Some of New Zealand’s largest construction companies have joined forces to improve workplace health and safety.
Arrow International, Cassidy Construction, Dominion Constructors, Fletcher Construction, Hawkins Construction, Leighs Construction, Naylor Love and NZ Strong recently signed an agreement committing to standardising their approach to on-site health and safety.
As a not-for-profit membership organisation set up by the industry to support improved health and safety, Site Safe will facilitate the implementation of decisions made by the group.
Site Safe chief executive Alison Molloy welcomed the commitment.
“The companies supporting this agreement, and Site Safe, know that working together to standardise and improve health and safety practice will achieve far greater benefits, and enable subcontractors and their workers to have better consistency about what is required of them,” Ms Molloy says.
The signatories have agreed to work together on several priority areas, including standard requirements for safety gear, prequalification, alcohol and drug testing, and certain high-risk activities.
A further key area is how to best ensure workers are fully engaged in their own and others’ health and safety.
They have also agreed to share their health and safety performance with each other, and to standardise how this performance is measured, so that better information on health and safety practice and improvement is available to all.
Naylor Love Construction chief executive Rick Herd says the construction industry had made real progress in raising health and safety standards over the past few years.
“By standardising our approach to managing health and safety risks, we bring our large workforce of subcontractors with us and make a step shift improvement.
“And by joining forces, we will make safety practice easier on site, and further reduce injury rates. Getting everyone home safe at the end of the day is always our top priority,” Mr Herd says.
The group expects to announce its first decisions later this year.
