Worksafe – Asleep at the wheel?

I suspected that Worksafe was going to be another drag on business and an expense to taxpayers while adding little to no value. That suspicion was confirmed yesterday when the same incident happened on one of our sites as late last year and Worksafe can’t even be bothered to respond.

For the second time in 6 months one of our diggers pulled up a live gas line on site. We shut the site down. We got Worksafe and First Gas, who subcontract to Electrix on site, along with our health and safety consultant. We had the meetings, completed all the forms and other compliance and got things moving again.

We did nothing wrong. We followed good H&S practice and we take the welfare of our team very seriously. We always obtain written confirmation from the Gas and Electricity suppliers that both power and gas have been disconnected at the site before we remove a house and start excavation, even though there is no legal requirement to do this.

Despite the precautions we take, this is the second time we’ve hit a live gas line on site. The first was in November 2018 on a site on Ohaupo Road in Hamilton. Again we had confirmed in writing prior to excavation on that site that there was no live power or gas, yet we discovered there actually was a live gas line on site.

Yesterday I called the Chief Executive of Worksafe. I had to leave a message, I’ve heard nothing back. I want to know why they haven’t answered my requests back in November for details of how they would assist us with ensuring this doesn’t happen again. Not impressed.

I also called the Managing Director of Electrix. The head of the Gas Division for NZ called me back within an hour. I received a call from the PA I’d initially spoken to within an hour and I received a call from the Hamilton Manager within 2 hours. A professional response.

I have discussed a new process with Electrix. I stressed to them how important it was to fix this - to ensure it doesn’t happen again. So now, instead of relying on the worthless GIS logs, we will require Electrix to physically visit the site and look for any evidence of gas, and if they need to, scan the ground for unground lines.

I think this is all I can do to try and avoid a similar incident again. Some response or input from Worksafe would have been useful, but I guess they are too busy with other things, like travel. The Worksafe Chief Executive Nicole Rosie spent $39,000 on travel last year, including trips to Antartica, Singapore and Melbourne, at the taxpayers' expense. Perhaps focussing a little more on what’s happening at home would be a good idea? Or maybe Nicole is simply following Jacinda’s lead..

John Kenel, CEO, Assured Property Investments