ACC recognises top workplace health and safety advocates

“We’re pleased to continue our support of this event and celebrate the wide achievements in promoting workplace health and safety,” said Adam Jennings, head of business partnerships, ACC. “This year’s finalists showcased a wide variety of effective health, safety and wellbeing initiatives, and it’s important their work is recognised.”

ACC sponsored the Best Leadership of an Industry Sector or Region category and was joint sponsor with WorkSafe New Zealand for the Supreme Award for Best Overall Contribution to Improving Workplace Health and Safety in New Zealand.

For the former category, Air New Zealand emerged as the winner over Fletcher Building and the Business Leaders’ Health and Safety Forum and Leading Safety.

The airline was awarded for its response to the initial COVID-19 period in early 2020, which led to the airline shutting down significant parts of its operations, shedding a third of its staff and leaving many of the rest feeling lost and overwhelmed.

The flag carrier swiftly created a risk-based COVID response plan, involving its health and safety, aviation, occupational health and strategic wellbeing teams. It also launched an online wellbeing check-in tool for all staff globally, which has been extensively used.

The Supreme Award was claimed by the partnership of KiwiRail, Downer and Aurecon, besting the winners of all nine other categories.

ACC said that the partnership received the award for its work on a double tracking project on the Trentham to Upper Hutt rail corridor, which required excavator work close to the busy rail line and near overhead power lines.

The companies used 3D and GPS technology to produce digital shields and create a virtual no-go zone. If an excavator touched the invisible shield, it would automatically shut down, protecting both the operator and anyone in a passing train.

This project allowed KiwiRail to confidently let excavators and other equipment to work close to the tracks by lowering the chance of an interruption to train services.