At the beginning of this year John and Office Manager Karen Berry faced a hiccup when a WorkSafe Inspector made an impromptu stop at a job they were working at.

Unfortunately Tile Installations were issued with a Notice of Non-Compliance. They didn’t disagree that managing silicone dust could be better, it was the process that they had to go through that fazed them. Whilst told about the problem they didn’t advise them on how to remedy the issue.

In the case of Tile Installations, they were required to identify how much silicone there was in a particular range of tiles to identify how hazardous the compounds were, and then what preventative measures needed to be put in place for each tile. So, Karen spoke to numerous tile retailers and specifiers who didn’t know, and she discovered that even the importers of tiles didn’t know. It wasn’t as simple as looking at a Safety Data Sheet, reading the composition list on the packaging or hunting online. The information just didn’t exist in New Zealand or online.

Karen said, “it used to be that WorkSafe would pull you up on something and they would help educate and support you to remedy the situation”. Not so much now – they are Regulators. “They gave me a list of things they wanted to know and things we had to do – we had to work through it as a process. And we had three months in which to do it, which we did.

WorkSafe wanted to know such things as the percentage of silicone there was in the tiles that they mainly used. New Zealand Customs, tile importers, suppliers and customers are not required to have this information, but here’s one Government Department requiring this from the installation contractors. Their concerns were out of Tile Installations control – here they are at the bottom of the food chain needing to find this information? Tile retailers were absolutely baffled – instead of saying tiles need to meet a certain standard, WorkSafe want to know the composition of the tiles. A very big ask and challenging situation.

Our Kiwi made / No. 8 fencing wire extractor fan system

What happened? Yes, some good practices came out of their research. They currently employ 28 staff with everyone undertaking annual hearing and lung testing. Everyone knows how to fit their masks and respirators properly and to the right size. They wear the correct PPE and know how to operate the homemade, Kiwi / No. 8 fencing wire dust extractor fan system.

As well as new in-house policies and procedures, they designed their own dust extraction system.

Using good old Kiwi ingenuity, they looked at what they already had and what might be a logical solution. They already used portable work benches that they would take to site. The first thing they do with new benches is add a layer of timber on top of the metal surface. They wanted something that would prevent dust from going into the air and into an extractor, at the source of cutting the tiles. So, they made a detachable wooden trough, cut a few holes, added a pipe, attached a vacuum hose to the pipe and it worked! Dust is extracted at the source. Given that most tile cutting is done outside or in a semi-enclosed well-ventilated space, tiles are cut in short spurts, with the worker in full PPE (dust mask and respirator). So, this enables dust to be sucked straight into the vacuum at the flick of a switch.

The trough and the end is detachable so the collapsable work bench and trough fit easily into the van. All the equipment is lightweight, portable and does the job it is intended for.

Their submission to WorkSafe received the highest accolade they could receive. WorkSafe responded saying ‘Tile Installations have set a new benchmark for the tiling industry’. That made the entire team and their customers very proud and confident working with them.

Tile Installations wanted to be totally transparent with their customers, so they wrote to them telling them about the Improvement Notice and what they had done to achieve full compliance. This included showing them their new extractor fan system so they could be reassured that all work undertaken is to the highest standard.

All staff follow these policies and procedures as they know how valuable they are to the organisation, not only as workers but as part of their community and each other’s families.

They need to have safety information on all their sites and remind everyone this is to keep people safe, healthy and not exposed to harm.

Setting a benchmark for industry is something to be extremely proud of.