Free Health & Safety standards

Confession:

Until I did postgraduate H&S study at VUW with Chris Peace, I didn't know about our occupational health & safety or risk management Standards. Why are these standards not freely available to anyone trying to improve health and safety outcomes?

My face when I first read AS/NZS 4804:2001

I've been part of H&S committees and advocating for worker safety for almost 20 years, and a generalist H&S trainer since 2021. I was part of making some pretty big things affecting lots of workers, but I wish I'd known about the standards then. I think it's weird that we don't refer to the Standards more often. They're just so useful and help us to be deliberate, analytical, astute and curious even when we're considering familiar, complicated, expensive, or sensitive subjects - like how work can cause harm to people and communities. Many of us know about specific AS/NZ Standards relating to seatbelts & cycle helmets, building standards, health settings and laboratories. Our NZ Standards are (usually) shared with Australia and are based on the ISOs (international standards). There's about 2700 current NZ standards alone.

Standards are developed and reviewed/updated by experts through a rigorous process, then published in plain language appropriate to its scope of application. No, they're not perfect and most standards require regular updating, because: science. It's not a cheap process or static solution. But they're are based on real expertise, not informed by lobby groups (real or imagined) or impacted by fickle negotiations of parliamentary law-makers. They're nerdy science stuff made into practical guides.

Access to H&S standards is not cheap

There are six that PCBUs wanting basic general standards would use, and they cost between $108 and $205 each. A Minister for Workplace Relations & Safety who really wants PCBUs to have affordable access to legitimate plain language guidance on how to manage business risk and protect worker wellbeing might agree that MBIE should sponsor these:

• AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009 ($132.30+GST) and its companion AS/NZS HB 436:2013 ($243.90+GST) (or the updated Australian version) for risk management principles and guidelines (not limited to H&S)

• AS/NZS IEC 31010:2020 ($204.30+GST) to properly use appropriate risk assessment techniques when managing risk (not limited to H&S)  

• AS/NZS ISO 45001:2018 ($108.90+GST) to operate good occupational health and safety management systems

• AS/NZS 4804:2001 ($132.30+GST) principles, systems and supporting techniques for occupational health and safety management systems

• AS/NZS ISO 45003:2021 ($139.50+GST) to manage psychosocial risks

Why aren't these standards referred to outside nerdy H&S or risk/governance circles? Even on WorkSafe's website, the only published Standards specifically to electricity and gas, or you'll have to be reading specific guidance to find references to them (for example this guidance about managing psychosocial risks which rightly mentions AS/NZS ISO 45003:2021). Do I think we should require everyone to 'comply' with the standards? No, because we don't need more consultancies or 'professionalisation' of good process. The UK's Trade Union Congress have written about their BSO experience, and I wouldn't want to perpetuate workers (and managers) being left out of health & safety management. Like most kiwis, I'm not a fan of uncritically adopting someone else's plan, but I do like reading the bones of a good plan and seeing how I can apply it to my situation. Surely the standards are a useful resource?

Why not sponsor them?

MBIE sponsors 36 building related Standards. That's great! It means anyone from a large companies to DYIers can download a free pdf version of the latest expertise on how to ensure fire safety, stability, accessibility and so forth. MBIE also covers employment, business and workplace health and safety. But apparently shared standards (these are NZ & Australia standards) can't be sponsored. In a country full of small to medium businesses needing support, I'd really like to see us develop at least one NZ standard for general risk management - let's do AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009 and then AS/NZS ISO 45001:2018. This isn't red tape or bureaucracy - it's clear and valuable guidance that we clearly need.

The Minister believes H&S laws should specify how to keep people safe, that they should be based on good evidence (source: 7 April 2024 'Q&A' interview with Jack Tame) and that we should not place 'unnecessary additional' responsibilities on PCBUs (most of whom won't be spending $1000 for single-user electronic copies of the six Standards I've listed). She says she wants to improve outcomes for business, so let's do it.

Go well,

Tjarda I was pleasantly surprised to have my little rang about ISO standards quoted at length in the recent NZISM H&S Reform survey overview. I wish I'd edited my work more carefully :)