La imputación objetiva del resultado

New Zealand government departments and agencies

• The Workplace Health and Safety Strategy for New Zealand to 2015 (WHSS) identifies small businesses as a national priority. The need for a coherent national policy on occupational health and safety has been further recognised by New Zealand’s recent ratification of the International Labour Organisation Convention 155 on occupational health and safety and the working environment. The convention signals New Zealand's commitment to the ongoing promotion of improved health and safety in workplaces, including small businesses. However, to date, there is little reported evidence of the progress achieved in relation to OHS and small businesses in New Zealand. The outcomes in relation to achieving the strategy for small businesses reported in the WHSS report on progress for 2006/2007 appear to be ad hoc and not link linked to any overarching strategy.

• There is a need for an integrated cohesive approach between government agencies including the Department of Labour, ACC and Ministry of Economic Development to improving OHS management in small businesses. Co-operation with stakeholders, such as industry organisations and other influencers in the small business environment, is also essential.

• Government agencies need to take into account the changing nature of work in planning and delivering services to small businesses. This involves consideration of precarious and informal employment and other forms of contract work. It is recognised that vulnerable workers (such as casualised labour, older workers, new migrants and people with low literacy), many of whom are employed in small businesses, require special attention and protection in terms of their health and safety.

• A major challenge is how to reconcile contradictory demands: the need for ongoing, individualised, personalised (and time-consuming) service to a large and dispersed sector of the workforce, with limited resources.

• The Robens philosophy, upon which the New Zealand legislative framework for OHS is based, requires government agencies administering the framework to provide support and assistance to businesses, particularly small businesses. There is little evidence that small businesses are supported in this way. In addition, this also questions the efficacy of the performance-based framework of the current OHS legislation.

• Although a commonly used strategy, it is unclear if and to what extent the economic model of motivation for small businesses is effective. This issue needs greater consideration in relation to determining the strategies that are best suited to improving working conditions in small businesses.

• Consideration should be given to using non-OHS professionals or intermediaries in the supply chain to deliver OHS advice and information. This is one example of the use of external influencers, which should be small business or sector- specific. This ‘side-car’ approach relies on the interests that business professionals, such as accountants, have in securing potentially lucrative consultancy work in an under-serviced small business sector. The consultants’ efforts to develop their OHS expertise and to service small businesses for their

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own economic gain may offer serendipitous opportunities for furthering the goals of OHS agencies.

• A core strategic device in the provision and management of limited OHS resources to small businesses is that of ‘partnership’ in the form of joint funding schemes or ‘piggy-backing’ OHS interventions on to existing distribution or communication systems.

Surveillance

• The crude estimates of burden of injury and disease attributed to small businesses appear to be very significant. Data available are primarily related to fatal and non-fatal injuries and likely under-estimates the extent of the burden. The burden of occupational disease attributable to hazardous exposures in small businesses is unknown. The full extent of this burden will inevitably require government agencies to reassess their priorities and resources in relation to small businesses.

• There is currently a lack of reliable OHS data about New Zealand small businesses. Strategic issues include:

o lack of a unified definition of a small business o identifying and contacting small businesses o limited data on injury and occupational disease o limited co-ordination between agencies. Workforce capability

• There is a need to enhance and broaden the expertise in key relevant discipline areas relating to OHS management in small businesses, intervention effectiveness and evaluation research in government departments.

Research

Research is required to:

• evaluate the effectiveness of current OHS programmes for small businesses in New Zealand

• investigate how small businesses in New Zealand manage OHS

• understand employee participatory processes for OHS management in small businesses

• determine the nature and extent of hazardous physical and psychosocial exposures in the small workplace in order to identify priority areas to direct preventive interventions

• determine the efficacy of preventive interventions to reduce incidence and prevalence of fatal and non-fatal injury and disease in small workplaces in New Zealand

• determine why some small businesses have more proactive OHS management than others, using the ‘success case’ methodology240

• determine how actors in the supply chain can contribute to improving and influencing how small businesses manage OHS and how government agencies can initiate and facilitate this process

• undertake a targeted industry case study of the implementation of known success factors for improving OHS management in small businesses

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