Focus on ACC

The Government is set to reintroduce lower ACC levies for firms with the best safety records, a move unions claim will see bosses cover up accidents.

But Business NZ said returning to a system where employers with the highest accident rates paid more would provide greater incentives for better health-and-safety measures.

ACC Minister Nick Smith said he wanted an upcoming review of the corporation to consider bringing back "experience rating" of the 1990s, which saw employers pay levies according to the number of accidents in their workplace.

Labour scrapped the system, returning to industry-based levies.

Dr Smith said reintroducing experience rating would be actively considered by a sweeping ACC review, which will consider other ways of shifting the balance of levies, including whether drivers should pay according to the safety of their cars.

"We're looking to provide more of an insurance model where there are stronger financial incentives in the form of either rebates or an experience rating-type system that rewards those firms that have better work practice," he said.

Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly said reintroducing experience rating for employers was part of a plan to prepare ACC for privatisation, and would provide perverse incentives.

"What it effectively does is encourage employers to hide their accidents either by putting pressure on workers to say they happened at home or not report."

Injured workers would also come under pressure to return to work earlier than they should to keep claims down.

She said increased inspections and higher fines for not complying with health-and-safety laws would be more effective in reducing accidents.

Dr Smith said he accepted unions were worried about bosses hiding accidents or shifting the blame, but said the concerns were overstated.

He said employer-based levies were a complex area and stressed that the Government would not rush into it.

Business NZ chief executive Phil O'Reilly said he understood concerns about unscrupulous employers, but said they could be allayed with proper monitoring.

"If you give companies a financial reason to do better, then they will tend to do so.

"It will also tend to put cost where it lies ... costs go down for the good employers, but they go up for the bad employers."

Stuff

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