11 April 2018

We have just launched our new Use Your Mouth marketing campaign to encourage New Zealand workers to speak up about health and safety.

Jude Urlich, WorkSafe’s General Manager of Strategy and Performance says, “Creating working environments where workers feel safe and are encouraged to speak up about risks is critical to improving health and safety outcomes in New Zealand.

“The Use Your Mouth campaign platform is humorous to encourage message memorability and likability but the underlying concept is serious. We need to get people talking about health and safety with their colleagues, encouraging workers to speak out to help correct workplace behaviour and to report risks or concerns to their superiors.”

Our 2018 campaign focuses on bullying, fatigue, vehicles, manual handling, slips, trips and falls, hazardous substances and noise.

It follows a highly successful 2017 campaign that met key objectives of encouraging people to ‘use their mouths’ to talk about workplace health and safety, and to think and act on workplace risks.

New Zealand has a target of reducing fatal and serious non-fatal work-related injury by 25% by the year 2020. Latest data suggests that interim targets have been met, with the fatal injury rate for the three years to 2016 at 2.1 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers.

Ms Urlich says, "WorkSafe is also particularly focused on healthy work, with 30,000 new cases of serious ill-health due to work each year, and between 600-900 deaths.

“There is not always an immediate cause and effect for work-related health risks, for example the use of hazardous substances. I’d like to encourage workers to use their mouths to talk about any and all health and safety concerns.”

The Use Your Mouth campaign will appear across digital channels, radio, social media and outdoor advertising.

For more information and to view the videos visit www.worksafe.govt.nz/useyourmouth