Health & Safety

The wellbeing of our people is very important to us and we have in place a comprehensive health and safety programme. 

Health and safety awareness training is provided at induction briefings for new employees, through participation in industry accredited training courses and through in-house training.  Staff involved in construction and operations work are given specific safety training appropriate to their activities.

We have a rehabilitation programme, which is tailored to the individual and specific needs of injured employees, and developed in consultation with the employee to support their timely and safe return to work.

Our health and safety performance is reviewed on a regular basis and given coverage in team briefs and through the Chief Executive’s Newsletters.

During the year our New Zealand operations passed an  independent audit for entry into the ‘Workplace Safety Management Practices’ scheme operated by the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) and we were accepted into the second level of the scheme.  A major aspect of the audit was our ability to demonstrate, that we not only had documentation and procedures in place, but that we could demonstrate our knowledge and awareness of, and compliance with, our health and safety procedures.  Confirmation of the robustness of our practices and our commitment to health and safety had the side benefit of providing a discount on our annual ACC levy.

The company’s lost time/injury accident record over the past five years is shown below:

The New Zealand Department of Statistics publishes accident statistics data for a range of industry sectors. The lowest incidence rates in the most recently published data (December 2005) are recorded as 22 claims per 1,000 employees in the finance and insurance industry and 49 claims per 1,000 for employees in the education sector.