BNZ’s health and safety audit

BNZ is about to be audited on its health and safety practices. BNZ is audited each year by an external ACC Auditor as part of the ACC Partnership Programme.  BNZ is legally required to speak to its workers during the audit in order to get open and honest feedback about how they feel things are going. And this will be done through focus group meetings over the next couple of weeks in meetings at Auckland worksites.

We believe that there are significant health and safety issues at BNZ. So we need as many BNZ workers in the Auckland area as possible to volunteer to attend these meetings

Sure, people aren’t being injured by heavy machinery, but many workers are faced with overwork, pressure and stress.  Workplace stress, if not dealt with is a serious medical condition, which can result in long-term health problems such as depression, ‘burnout’ and heart disease.  All workers have a right to a healthy workplace without the risk of stress, injury or disease.

In December 2005 Finsec commissioned independent research company, AssessSystems, to measure the level of workplace-related stress within BNZ and to find out the causes of that stress. The research showed very high levels of stress compared to normal workplaces.

1 in 4 respondents at BNZ find their work very stressful and 1 in 20 respondents are extremely stressed by their work.

The research showed the causes of stress related to factors that are unique to the BNZ, rather than just being normal stress that all workers experience. The biggest causes of stress were: use of scorecards, performance targets and pressure to sell to customers.  And  understaffing.

(Thanks to Malik M.I. Williams for the photo)

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