Port Nelson Annual Report 2007 (pdf)

P O R T P E O P L E
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Port Nelson has a proud track record of a stable and skilled workforce,
with staff numbers steady over the past year with 93 permanent, fixed
term and part-time staff. Casual staff boosted the total hours worked to
the equivalent of 132 full-time equivalents. This year three staff members
reached the milestone of 25 years service bringing the total number of
‘silver servers’ to nine, one of whom has clocked up 44 years service.
H E A L T H A N D S A F E T Y
Port Nelson values its reputation for speed and efficiency in vessel
turnaround, but never at the expense of compromising the safety
of staff and on-site contractors. The Health and Safety Committee’s
‘bottom up’ approach encourages input and suggestions from all
staff members and ensures buy-in to safe working practices. The
committee has been operating now for over 17 years and represents
employees from all worksites within the port, as well as the CEO and
three members of the Executive Team.
L I F E S T Y L E P R O G R A M M E S
A range of health checks are offered to staff. All permanent staff and
some casuals have their hearing and vision checked annually by an
occupational health provider. Identified employees in certain work
areas are given lung function tests and some employees have regular
blood tests to detect substances such as heavy metals or fumigants. A
new initiative this year was ergonomic assessments for all the forklift
drivers in the Cargo Logistics division.
In 2006 we trialled a ‘Health and Wellbeing’ programme, where all
permanent staff and qualifying casuals could claim $500 to improve
their physical health, educational and personal development or
emotional wellbeing. There has been an excellent uptake with staff
applying to spend their wellness dollars on such items as gym
memberships, computer equipment, tramping gear, massage therapy,
life coaching, night school fees and bicycles.
For several years we have undertaken pre-employment drug tests for
permanent and casual staff; as well as ‘incident and reasonable cause’
drug and alcohol testing, to further enhance workplace safety standards.
In early autumn each year we offer free ‘flu injections’ to all permanent
staff, and in late spring staff are offered a melanoma skin check at an
on-site GP clinic. Other Sun Smart measures are the provision of hats
and sunscreen to outdoor workers.
Our Employee Assistance Programme continues to support staff with
counselling services for work or other matters. This service is offered
to employees at no cost by a contracted professional organisation.
We have a subsidized medical insurance scheme in place, we continue to
offer a number of retirement seminars each year and we offer companysubsidised
superannuation schemes for all permanent waged staff.
L O S T T I M E I N J U R I E S ( L T I ’ S )
We are pleased to report a small decrease in LTI’s over the past year,
down from twelve to nine. Our target LTI frequency rate of 1.5% was
not met, with an end of year result of 3.27%. A port is a workplace with
inherent dangers and the potential for ‘human error’. Any accidents
are thoroughly investigated and new safety measures are added to our
prevention programme where necessary. We remain committed to our
long-term company goal of ‘Together towards Zero’ (LTI’s).
A C C I D E N T C O M P E N S A T I O N
Port Nelson Ltd is an Accredited Employer in the Work Safety and
Management Practices Programme, and successfully met the tertiary
level for the first time when we were audited in early 2007 - an
achievement that gives us a great sense of pride and accomplishment.
We continue to be a ‘reimbursing employer’ and we value the ability to
have employees remain on the payroll system with all wage and salary
deductions continuing without interruption.
S U P P O R T I N G S T A F F E N D E A V O U R S
The number of sports events that we compete in as a company is
growing. In May a large staff team competed in the third Port Nelson
Blokes’ Day Out, with a social event to follow; and we supported
female staff to enter the Taylors’ Women’s Triathlon. Staff were helped
to attend out of town representative sports events and to support
local sports clubs and teams. Staff were also given support to attend
professional and personal development courses.
C O M M U N I C A T I O N
All staff receive the company magazine RePort Nelson, which includes
the ‘Safe Harbour’ feature, with a focus on health and safety matters.
Safe Harbour includes the results of a scheme that rewards staff
who report ‘near misses’ by putting them in a draw for a night
out at the movies complete with a café voucher. This year we
introduced an internal newsletter with input from all departments.
This has been well received and covers a wider range of subjects
- from new machinery to the results of sports’ sweepstakes.
Summaries of monthly incident reporting are regularly posted on staff
noticeboards along with safety messages. We have had good feedback
on the noticeboard at the port gate, which records the number of days
since the last lost time injury.