health and safety

Work stress is making people from doctors to plumbers mentally ill, new research has found. The Dunedin-based study found that 14 per cent of women and 10 per cent of men who were stressed at work suffered depression or anxiety when aged 32. They had not had these conditions before.

They were among nearly 900 people Otago University has been following since they were born in 1972-73. For the latest paper, they were asked at the age of 32 about psychological and physical job demands, the level of control they had in decision-making and social support structures at work.

The paper, published in the British journal Psychological Medicine, found that women who reported high levels of psychological job demands - such as long hours, pressure or lack of clear direction - were 75 per cent more likely to suffer from clinical depression or general anxiety disorder than women who reported the lowest levels.  Men with high levels of these work stress factors were 80 per cent more likely to be depressed or anxious than those with the lowest levels.

Separate research has found that 16 per cent of New Zealanders suffer major depression and 6 per cent have general anxiety disorder at some point in their lives.

The director of the long-term Dunedin study, Professor Richie Poulton, said previous research had suggested a connection between work stress and depression and anxiety. However, this study was the first to establish the association independently of other factors in mental disorders, such as personality type and socioeconomic status.

But the study did not find any differences between jobs. "The most toxic factor here is high psychological demands," he said. "That can be present in multiple professions: the media are always working under time pressure; doctors, firemen, nurses, builders, plumbers ... it applies across the board."

He said the latest study, a collaboration with King's College, London, was done because rates of depression, anxiety disorders and people's stress levels had increased.

Because of the costs of mental disorders he urged employers to minimise stress for their workers. Business NZ chief executive Phil O'Reilly said smart employers were already doing that. "A key to minimising workplace stress," he said, "is excellent communication between employers and employees, to minimise confusion, to make sure people are clear about what they are doing."

Job stress costs

• 45 per cent of newly diagnosed cases of depression or generalised anxiety disorder were directly related to workplace stress.
• 12 per cent of people who experienced stress at work and had no history
  of mental health problems had a first episode of depression or anxiety
  at the age of 32.
• People with high levels of psychological
  demands at work were 75-80 per cent more likely to suffer from
  depression or anxiety than those with the lowest levels.

Source: Otago University study of 891 people aged 32.

Trucks are covering greater distances on New Zealand's roads, but getting into fewer crashes, Ministry of Transport figures suggest.

Last year, trucks were involved in 74 fatal crashes. Five years earlier, in 2001, they were involved in 76 fatals, but travelled almost 500 million kilometres fewer.

The Road Transport Forum, a lobby group for trucking companies, said the statistics ran contrary to the impression created by recent news stories of trucks being involved in many crashes.

And when they did crash, it was usually the other vehicle's fault, forum chief executive officer Tony Friedlander said.

"Over 92 per cent of all road accidents don't involve a truck. Of those that do, around two thirds of injury accidents between a truck and another vehicle are caused by the other vehicle," he said.

"We were very concerned at reports saying there has been a rise in accidents involving trucks. We have analysed the ministry's statistics and these tell a very positive story about heavy trucks and their drivers."

However, according to figures obtained from the Ministry of Transport by NZPA, 21 per cent of fatal crashes over the last three years involved a truck. From 2000 to 2002, 19 per cent of deadly crashes involved trucks, and the 9-year-low of 15 per cent was in 2003.

However, on a distance-travelled basis, trucks were getting into fewer crashes and killing fewer people.

In 2006, there were 25 fatals per billion kilometres the truck fleet travelled. Five years earlier, there were 31 per billion.

Road transport operators put a lot of effort into making sure their trucks and drivers share the road safely, Mr Friedlander said.

"Truck operators take road safety seriously, as the statistics show. Despite this improvement, the industry is continuing to work hard to further improve its safety performance through proposing measures such as the Operator Safety Rating System which Land Transport New Zealand is now developing," he said.

A memo telling Pak'nSave workers at the Northlands Shopping Centre that workplace accidents could be used against them during wage reviews has prompted union criticism.

A union leader said the memo, leaked to The Press by an incensed worker, could stop staff reporting genuine accidents.

Store owner Stephen Boock posted an all-staff memo on a "spate" of workplace accidents resulting from carelessness, risky behaviour, a casual attitude to safety and "sheer stupidity".

While the memo acknowledged genuine workplace accidents, it said their frequency would be recorded in employees' personnel records to be considered during wage reviews.

National Distribution Union national secretary Laila Harre said the supermarket was not yet unionised, but news of the memo would speed action in contacting store workers.

"This sort of action by an employer and their approach to health and safety is a concern," she said.

"We would not tolerate this in the union. Anything that reduces the incentive to report workplace accidents is just stupid."

Boock said he was unapologetic about the memo.

"We are required by law to provide a safe workplace and we are responsible for the training and safety of all our employees," he said.

"This is the right thing to do. Along with many other criteria, annual staff reviews include adherence to workplace safety practices. Anything we can do to minimise harm to our employees we will do, and we do so unapologetically."

Buddle Findlay partner and employment law specialist Kerry Smith said given the penalties that could be imposed on employers under the Health and Safety and Employment acts, he was not surprised Boock posted the memo.

"To use an accident record as part of a staff review is, in my opinion, legitimate. Whether it makes for good industrial relations is a moot point," he said.

Supermarket staff declined to comment.

A Wellington study has found that more people get blood clots from sitting down for long periods at work than on long-haul flights.

Professor Richard Beasley, of the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, said researchers studied the risk factors of 62 people under the age of 65 admitted to Wellington Hospital with deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism.

One-third of them had been seated for long periods at work in the previous four weeks, and only one in five had been on a long-haul flight.

Professor Beasley was surprised by the length of time workers had spent sitting down. Some had worked in a desk job for up to 14 hours.

"Some of them were seated for up to four or five hours for a time without getting up to move around." Managers, call-centre workers and taxi drivers were among them.

But the results did not mean that sitting still at work was more dangerous than taking a long-haul flight. Other factors such as cabin pressure had been implicated as contributing to the risk on flights.

Researchers did not know the proportion of people who had desk jobs compared with those who travelled.

Professor Beasley said the public recognised long-haul flights as a risk factor, but there was less awareness of the dangers of sitting still at work.

Office workers should stand and move around every half hour to an hour, he said.

ACC had committed funding to further research on how the work environment contributed to the risk.

Professor Beasley is to present the research findings at the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand's conference this month.

One in six ambulance officers has been hurt on the job in the past three years in the upper South Island.

The injuries – to officers in the South Canterbury, Canterbury, West Coast, Marlborough and Nelson regions – included assaults, falls, strains and being accidentally jabbed with needles.

Federation of Ambulance Officer Unions of New Zealand (FAOUNZ) secretary Karl Anderson said he was concerned about violence and abuse towards officers.

"I don't think there is an epidemic, but there have been some serious ones and there is a lot of abuse. There's a certain amount of disrespect for them," he said.

Since 2004, 138 of the 800 officers in the South Island northern region reported injuries that affected their ability to work.

There were no assaults on ambulance officers in the 2004-05 year, but there had been four reported incidents since in which officers were injured.

The St John operations manager for the region, Chris Haines, said the assaults were concerning, but it "did not cause as much grief here as in the North Island".

Last month, Waikato ambulance services faced two incidents in less than a week when they had to "back off" from a job because of safety concerns.

In one case, a man died from stab wounds at Kawhia as ambulance officers could not safely work on him owing to partygoers throwing missiles.

Haines said every care was taken to ensure the safety of ambulance officers.

"If there is any indication that there is a violent situation, our staff are sent to a safe arrival point and police go in first," he said.

Anderson felt the most pressing issue for the ambulance service was ensuring all vehicles were crewed with two people.