Focus on Health and Safety

It’s mid-year, and the majority of the projects that have made the industry so busy over the last nine months have been completed. It feels like everyone is taking a breather – hopefully before another busy period starting late this year and shooting early 2016.

Do I know something you don’t? No, it is just supposition. Lower dollar, summer coming on, the incentives, great crews – and it would be good to get the work.

This lull in production has allowed us to move forward on the update of the Safety Code of Practice, and with the Health and Safety Bill in the news, it is time to focus on how our industry is dealing with screen industry members’ welfare.

The Health and Safety Bill returned from the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee for its second reading in Parliament on 30th July. It may go before Parliament for its third reading during the week I am writing this. Over the last few months, through strong lobbying, the Bill has undergone a number of changes. There has been much debate about the diluting of the effectiveness of the legislation, and especially about the ability of workers to participate in health and safety decisions.

Despite changes, there is a new framework for us to work with. The most important aspect is the change in responsibility, and the introduction of PCBU’s.

The Bill says PCBU means a ‘Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking’:

(i) Whether the person conducts a business or undertaking alone or with others.

(ii) Whether or not the business or undertaking is conducted for profit or gain.

The result is a widening of the responsibility for keeping people safe. As a technician and as a sub-contractor, it is important that you take responsibility for your actions, but you are now in a partnership with the people who manage your work and are responsible for the production.

The Techos’ Guild has been working on the update for some time, and after research and discussion it has created ‘ScreenSafe’.

ScreenSafe is now an industry-wide two-year project that is led by the Techos’ Guild, but is an independent organisation under the Techos’ Guild umbrella. It is a pro-active approach to the screen industry meeting its health and safety obligations.

ScreenSafe is led by the Steering Group, which has six members, and is responsible for direction and management, prioritising the individual projects and to communicate and advocate for ScreenSafe.

There is consultation with the industry through the Stakeholders Reference Group, made up of interested parties in the screen industry, so there is consensus for the results of the project. We need to ensure that we are all on the same page so we move forward as a body and agree on how we make the system work.

There is a Technical Advisory Group, which vets the information before it moves to the public domain.

The results will be on the ScreenSafe website, which will be open to all members of the screen industry, with all the relevant information, and pathways to ensuing good health and safety practices.

In the past the Techos’ Guild has sold the Safety Code of Practice booklet, but with the move to a website it became important to make this accessible to all people who are interested. By charging for the use of the website we put an impediment in the way of people being able to use it. So, to be pro-active we have made the website free, and one of the Steering Group’s objectives is to secure on-going funding support for health and safety.

The new code doesn’t forgo the role of the safety co-ordinator on the production, but is designed to up-skill the participants in the production to best achieve a safe work environment.

The NZ screen industry is looking to ensure compliance with the new legislation, and have safe workplaces for all persons involved in productions by adopting a proactive approach to its health and safety obligations.

The outcomes being sought from the project are to:

• Support the creation and maintenance of safe workplaces for all screen industry participants.
• Create a culture where participants are empowered to contribute to safe work practices.
• Create an enduring culture of health and safety in the NZ screen industry.
• Create and implement an on-going review of health and safety in the NZ screen industry.
• Collaborate with the screen industry to ensure adoption of a safety code of practice.

So, safe workplaces are to everyone’s advantage and are everyone’s responsibility.