According to new statistics from the Department of Labour:
- Workplace injuries are killing about 100 people
- More than 700 people die prematurely from work-related illness or disease
- More than 200,000 people are seriously harmed (this corresponds to 12 injuries for every 100 workers)1
- There are more than 17,000 new cases of work-related disease, with between 2,500 – 5,500 classed as severe
- Construction, agriculture, forestry, manufacturing and fishing consistently have above average fatal and major injury rates – accounting for approximately 37% of all ACC claims.2
Of those 200,000 serious injuries
- The manufacturing sector has the highest number of work-related injuries
- The highest injury-incidence rates are in the mining industry, construction industry, and agriculture, forestry and fishing sector
- Sprains and strains are by far the most frequent injury (90,000 claims), followed by open wounds (37,000 claims)
- An estimated 50% of injuries result in impairment, and 6% in permanent impairment.3
Death or injury on the worksite has been a constant battle between workers and bosses. This has existed going back to the first developments of capitalism in New Zealand, where a group of Bay of Islands Maori in 1821 staged the first strike, demanding “for their labour in money as was the case in England, or else in gunpowder.” or Samuel Parnell, a carpenter who on arrival in New Zealand in 1840 refused to work longer than an eight hour day.4 Read the rest of this entry »