Are your business and staff healthy?

Health monitoring helps determine whether staff are properly protected from workplace hazards

Sometimes hazards in the workplace cannot be eliminated or isolated, such as dust, chemical fumes, noise or vibration. However, even though employers may not be able to eliminate or isolate hazard, they still have a responsibility to minimise employees’ exposure to risks and to monitor the impact on their health.

The purpose of health monitoring is to determine if the precautions taken to protect staff from workplace hazards are suitable and effective.

Types of monitoring

Employers can test and monitor the environment and employees’ health to assess particular workplace hazards:

• Environmental monitoring involves measuring air or dust sampling, sound levels or other hazardous environmental factors.
• Health monitoring involves direct monitoring of an individual’s health indicators such as blood, urine or lung function tests, and hearing tests.

“Although employers cannot always eliminate workplace hazards, they have a responsibility to minimise employees’ exposure to risks and to monitor the impact these hazards may have on their health

Your obligations as an employer

Under the Health and Safety Act 1992 employers must:

• Provide appropriate, working personal protective equipment (PPE) and ensure it’s being used properly.
• Identify exposure and test and measure if an employee’s health is being adversely affected by hazards. It’s important to give employees copies of results from any health monitoring tests.
• If an employee refuses health monitoring, you need to decide if they should be removed from the high-risk task or area.

Education

Employers have a legal obligation to educate their employees. It’s important to provide full training and information about potential hazards, as well as to ensure staff:

• Know how to correctly use PPE.
• Are aware of any health issues that may arise from exposure to harmful substances.
• Are assisted in understanding the results of any health monitoring tests.

 

 

Stop, collaborate and listen!

• Engage with key staff to evaluate the effectiveness of your health monitoring policy.
• Employee participation will help improve health monitoring as well overall health and safety culture in the workplace.
• Include health monitoring in all employment agreements, to help ensure that helth and safety is taken seriously in the workplace.

Worst case scenario

If health monitoring returns negative results, these should be entered into accident registers and investigated. It is important that hazard controls are reviewed as part of any investigation to try and reduce exposure entirely.

If significant harm occurs, WorkSafe NZ must be notified. It’s also possible an employee will need to be referred to ACC.

Safety employment act under review

It’s important to note the Health and Safety Employment Act 1992 is under review and will be replaced by the Health and Safety at Work Act, scheduled for April 2015. A discussion document outlining proposals for the new act has been released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and is available on its website.

For more information head to www.sitesafe.org.nz/HSEreformHUB.

About Site Safe

Vision: Construction – proud to be safe. Contact Site Safe at 0800 SITE SAFE or visit www.sitesafe.org.nz.

Site Safe NZ Inc is a not-for-profit, membership-based organisation that promotes a culture of safety in the New Zealand construction and related industries.