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Defining Serious Harm

A discussion paper on the revision of the definition of serious harm

C: Issues related to the definition

Supporting materials or guidance to the definition

Because the chosen option for the draft is a brief document without lists, explanatory material will be needed to supplement the definition.

We expect that this will only need to be a brief explanatory text supplementing each of the clauses or phrases in the definition. Such material will, in turn, need to be structured in a manner that is consistent with the prescribed form described below.

QUESTION 13: What explanatory material should be made available for employers and others?

Prescribed forms and manner of notification

Section 25 of the Act requires employers, the self-employed and principals to contracts for services to maintain a register of accidents, incidents, and occurrences of serious harm.

Section 25(3)(a) requires notification, followed by written notice (s25(3)(b)), of serious harm incidents to "the Secretary". For most workplaces this is the chief executive of the Department of Labour, but in the shipping and aviation sectors it is the chief executive of Maritime New Zealand and the Civil Aviation Authority respectively.

The register must contain information prescribed by regulation(2) , and the manner of notification and reporting is also prescribed(3) . (A form is provided in the regulations, completion of which is deemed "sufficient compliance" with the Act.)

(2) Set out in Regulation 4, Health and Safety in Employment (Prescribed Matters) Regulations 2003.

(3) Regulation 5

A new regulation is proposed to prescribe the contents of the register and the manner of notification/reporting.

The revised form will be consistent with the needs of:

  • health and safety inspectors and others reviewing notifications and reports;
  • the Department of Labour client information database;
  • the NZ Injury Data Review (published October 2002);
  • the Injury Information Manager (Department of Statistics) and the NZHIS; and
  • the ILO code of practice (see below).

It will be consistent with the Government's response to the NOHSAC Report to the Minister of Labour on the Surveillance of Occupational Disease and Injury in New Zealand (see appendixD).

Methods of notification

We expect notifications will continue to be predominantly by telephone or fax.
It is government policy that serious harm incidents can be reported or notified electronically, as well as by post or fax.

A number of private providers sell preprinted accident registers and serious harm reporting forms, or include versions of the form in "off the shelf" health and safety management software packages. This will no doubt continue.

Maritime New Zealand will also continue to be able to use a single form to collect information prescribed under the HSE Act, in addition to that required under maritime legislation.

Explanatory materials, along with the appropriate legislative references, will be included in the forms or any internet-based reporting system maintained by the Department of Labour. Private providers of these materials will be informed of any changes as soon as practical.

Information currently collected

The current regulations require employers to record information in the accident register and provided to the Secretary of Labour in the written notice. A form is reproduced in the regulations as a facsimile with either space provided for the employer to complete details, such as their name and address, or to provide "tick the box" responses (such as for injury types). The following categories of data are collected:

  1. Particulars of employer, self-employed person or principal (business name and address).
  2. Relation of person reporting to person injured/ill.
  3. Location of place of work (detailed).
  4. Personal data of injured/ill person (including name, home address, date of birth, sex).
  5. Occupation or job title of injured/ill person.
  6. Whether injured/ill person is an employee/self-employed/contractor/other.
  7. Period of employment of injured/ill person (when an employee).
  8. Treatment of injury.
  9. Time and date of accident/serious harm (including shift and time at work).
  10. Mechanism of accident/serious harm.
  11. Agency of accident/serious harm.
  12. Body part.
  13. Nature of injury or disease (incl. whether or not fatal).
  14. Where and how the accident/harm happened.
  15. Whether an investigation been carried out (and whether or not a significant hazard was involved).
  16. Person completing.

Proposed changes to the accident register and serious harm reporting form

A database of occupational injury is maintained by the Injury Information Manager within the Department of Statistics. There is scope for consistency with serious harm records from the Department of Labour's operational/client management system, which will be a source of data for the larger database.

It should ideally be consistent with the ILO code of practice for the recording and notification of occupational accidents and diseases. This is particularly the case as New Zealand moves towards ratification of ILO Convention 155(4), which encourages the collection of comprehensive injury and illness data as an input to the setting of national policy - an important component of the convention.

(4) Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155)

Changes are proposed to the collection of the following categories of information.

Nature of injury or disease

The prescribed form requires the person filling it in to "tick the box" to describe the nature of the injury or disease. A revised list is proposed that is based on the ILO code of practice. It would comprise the following groups:

1: Injuries (from Annex F)

1.10 Fractures (N800-N829)
1.20 Dislocations (N830-N839)
1.25 Sprains and strains (N840-N848)
1.30 Concussions and other internal injuries (N852-N855, N860-N869, N958)
1.40 Amputations and enucleations (N871, N866-N888, N896-N898)
1.41 Other wounds (N850, N870, N872-N879, N880-N885, N890-N895, N900- N908)
1.50 Superficial injuries (N910-N918)
1.55 Contusions and crushings (N851, N920- N929)
1.60 Burns (N940-N949)
1.70 Acute poisonings (N960-N979)
1.80 Effects of weather exposure, and related conditions (N980-N989)
1.81 Asphyxia (N990-N991)
1.82 Effects of electric currents (N992)
1.83 Effects of radiations (N993)
1.90 Multiple injuries of different nature
1.99 Other and unspecified injuries (N856, N994-N999)

2: Disease (or acute illness) resulting from exposure to agents

2.1 Chemical
2.2 Physical (incl. noise, OOS etc.)
2.3 Biological

3: Diseases by target organ systems

3.1 Respiratory
3.2 Skin
3.3 Musculoskeletal

4: Occupational cancer

Ethnicity

The Otago University Injury Prevention Unit suggested that information be collected on the ethnicity of the person suffering serious harm. This will assist the epidemiological evaluation of serious harm occurrences themselves, while allowing comparisons with other mortality and morbidity data collected by the NZHIS and other agencies. It is also recommended by the NZ Injury Prevention Strategy (June 2003). Information will need to be collected as recommended by Statistics NZ.

Information about the employer/workplace

Section 3.2 of the ILO code describes the classification of information to be recorded at both the level of the enterprise and at the national level:

  1. economic activity of the employer enterprise or establishment (ISIC)
  2. occupation (ISCO)
  3. employment status (ICSE)
  4. nature and bodily location of the injury, type of accident, agency related to the injury or the accident (refers to annexes F, G, H and I of the code for classifications concerned).

The details of notification are further specified in chapter 6 of the code.

In summary:

  • information relevant to category (a) above will be added to the prescribed form;
  • category (b) is already provided for;
  • category (c) information is collected on the person's length of employment and their employment status; and
  • information under category (d) is discussed above.
A text description of the occurrence will continue to be required

As with the existing form, respondents will be required to provide a description of the occurrence of the harm. Consistent with the recommendations of the NZ Injury Data Review, more emphasis will be placed on a description of the activity at the time of injury occurring.

Interface with NODS and the Department of Labour's operational database

The Department of Labour maintains an operational/client management database for the labour and health and safety inspectorates. The database will be revised for consistency with the new definition and to allow the transfer of data to the Injury Information Manager. The information collected will be consistent with the reporting requirements of the Notifiable Occupational Disease System.

Use of a unique identifier

It is proposed that to allow integration of the data collected with the Department of Labour and other databases, that respondents are asked to provide their ACC number. Where clients have provided information previously, this could reduce the burden on respondents to provide other details.

This is consistent with the existing form's requiring the name and date of birth of the injured person and with the NOHSAC Report to the Minister of Labour on the Surveillance of Occupational Disease and Injury in New Zealand (December 2005).

Size of the form to remain A4

The printed version of the written notice of serious harm should remain A4 size. This makes for ease of completing, processing and storing the documentation.

Appendix 3 contains a proposed Input Record Format for the prescribed manner of written notice of serious harm.

QUESTION 14: What information should be included in the prescribed manner of written notice for occurrences of serious harm? (Refer to the proposed fields in appendix 3.)

QUESTION 15: What information should be included in the prescribed form of accident register, and should it contain the same information as the manner of written notice?