Working people have been demanding that the Government ban the importation of cancer causing asbestos for decades. Yesterday the Government took action and banned most importation of asbestos.
This Workers Memorial Day, April 28th, we remember the 99* New Zealanders who went to work and never came home, the 99 New Zealanders who were killed at work.
“Workers Memorial Day is a sombre day. We remember those whose lives would have been saved if their workplaces had been safer. All of these deaths could have been prevented,” CTU President Richard Wagstaff said.
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions knows that high quality, worker-centric health and safety representative training programmes are a key to safer work under the new Health and Safety at Work Act. The new Act comes into force today and heralds some significant improvements in the health and safety space – including new powers for Health and Safety Reps (HSRs).
Another forestry worker has been killed at work today. The Council of Trade Unions sends our deepest sympathies to the whanau and colleagues of the man who was working on a Pan Pac forestry block inland from Tutira, north of Napier.