NEW ERA FOR WORKERS ON THIS LABOUR DAY SAYS MCCULLY

"New research shows that employees, as well as employers, are big winners as a result of the new accident insurance environment," Accident Insurance Minister Murray McCully said today.

"It is appropriate on this last Labour Day of the old millennium that we have evidence that shows that the workplaces of the future will be safer than of the past," he said.

Mr McCully released a UMR Insight survey commissioned by the Department of Labour which shows that employers are paying more attention to workplace safety and the rehabilitation of workers as a result of the ACC reforms.

"The new competitive environment for workplace accident insurance has created strong financial incentives to improve workplace health and safety by directly linking it to premiums."

The research was undertaken in September this year.

More than nine out ten employers said they had provided information on their health safety record to an insurance broker or insurance company.

One in five said they had changed their health and safety policies as a result of the reforms. Of those who had not made any change so far, nearly half (48%) said they would be undertaking a health and safety review in the next 12 months.

Half of the employers interviewed expected there would be fewer workplace accidents as a result of the reforms, nearly two-thirds expected there would be faster rehabilitation of injured workers and more than three quarters thought there would be more incentives for employers to improve workplace safety.

"The tide of injuries and deaths on the job will turn as a result of the changes that this Government has instituted," Mr McCully said.