The Prime Minister has announced that the adult minimum wage will be rising to $22.70 per hour from 1 April 2023, which will also effect training and starting-out wages This is an increase of $1.50 per hour from the current hourly rate of $21.20 and aligns with the 7.2% rate of Consumer Price Index inflation in the year ended December 2022. Continue →

A contractor’s work environment must be safe for everyone involved, which means having the proper first aid supplies and personnel in an emergency This article will discuss some essential tips and strategies for contractors to help them meet their first-aid obligations. Continue →

Employers who tell their employees to ‘leave their personal problems at home’ may be contributing to a more hazardous workplace by increasing the risk of serious, even fatal, accidents on site, a health and safety service provider says Stats NZ reports a significant increase in the proportion of people with poor mental well-being, up from 22 per cent in 2018 to 28 per cent in 2021. Continue →

A district council has been sentenced for its part in the death of three-year old Lachlan Jones WorkSafe New Zealand and Water Safety New Zealand are uniting to call for greater care around ponds, dams, and water bores, in light of new figures on drownings. Continue →

Delayed monitoring or inaccurate reporting can lead to potential breaches in compliance, resource consents, health and safety, and complaints from local residents, which can then cause project delays and potentially add costs Civil infrastructure company Dempsey Wood monitor levels of emissions from noise, dust and vibration in real time that until recently, required on-site manual testing. Continue →

By digitizing and automating the payment process and implementing real-time payment exchange, construction companies can decrease risk and take steps to improve profitability Construction companies can automate payment and compliance workflows. Continue →

The Government announced a new visa to facilitate the availability of specialist migrant workers to help in the recovery efforts following Cyclone Gabrielle and other recent weather events in the North Island The Recovery Visa (a Specific Purpose Work Visa), will allow employers to sponsor migrants to come to New Zealand for a specific event or purpose, including working on an emergency response. Continue →

WorkSafe has released a draft fact sheet on the safe use of containers at worksites and is looking for feedback Containers are often used at worksites as temporary structures for things like additional storage, site offices, and containment areas, WorkSafe says. Continue →

This year has been earmarked as one of significant cyber risk to organisations, NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says The covid pandemic provided cyber criminals with a fertile ground to execute scams and reap the riches. Continue →

Recent flooding has highlighted the need for businesses and organisations to manage risks to make sure working conditions are safe, WorkSafe says Workers have a right to be kept safe and healthy, whether they are involved in cleaning up or clocking on for a shift. Continue →

Forty years ago you might have found your first gig and then stayed there for your entire career, but times are changing and we’ve started to see stints of two to four years become much more common, SJS finds For gen-z, the average time spent in a job is just two years, while for millennials we’re looking at about four. Continue →

Workshops are bringing attention to the 125+ fatigue sleep events occur daily on NZ roads The Eyes Up NZ workshops are being delivered by vehicle safety and training provider AutoSense, who have analysed the data of 4,600 cameras installed in heavy and light vehicles on New Zealand roads and confirmed 125 verified fatigue sleep events occur while driving every day. Continue →

While it might feel like a potential problem, quiet quitting is also an excellent opportunity Quiet quitting is where an employee does the role they’re required to do, but nothing more (that means no overtime or other extras). Continue →

Introverts and extroverts have different personalities, meaning they’ll inevitably have different needs for their workspace Ebuyer has teamed up with Myers-Brigg Personality Type Indicator (MBTI) Practitioner Shauna Skinner to consult on the best set-up for each personality type. Continue →

It is becoming more common for machine operators to work shifts well into the night to meet their clients’ demands, but such 24/7 service puts immense pressure on hydraulic systems, Hydraulink Fluid Connectors Ltd Chief Executive Robin Simpson says Heavier workloads for earthmovers, miners, construction and infrastructure, and transport operators are putting the strain on the hydraulic systems of static and mobile machinery essential to their tasks, including graders, diggers, trucks, forklifts, forest and agricultural harvesters, road and rail maintenance equipment, and fixed and mobile cranes. Continue →

Remote working has unique challenges that are different from working on site, so how do you manage it? Continue →

Four employees who were terminated by the management of a large oil and gas company in Taranaki have been awarded almost $280,000 in lost wages, reimbursements and compensation by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) In a determination released mid-May, the ERA found the oil and gas company guilty of breaching good faith as an employer, after it made the four employees redundant “out of blue” after it claimed it was in a dire financial position due to falling oil prices and the outbreak of the Covid pandemic in 2020. Continue →