Speakers at an International Workers Memorial Day ceremony in Dunedin have urged for there to be a "culture change'' to improve workplace safety, and highlighted the challenge of keeping the annual ceremony going.
Dunedin South MP Clare Curran said although new health and safety legislation had recently come into effect, a "culture change'' was also needed to improve New Zealand's poor record of workplace deaths and injuries.
The law needed to be further strengthened, she said.
She said 46 New Zealanders had died since last year's memorial day.
"That's just totally unacceptable,'' she said.
In another address, Jim Kelly, a life member of Unions Otago, and a former national president of the Rail and Maritime Transport Union, reflected on the history of the Otago Workers Memorial, which was officially unveiled at the Market Reserve in 2003.
He emphasised the need for more young people to become involved in helping to keep the annual ceremony going.
PSA organiser and Unions Otago member Jo Taylor then read a list of 60 Otago workers who had died at work since the early 1990s, including about 15 farm workers and farmers, as well as several others involved in agricultural work or forestry.
