2024

Celebrating the best of health, safety and wellbeing in New Zealand

The annual New Zealand Workplace Health & Safety Awards have been run since 2005. They are organised by Safeguard with the support of WorkSafe New Zealand and ACC.

WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

Deep dive into ergonomics takes out top national health and safety award

The deliberate use of a formalised ergonomics and human factors approach in the design of a new household food waste bin has won Auckland Council the overall honours at this year's New Zealand Workplace Health and Safety Awards. The extensively trialled design has hugely reduced the riks of musculoskeletal harm for the rubbish collectors who pick up thousands of these bins around the city every day.

The awards were presented at a gala dinner at the Viaduct Events Centre in Auckland, attended by more than 700 people.

Safeguard editor Peter Bateman, convenor of the five-person judging panel, said Auckland Council's commitment to take seriously the most common type of work injury - strains and sprains - and engage ergonomics researchers at AUT with the hard-earned wisdom of rubbish collectors themselves had produced an outstanding result.

"It's really pleasing to see a major player such as Auckland Council partnering with academic exponents and taking a fully researched, trialled and human-centred approach to design out problems before they arise. Strain and sprain injuries put thousands of people off work every year and can significantly reduce people's ability to keep working."

The winners are:

THE WORKSAFE NEW ZEALAND/ACC BEST OVERALL CONTRIBUTION TO IMPROVING WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY IN NEW ZEALAND
Auckland Council (winner of the Innovation category)

SAFETY (sponsored by Dentons)
Traffic Safe NZ

HEALTH (sponsored by Southern Cross Healthcare)
AW Fraser

WELLBEING (sponsored by Vitae)
Contact Energy

ENGAGEMENT (sponsored by NZ Safety Blackwoods)
Air New Zealand

INNOVATION (sponsored by Anthony Harper)
Auckland Council

SAFETY-II (Sponsored by HSE Global)
EastPack

COLLABORATION (Sponsored by IMPAC)
Marlborough Roads

GOVERNANCE (Sponsored by Simpson Grierson)
NZ Post

LEADERSHIP (Sponsored by ACC)
CHASNZ

PRACTITIONER (Sponsored by NZISM)
Kurt Maxwell, Watercare

EMERGING PRACTITIONER (Sponsored by edenfx HSE Recruitment)
Kate Poole, NZTA Waka Kotahi

REPRESENTATIVE (Sponsored by Vero Liability)
Mathew Bennie, KiwiRail