Trades workers lead city's injury statistics

Amalgamated Builders apprentice Ben Wooltorton conducts a site clean-up, one of many safety...
Amalgamated Builders apprentice Ben Wooltorton conducts a site clean-up, one of many safety procedures taken by the company to reduce workplace accidents. Photo by Jonathan Chilton-Towle.
Dunedin's builders and other tradesmen officially have the most dangerous jobs in Dunedin, according to data from Statistics New Zealand.

Provisional figures for 2013 showed 4119 Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) claims were made for workplace injuries in Dunedin in 2013. The greatest number of claims for the period (801) were made by trades workers compared with other occupational groups.

They also had the most accidents nationwide, making 35,478 claims out of a total of 182,889.

Amalgamated Builders systems administration manager David Baker and area construction supervisor Trevor Hart both agreed construction was a hazardous industry.

Because of changing work environments, each site was different and the hazards were different at each stage of construction, Mr Baker said.

Training of staff was one of the ways the company tried to improve safety, he said.

The most common injuries in Dunedin in 2013 were injuries to the wrist and hand, with 831 claims made across all industries. Abdominal and head and neck injuries were the next most common with 756 and 708 claims made respectively.

In 2013, Dunedin tradesmen suffered 174 hand and wrist injuries, 162 head and neck injuries, 120 abdominal injuries and 105 injuries to the upper limb/shoulder.

Between 2002 and 2012, Dunedin trades workers filed a total of 10,671 claims with ACC for work-related injuries.

For every year between 2002 and 2012, the total number of claims made by tradesmen was between 800 and 1100, with a peak of 1131 in 2008.

For each of those years, trades workers had more accident claims than any of the other 10 main occupational groups.

The second most dangerous job was being a plant and machine operator or assembler, with 7944 claims, and third were service and sales workers with 6837.

Workers from elementary occupations made 6288 claims, and agriculture and fisheries workers made 5217.

The safest occupation was being a clerk, but even they managed to make 1422 injury claims, amounting to about 120 per year between 2002 and 2012.

Mr Baker said all outdoor staff had to complete a basic Site Safe course, which taught them about hazards on the construction site. Staff members were also encouraged to complete higher levels of Site Safe training and subcontractors working with amalgamated builders were in theory not allowed on to the building site until their staff had completed Site Safe.

However, Site Safe was a voluntary industry standard and not all companies took part, Mr Baker said.

Staff were trained to use each tool or piece of equipment through a mixture of in-house and external training. Tools and equipment were inspected every three months and some equipment could only be used by qualified staff.

Many staff members had first aid certificates and getting one had become a requirement for apprentices.

A ''hazard board'' laying out hazards at a site was set up at each workplace and all visitors were given a safety briefing before being on site.

Safety rules included wearing protective clothing, a ban on iPods and pets on site, and rules around who could set up and move scaffolding.

Mr Baker believed a ''good proportion'' of workplace accidents in the statistics would have been due to smaller residential builders rather than the large commercial firms.

He vetted subcontractors working with Amalgamated and asked them to provide a work safety plan and information on what safety training their staff had. In some cases, this information was not provided and in that case Amalgamated had to supervise the subcontractors on site.

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