Beaumont Carol: Health and Safety (Pike River Implementation) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBeaumont Carol: Health and Safety (Pike River Implementation) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 12 November 2013. Volume:694;Page:14605. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CAROL BEAUMONT (Labour): There are many positive elements in this part Part 2 of the Health and Safety (Pike River Implementation) Bill. Certainly from my previous roles with the Council of Trade Unions and for a while on the Workplace Health and Safety Council I can see that there are significant improvements. As my colleague Sue Moroney just mentioned as she was finishing her contribution many of the elements are things that we do want to see across all industries and all workplaces.There are a few elements in Part 2B inserted by clause 27 that I particularly want to comment on. Part 2B “Worker participation in health and safety in mining sector” has some strong wording in its purpose. That is what I think is really positive about this whole part. The purpose of Part 2B is “to require the participation of mine workers in processes relating to health and safety in a mining operation so that—(a) all persons with relevant knowledge and expertise can help make the mining operations healthy and safe; and (b) when making decisions that affect mine workers and their work a mine operator has information from mine workers who face the health and safety issues in practice.”That is fundamentally important. That is saying that the people who do the job know best how to do it safely and that therefore they need to be part of making the operation safe and healthy. I think that is a really good strong statement. Of course this worker participation in this part has both the industry-level representatives also known ascheck inspectors and the site health and safety representatives. There are provisions around both.Again some of the particular elements I thought were worthy of note because I do think they are positive. One is the requirement in section 19Q(1) to have “a documented worker participation system that provides reasonable opportunities for the mine workers to participate effectively in ongoing processes for the improvement of health and safety in the mining operation.” Subsection (4) actually goes on to say: “If a site health and safety committee or a site health and safety representative makes a recommendation regarding health and safety in a mining operation the mine operator must either adopt the proposal or provide a written statement to the site health and safety committee or site health and safety representative setting out the reasons for not adopting the proposal.” That is pretty robust because in the event that something is not done and that is put in writing and then harm actually occurs there is a very clear record and really some culpability there. I think that that is positive.Throughout there are a number of provisions that are really positive. Again another one that I feel the need to mention is section 19RA which deals with training of site health and safety representatives. Subsection (3) states that “a worker participation system must ensure that every site health and safety representative who is an employee has sufficient paid leave to attend training reasonably required to attain the competency requirements …” for their role. Again they are very clear positive statements.Particularly of concern to me in the past has been rehabilitation of harmed workers. I think this has been picked up well in section 19V with the provision in paragraph (f) “to promote the interests of mine workers who have been harmed at work including in relation to arrangements for harmed workers’ rehabilitation and return to work.” This is often a very very difficult area. As we speak now there are many people out there who have been hurt at work and really struggle in this space. They struggle in terms of opportunities for rehabilitation and a return to work. It is an area where there is not necessarily the degree of support and representation required so the fact that that is explicitly stated in that form seems to me again to be a very positive element.One of the things that I do think is important is the reintroduction of the check inspectors. As others have said this really is about beefing up provisions and having in place representatives who are not associated with a particular site but gain industry-wide experience and expertise and have some quite significant powers.