Families of the 29 men killed in the Pike River Mine disaster have joined a campaign to stop a Government bill they say will make New Zealand workplaces more dangerous.

Sonya Rockhouse and Anna Osborne, who lost a son and husband respectively in the 2010 explosion, are lending their voices to the New Zealand Institute of Safety Management’s push to derail the Health and Safety at Work Amendment Bill before it reaches its Second Reading in Parliament next week.

The Education and Workforce Committee is due to report the bill back to Parliament today.

NZISM says only minor changes have been made despite overwhelming opposition from business groups, health and safety experts and unions.

“This will be a huge setback to efforts to turn around our appalling health and safety record,” said NZISM law reform spokesperson Mike Cosman. “We urge MPs to heed their concerns, learn the lessons from Pike and vote this bill down.”

At the heart of NZISM’s objections is a provision that would carve small businesses out of a legal duty to manage what the bill defines as non-critical risks.

That exemption would cover 97 percent of New Zealand businesses.

Small businesses already have a 24 percent higher injury rate than large firms.

The risks workers in those businesses would no longer be protected against include musculoskeletal harm such as slips, falls and ergonomic injuries, and psychosocial risks including mental health, stress and working hours.

Those are the two leading causes of workplace harm in New Zealand.

ACC has strongly opposed the carve-out for musculoskeletal risks, noting it pays more than $3.6 billion every year for such injuries in small businesses alone.

NZISM says the bill would push those costs higher and ultimately be passed on to businesses and taxpayers.

New Zealand’s workplace fatality rate is already 1.7 times that of Australia and 6.5 times that of the United Kingdom. The total cost of workplace deaths and injuries is conservatively estimated at $5.4 billion a year.

“At a basic level, workers would no longer have to be provided with safety boots or gloves, as hand and foot injuries are not classed as critical,” Cosman said. “No other country in the world takes this indifferent approach to the health and safety of workers in small businesses.”

Rockhouse said the campaign’s message was straightforward.

“Vote this bill down or send it back to Select Committee for major revision. The lessons from the Pike River tragedy have been forgotten.”

Osborne echoed that.

“Those who can’t learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. We have learned the lessons of Pike River and deregulation of health and safety with the deaths of 29 good men. This bill should be stopped in its tracks.”