential.
WorkSafe is the health and safety regulator for work in New Zealand. Our role is to influence businesses to meet their responsibilities and keep people healthy and safe.
Source:
This technical bulletin provides guidance about the work trainee divers may undertake while under direct supervision during occupational diving operations.
WorkSafe New Zealand requires applicants to provide dive logs to support their Certificate of Competence (CoC) application.
WorkSafe has recently seen an increase in divers submitting dive logs that indicate a need to make clear the distinction between a ‘diver under training’ and a ‘diver working without a CoC’.
This technical bulletin clarifies recommendations for divers who do not hold a current CoC as an occupational diver, but who are doing training dives while at work.
The Health and Safety in Employment Regulations 1995 (the Regulations) require occupational divers working for a Person Conducting or Undertaking a Business (PCBU) to hold a CoC in the category in which they are diving. The CoC is issued by WorkSafe.
The Regulations have a provision allowing workers to undertake training to become the holder of a CoC, but require diving ‘under the direct supervision’ of another diver who holds a CoC for that category of diving.
WorkSafe defines direct supervision as being ‘within reach or contact at all times to ensure immediate assistance can be provided if necessary’.
If a diver does not hold a current CoC, they must be under the direct supervision of a current CoC holder while diving is taking place. In this case they are considered a ‘trainee diver’.
As with all trainees in the workplace, supervision is required because they do not yet meet the necessary level of competency to operate independently in the workplace. For divers, this level of supervision is higher than expected in other workplaces.
Students undertaking formal instruction on a diving course (for example, Australian Diver Accreditation Scheme, Professional Association of Diving Instructors, and Science Diving New Zealand) are not working and do not require a CoC under the Regulations providing all the diving is in accordance with the course syllabus and supervised by a suitably qualified trainer holding a CoC.
But if they begin work tasks outside of their dive course (for example, leading dives, taking samples, fixing nets, cleaning aquariums or being a safety diver) they are considered to be working and will be seen as requiring a CoC.
While the Regulations allow for employees to train to become a holder of a CoC, the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) requires a PCBU to ensure the reasonable safety of all workers, including those under training.
Before conducting any trainee diving, a PCBU must ensure that the minimum diver level pre-requisite competency has been met, and the trainee divers are competent to learn the specific tasks required for that category of CoC. This includes the use of the diver’s breathing equipment and any hazardous powered tools – both of which should be taught in a formal diving course before use in any workplace.
As trainee divers are learning, PCBUs must also consider both the environment and duration of the training as well as competency levels. Dive sites should be assessed to be of low risk, close to appropriate surface and emergency support and in an environment where the focus is on the work skills being taught, not the hazards of the actual dive site. Remote and isolated sites are not recommended.
Further, being a ‘trainee diver’ should be time limited to ensure the diver has an expectation of how long it will take to achieve competency in the assigned work skills and be able to be assessed for all the skills learnt. Most trainee divers should be able to effectively show competency within a few weeks or months, depending upon the complexity of diving and skills required. In any case the trainee period should be limited to six months at maximum, unless there are exceptional circumstances.
A trainee diver cannot fill the role of a standby diver – any standby diver must be able to immediately come to the working diver’s assistance, and as such must already hold a suitable CoC. Performing the role of a standby diver is not considered training.
Even though a trainee diver may be considered the CoC diver’s ‘buddy’ when diving, they cannot be counted as an extra ‘working diver’. Doing so without having separate direct supervision may not be considered training and could indicate the diver is working without a CoC.
It is expected practice that trainee divers log any supervised dives as training dives to achieve a competency requirement or qualification. This practice is clearly undertaken in a formal course environment and should be replicated by all divers under training.
All normal dive log details should be recorded (such as date, location, depth and time) along with details of their supervising diver, other divers in the team as well as the competencies and activities being undertaken. The logs of training dives should then be submitted as part of their CoC application.
Any dives not directly supervised are not considered training or suitable recent experience for the trainee diver and could indicate that the diver may have been working without a CoC.
The Regulations require that occupational divers be ‘medically fit’. Due to the health and exposure risks associated with occupational diving, any trainee diver should be medically assessed and hold a diving medical clearance prior to undertaking any training dives under supervision.
The competency requirements for the relevant categories of CoC are the minimum standards for an occupational diver in the respective sectors. Sometimes a risk assessment will identify additional competencies that divers may require.
WorkSafe recommends:
WorkSafe occupational diving guidance
Health and Safety in Employment Regulations 1995(external link)
Providing information, training, instruction or supervision for workers
This technical bulletin has been developed in consultation with the Diving Industry Advisory Group (DIAG).
Technical bulletin: Occupational divers under training – trainee divers
Source:
A forestry subcontractor was failed by poor risk management from the two businesses above him, both of which have been sentenced for their inaction.
39-year-old Misha Tremel was killed while manually felling trees on a small block at Clevedon in June 2022. The qualified tree feller had been brought in by Turoa Logging Limited, which was harvesting 7,800 tonnes of pine on behalf of the forest managers Pulley Contracting Limited.
Some of the trees being manually cut by Mr Tremel were windthrown, meaning they had been bent and damaged by wind. WorkSafe and the forestry industry strongly recommend that such trees are harvested using machines.
WorkSafe’s investigation found Turoa Logging had not properly reassessed its harvesting plan after nearby trees were cut by machinery and had not ensured safe felling practices were followed. Pulley Contracting did not do enough to identify the ongoing risks to workers and should have been auditing Turoa Logging more thoroughly.
“Businesses must manage their risks and cannot contract their way out of responsibility. Contractors on smaller sites like this are owed the same level of care as those in large-scale operations,” says WorkSafe’s area investigation manager, Paul West.
Mr Tremel was a much-loved husband and father who was originally from Ukraine. His death continues to be a shattering loss for his young family to process.
“Businesses must consult, cooperate and coordinate as part of a contracting chain. WorkSafe recommends health and safety is always built into contract management,” says Paul West.
Forestry had the highest fatality rate of any sector in 2024, with 16.58 deaths per 100,000 workers. Under its new strategy, WorkSafe is turning about 15 percent of its targeted frontline activity to the forestry sector because of the high rate of harm, particularly for Maōri.
WorkSafe’s role is to influence businesses to meet their responsibilities and keep people healthy and safe. When they do not, we will take action.
Read more about health and safety obligations in contracting
For more information you can contact our Media Team using our media request form. Alternatively:
Email: media@worksafe.govt.nz
Source:
Welcome to the sixth WorkSafe High Hazards newsletter where we’re covering:
Source:
Police can advise that a planned training exercise at Mānawa Bay, near Auckland Airport is now under way.
The public are reminded that they may see tactical Police staff and other emergency services outside the centre.
There is no cause for alarm.
This exercise is taking place outside of Mānawa Bay’s operating hours.
Mānawa Bay and its car park are closed to the general public.
Police will issue a further advisory once the exercise is completed.
ENDS
Jarred Williamson/NZ Police
Source:
Police were called to an address on Campbell Street in Feilding at around 12.50pm today, after a person was found deceased at the property.
The death is being treated as unexplained at this time.
A scene guard has been put in place overnight and a scene examination will take place tomorrow.
We know the police presence will be unsettling for Campbell Street residents, however we want to reassure them there is no cause for alarm.
ENDS
Issued by Police Media Centre.
Source:
Last modified on Tuesday, 29 October 2024 11:56