Report shows work accidents fall if safety is a priority

Press, 28 August 1984, Page 3

Report shows work accidents fall if safety is a priority

PA Wellington The number of accidents fall when firms make safety in the workplace a priority, says a report in the latest “New Zealand Medical Journal.” Dr C. K. Chew, industrial medical officer, Kawerau, studied the number and trends in lost-time work accidents in a paper manufacturing plant. The study confirmed a strong relationship between the rising accident fre3uency rate and the introuction of the Accident Compensation Act. A pos-

sible explanation was the different benefit rates payable to lost-time work accidents under the new act. Under the old Workers’ Compensation Act benefits were limited to $42 a week plus dependants’ allowances and there was every incentive for a worker to continue at a job in the event of minor accidents. Under the Accident Compensation Act, with its 100 per cent of pay during the first week by employers and 80 per cent thereafter by the corporation, there was every incentive for workers to claim benefits and take

time off work, the study found. In the firm studied there was a dramatic fall in the number of reported losttime accidents from 1977 to 1982. The accident frequency rate decreased 167 per cent from 11.5 to 4.3 accidents per 100,009 man-hours. During the same period the work force increased about 18 per cent. “The reason for this fall in accident rate was the initiation of new approach to the firm’s safety procedures,” Dr Chew said in the report.