New Zealand government attacks workplace health and safety law

John Braddock

New Zealand’s Workplace Relations and Safety Minister, Brooke van Velden, recently announced a sweeping regressive change to the country’s workplace health and safety laws and procedures. The Health and Safety at Work Reform Bill is to be introduced later this year.

New Zealand Workplace Relations Minister Brooke Van Velden [Photo: Facebook/Brooke Van Velden]

Van Velden is deputy leader of the far-right ACT party, which is part of the ruling coalition including the National Party and NZ First. The libertarian ACT is a mouthpiece for big business, committed to “small government,” eliminating “red tape,” sweeping privatisations and market liberalisation. Despite gaining just 8.6 percent of the popular vote at the 2023 election, it is spearheading many of the government’s extreme anti-working-class measures.

Van Velden announced in April that WorkSafe, the government’s work and safety regulator, will be required to shift its priorities from enforcement to “advice.” She said that this will address concerns about underfunding and a “culture of fear” among employers about regulations.

Making the pro-business agenda crystal clear, van Velden declared: “I want to see a shift from a regulator that has a safety at all cost mentality, to a regulator that focuses on helping duty-holders do what is proportionate to the risks, including rooting out over-compliance.”

This means, she said, cutting through “the unnecessary red tape holding these businesses back.” Initial changes will exempt small, purportedly “low-risk businesses” from general Health and Safety at Work Act requirements. They will only need to manage “critical risks” and provide “basic facilities” for workers’ welfare.

Van Velden claimed: “A culture where the regulator is feared for its punitive actions rather than appreciated for its ability to provide clear and consistent guidance is not conducive to positive outcomes in the workplace.” Employers will be invited to draft their own codes of conduct for approval by the minister, which will then make up the majority of new codes.

WorkSafe’s remaining enforcement and prosecution decisions will focus, according to van Velden, on being “even handed.” This includes “strengthening its approach to worker breaches of duty”—that is, blaming workers for safety incidents.

Van Velden said the legislation will also be changed to ensure the “day to day management of health and safety risks” is left to managers so directors and boards are “freed up” from direct obligations. Feedback from consultations indicated, she said, that “there is overcompliance as many directors think they need to do more than they should.”

A major restructuring of the agency is already under way. The government has reduced funding from $NZ141.1million to $138.9 million since 2023. WorkSafe has cut 170 jobs, including the disestablishment of a key health team which focused on preventing health-related harm and workplace deaths.

New Zealand already has one of the worst occupational health and safety records, per head of population, among OECD nations. Fatalities average about 70 per year. Workers are killed at the staggering rate of nearly 1.5 every week. Figures for the past six years are extraordinarily high: 110 deaths in 2019, 69 in 2020, 64 in 2021, 59 in 2022, 67 in 2023 and 70 last year.

Workers also die from long-term exposure to harmful substances 10 times more often than from “accidents.” According to WorkSafe, work-related health deaths are estimated at 750–900 a year.

Last week a South Island court considered a case of two workers who were overcome by hydrogen sulphide fumes and collapsed while digging a pit in 2023. One still suffers flashbacks after being trapped and unable to breathe. The judge said the employers had demonstrated a “near-complete failure” to identify and address the site’s dangers.

The entire political establishment, including the trade unions, support the let-it-rip COVID-19 policy that is setting the stage for the resurgence of COVID-19 and other serious infectious diseases. Otago University health researchers have warned since 2023 about the “unacceptable” lack of COVID-19 protections in schools, describing them as high-risk settings with teachers’ safety significantly compromised.

New Zealand has so far recorded over 2,274,370 cases of COVID-19—in a population of just 5.2 million—and over 3,000 deaths. The teachers have the highest rates of infection of any occupational group.

While industrial action on health and safety is still lawful under the highly restrictive Employment Relations Act, passed by the Labour-Alliance government in 2000, strikes led by the unions have been few and far between.

The deadliest industries are agriculture including forestry, transport and warehousing, manufacturing and construction—which alone had 226,600 injury claims in 2023. Common causes of fatalities involve vehicles, falling objects and being trapped in moving machinery—all of which are preventable.

Forestry had the highest fatality rate in 2024, with 16.58 deaths per 100,000 workers. Forestry workers are 70 times more likely to be killed on the job than the average NZ worker. The industry’s death rate is 34 times higher than Britain’s and seven times that in Australia.

In 2014, in the wake of a spate of deaths, a Forestry Industry Safety Council (FISC) was formed, including business leaders, WorkSafe and trade union officials. The latter hailed the body as a model of union-company collaboration, claiming it would improve safety. It has done nothing of the sort—between 2013 and 2023, 51 forestry workers died on the job.

The current Health and Safety at Work Act (2015) was enacted in response to the devastating explosion at the Pike River mine in 2010 in which 29 miners were killed. The Act was passed by the National Party government and endorsed by the Labour Party and the trade unions, ostensibly to strengthen workplace safety. However, it only requires employers to identify risks and do what was deemed “reasonably practicable” to eliminate or manage them. It introduced fines of up to $600,000.

Institute of Safety Management board chair Mike Cosman, a work safety expert, told Radio NZ in April that the current system is “dysfunctional” and responsible for “killing about 1,000 Kiwis a year” from all causes, including accidents and work-related illnesses.

Cosman said the industry faced far-reaching funding cuts and restructuring. “Our ratio of WorkSafe inspectors to employees is about two-thirds of what the International Labour Organisation recommends and two-thirds of what they have in Australia,” he said. “This is what we saw before Pike River.”

There is now just one safety inspector for every 14,482 workers. Cosman dismissed van Velden’s plans as doing nothing to address “critical risks.”

The current system operates on occasional inspections and advice. In several cases, WorkSafe has refused to prosecute companies over deaths. Safety prosecutions are farcical, with fines imposed well below what could be deemed proportionate to injuries.

“Discounts” regularly reduce nominal fines by tens of thousands of dollars. A kitchen supplier is currently paying off a $75,000 fine in monthly instalments of $1,250 after being granted a 50 percent reduction on the initial fine. Another company has had a $325,000 fine cut to just $40,000 due to its “financial incapacity.”

Nearly 15 years after the Pike River disaster, some of the families are still fighting to expose the truth about an unlawful back-room deal to drop charges against Pike River Coal’s chief executive Peter Whittall. A hearing was held at the Wellington High Court last month challenging WorkSafe over charges that were dropped in exchange for an unsolicited payment of $3.41 million to the families.

A 2012 Royal Commission of Inquiry revealed that the mine was a disaster waiting to happen. Management, the trade union bureaucracy and government regulators all knew about the life-threatening conditions but did not stop its operations. Not one person has been held accountable for creating the conditions that led to 29 avoidable deaths.

Van Velden’s claim that employers operate in “fear” of regulations is an absurd lie, used to justify the eradication of basic protections. The government is engaged in the systematic dismantling of whatever remains of workers’ rights to enable the domination of employer prerogatives, production speedups and the removal of all impediments to profit making. The escalation of workplace injuries, long-term health problems and avoidable deaths is inevitable.

Microsoft announces another round of AI-related layoffs, targeting gaming and engineering workers

Jonathan Burleigh

A Microsoft sign and logo are pictured at the company's headquarters, Friday, April 4, 2025, in Redmond, Washington. [AP Photo/Jason Redmond]

On July 2, Microsoft expanded a long run of layoffs by announcing a workforce reduction of up to 4 percent, or about 9,100 jobs. These add to the over 8,000 layoffs this year at the company, including about 6,000 layoffs in May. In total, this year’s layoffs have hit over 7 percent of its global workforce.

Most of the specific cuts to be made in this latest round have yet to be identified. Company executives have emphasized an aim to “remove layers of management to increase agility and effectiveness.” So far this year, although the layoffs have affected product managers and program managers, over 40 percent of the job cuts have been in software engineering. Jobs in Microsoft’s home state of Washington have been hardest hit, but the layoffs affect its global workforce more generally, including layoffs in California, as well as in Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Most of the workers to be laid off are apparently not unionized. A minority of impacted gaming workers, however, are organized by the Communication Workers of America (CWA). The CWA has issued a statement expressing that it is “deeply disappointed in Microsoft’s decision to lay off thousands more workers, including union-represented CWA members, at a time when the company is prospering. ... We will be bargaining with the company over these layoffs.”

A popular Reddit comment responded to the CWA statement:

It needs to made clear that this statement is really all any union can do about “restructuring.”

Some people on the internet, who have never been in a union themselves and sure as hell aren’t getting off their asses to unionize their own work place, love telling other folks to unionize when they have no idea what a union actually is. Unions are not an answer to mass layoffs.

Possible solutions include wildcat work stoppage (which is illegal for unions to do), and abolishing capitalism instead of pretending it can be saved.

Another popular Reddit comment in a separate thread described work at Microsoft:

There is a perpetual climate of fear inside the company. Instead of ripping the band aid off and being done it’s a continuous parade of monthly layoffs causing many to be fearful. I have seen a regression towards the old way of teams fighting each other instead of working towards a common goal.

The secrecy is the worst. Layoffs in my group happened and they won’t tell us who is gone from the people I work with and rely on. The work didn’t go away though. It was just added onto the backs of those who remain.

The cost cutting isn’t limited to people. They took away the post it notes and pads of paper in the supply rooms in my building.

In January this year, Microsoft terminated about 2,000 workers in ostensible “performance-based” cuts. In May, it laid off about 6,000, with vague references to “efficiency” and “business priorities” being the reasons given. In June, it laid off hundreds more, once again in ostensible “performance-based” cuts.

Workers subject to the “performance-based” cuts lose healthcare insurance coverage immediately, and are denied severance pay. The company has imposed a two-year rehiring ban on workers cut under the pretext of poor performance, and has deemed the cuts to be “good attrition,” suggesting that company management intends to incorporate layoff targets for specified divisions as a regular feature of its business plans. These measures replicate similar ones taken in recent years by other tech giants like Amazon and Meta.

Online commenters, apparently tech workers or those with personal relations to tech workers, have disputed the company’s claims that layoffs in January and June were truly “performance-based.” For example, another popular Reddit comment reads:

I know people personally who were affected. None of them had any indication of “low performance.” They received annual bonuses and positive reviews. One even asked for specific performance metrics for promotions and was given vague responses stating they were on a promotion track and to keep doing what they were doing. In the end, this is a callous layoff under the guise of “low performances” so they can justify culling thousands of people with no severance and leaving them without insurance or a high amount of earned stock set to divest [sic] again in two weeks.

Other online commenters have confirmed the practices described above. Very apparently, the comment refers to a practice of terminating workers shortly before a scheduled vesting event for their equity compensation, which, at large tech companies, commonly comprises 50 percent or more of workers’ income. Such a practice would enable the company to deprive workers of very large amounts of equity compensation which they had worked toward for months and years, under a pretext of allegedly poor performance.

Notably, the “performance-based” cuts in January and June affected primarily workers in Microsoft’s gaming divisions, including Xbox. Xbox and other Microsoft gaming divisions have again been targeted in the latest round of much larger layoffs (which are not “performance-based”). It is cutting jobs from divisions that produce the games Candy Crush and Forza Motorsport. It is canceling entirely the popular Perfect Dark and Everwild games, as well as several unannounced projects.

In an X post made in reference to the layoffs, Matt Turnbull, executive producer at Xbox Game Studios Publishing, demonstrated the pervasive indifference of the capitalist class toward the workers it exploits. The post condescendingly explains, “I’ve been experimenting with ways to use LLM Al tools (like ChatGPT or Copilot) to help reduce the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss.” He goes on to suggest “some prompt ideas and use cases that might help if you’re feeling overwhelmed,” i.e., that laid-off workers should use AI chatbots to help them with career planning, job seeking, networking, as well as the emotional impact of their job loss.

Thus far, Microsoft company management has not admitted openly to any connection between the layoffs this year and the introduction and development of generative AI technologies. However, media observers, analysts and online commenters generally take it as a given that the job cuts are part of a large-scale restructuring of the tech industry related to AI. The company plans to invest $80 billion in AI-related development in fiscal year 2025 alone.

At the Build industry conference in May, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella demonstrated AI software tools that could, with relatively very little human direction, very quickly perform tasks previously carried about by entire teams of engineers. At present, about 30 percent of software coding work at Microsoft is done by AI.

In a move widely recognized as part of an AI-related strategic shift, Microsoft cut 10,000 jobs in early 2023. In 2024, it cut an undisclosed number of jobs, probably around 3,500-4,500 total. Business analysts, including Gil Luria, have suggested that Microsoft’s increased investments will necessitate annual workforce reductions of about 10,000.

According to the World Economic Forum’s annual Future of Jobs Report published in January, 41 percent of employers surveyed internationally “foresee staff reductions due to skills obsolescence” related to the implementation of AI technologies. International companies that underwent AI-related layoffs this year include Adidas, Ally, Automattic (parent company of Tumblr and WordPress), Block, Blue Origin, Boeing, BP, Bridgewater, Bumble, Burberry, Chevron, CNN, Coty, CrowdStrike, Disney, Dropbox, Estée Lauder, Geico, GrubHub, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Johns Hopkins University, Kohl’s, Meta, Microchip Technology, Morgan Stanley, Nissan, Panasonic, Paramount, Porsche, PwC, Salesforce, Sonos, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, Stripe, UPS, the Washington Post, Wayfair, and Workday.

A Business Insider report published in March explains bluntly:

Across tech, the tables have turned for employees as performance pressure and proclamations of “efficiency” and “intensity” replace perks and pampering. Sweeping layoffs have become the norm in an industry that, in recent memory, enjoyed job security. The pressure to dominate in AI has created intense competition, as companies use the technology to do more with fewer workers. Already hard-driving workplaces have become even harder.

DesignWhine reports, “The Microsoft layoffs of 2025 mark not just a corporate restructuring but a fundamental shift in how technology companies view human capital in an AI-dominated future.”

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has also spoken bluntly about the connection between workforce reductions and AI. He explained in a message June 17 on aboutamazon.com:

As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs. It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.

So far this year, Amazon has introduced new return-to-office and performance review policies that will intensify job performance pressures on workers while their compensation stagnates and even falls, primarily through cuts to equity and bonus pay.

An Amazon tech worker told the WSWS:

The so-called “performance-based” layoffs are not really performance-based. This has happened at Amazon, too. We’ve also had layoffs carefully planned by management to come shortly before RSU [restricted stock unit: a common type of equity compensation] vesting for large numbers of workers. It happens at pretty much every tech company. Historically, Google had not followed such practices. However, recently, even Google has been adapting, also because of AI. I’ve heard that they haven’t been making generous hiring offers anymore. They’ve taken away some of the perks. For example, Google used to have free meal services and onsite laundry. I heard they took most of it away. There are no longer any employers offering generous conditions to tech workers anymore.

University of Washington professor Margaret O’Mara told the Seattle Times that, in the context of business history, the Microsoft layoffs are very unusual: “When you see thousands of workers laid off, it’s been deindustrialization or companies in crisis, but these tech companies are the most valuable in human history.” In fact, Microsoft reported nearly $26 billion in profits in the first quarter of 2025, one of the best ever for the company.

The major shifts in the computer gaming industry—coupled with the Trump administration’s economic warfare against the entire world—have recently led to massive price hikes for games. Last month, a 10-month strike of video game performers, members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), was suspended after the union announced a tentative agreement.

Jacobin, Labor Notes, and other pseudo-left publications have remained silent so far about the Microsoft layoffs.

In a related development, an online petition “Stop Killing Games” has gathered over 1.2 million signatures. It is a consumer-based initiative aimed at pressuring governments to enact laws that would restrict tech companies from canceling popular computer games.

Indian pharmaceutical factory explosion leaves 42 dead

Wasantha Rupasinghe

In another tragic confirmation that India’s industrial sector remains perilously unsafe for workers, a devastating explosion at a pharmaceutical factory on June 30 in the southern state of Telangana has claimed the lives of at least 42 workers and left many others injured.

Around 143 workers were inside the facility at the time of the blast which started a fire that rapidly engulfed the premises. Several bodies were charred beyond recognition, forcing authorities to rely on DNA testing for identification.

Rescue workers look for survivors after explosion and fire at pharmaceutical factory in India, June 30, 2025. [AP Photo/Uncredited]

The tragedy occurred at Sigachi Industries, which is located in the Pashamylaram industrial area of Sangareddy district in Telangana. Established in 1989, the company is a major manufacturer of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) derived from wood pulp—a key ingredient in pharmaceutical capsules. The company also produces other inert pharmaceutical components and exports its products to more than 65 countries from facilities across India.

The explosion was so loud that it was heard almost two kilometres from the site by Isnapur residents. Speaking to the media, locals described scenes of panic and confusion. Rajitha, a homemaker, thought “a bomb had gone off” and fled with her crying child.

Rama Devi, a local tea vendor, said that the “blast shook our windows” and initially left her confused as to its origin, before she saw “black smoke from far away.” Praveen Kumar, a 24-year-old warehouse worker, described a “deafening sound,” then stepped outside to find the “air filled with smoke and the smell of chemicals.”

In the aftermath, top state officials visited the site. Telangana Health Minister C. Damodar Raja Narasimha made multiple visits, followed by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy.

To defuse public anger, Reddy directed officials to provide 10 million rupees (approximately $US1.2 million) in compensation to the family of each deceased worker and 1 million rupees (around $US11,660) to each of those severely injured. Public scepticism remains widespread over whether these compensation promises will be honoured, given Indian authorities’ notorious record of reneging on pledges in similar circumstances.

Reddy claimed the state would take steps to prevent future industrial accidents and announced the formation of a four-member expert panel to investigate safety violations at Sigachi Industries.

According to the Hindu, the committee will to submit its report within a month. Previous experience suggests that its findings are unlikely to result in criminal charges. Media reports have noted that, despite the scale of the disaster, no senior company officials had visited the site, highlighting corporate indifference to workers’ lives.

Acting on a complaint filed by a victim’s family member, Sangareddy police registered a First Information Report (FIR) on June 30 against Sigachi Industries management in connection with the explosion. The case was filed under Sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 110 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), and 117 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) of the Indian Penal Code.

The complaint was lodged by 21-year-old Sai Yashwanth, son of Rajanala Venkat Jagan Mohan, a longtime employee who died in the accident. Yashwanth alleged that his father and other workers had repeatedly warned the company management about outdated machinery and the risk of a catastrophic accident. As of now, no arrests have been made.

Citing industrial experts, the Hindu reported that the explosion may have been triggered during the spray-drying process used to convert wood pulp slurry into microcrystalline cellulose. The process involves stripping moisture from the pulp using hot air to produce a fine powder. Experts believe this highly combustible product may have ignited, causing the deadly blast.

Moneycontrol.com, a leading financial news portal, reported that a series of “critical mistakes” revealed during ongoing investigations, collectively led to the explosion. These include faulty temperature sensors and failed alarms that did not detect overheating of MCC, which ignites at around 399°C.

The factory was reportedly operating without a valid fire certificate. Moreover, the plant’s interlocking system—designed to automatically cut off heat or trigger alarms—malfunctioned. Investigators also cited a choked spray dryer, poor maintenance, and unsafe shift timings.

K. Babu Rao, chief scientist at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, described pulp dryers as “ticking time bombs.” High worker density in the hazardous dryer area further increased the risk.

Other factors could include possible instrumentation and filter failures, alongside glaring regulatory lapses. State officials have publicly questioned the adequacy of safety inspections and enforcement at the plant.

The Sigachi Industries explosion is the latest in a string of deadly incidents in India’s pharmaceutical sector. Since 2024, at least three major industrial accidents have occurred.

In 2024, six workers were killed in a blast at SB Organics, also in Sangareddy. In August the same year, 17 workers died in a factory explosion in Anakapalli, in the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh. Another incident in June 2025 claimed two lives in Parawada, also in Andhra Pradesh.

According to data from IndustriAll, a global union federation, 2024 was “another dreadful year” for workplace safety in India with over 400 workers killed and 850 seriously injured in industrial accidents. The actual figures are likely much higher due to widespread under-reporting.

The federation also noted that over 100 workers have died and more than 170 injured in 60 workplace incidents within the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors so far in 2025.

The Hindu noted that Telangana produces one-third of the country’s pharmaceuticals, one-fifth of its exports, and one-third of global vaccines. The state has attracted over $1.49 billion in investments over the past four years.

India is often referred to as the “world’s pharmacy” due to its leading role in producing affordable generic medicines and vaccines. In 2022, India’s pharmaceutical industry had a turnover of $50 billion, supplying over 20 percent of global generic drugs and around 60 percent of vaccines worldwide. With over 3,000 pharmaceutical firms, India exports to more than 200 countries.

While India’s cost-effective pharmaceutical production has benefited millions—especially in low- and middle-income nations—gross violations of safety and quality standards, driven by profit motives and government indifference, have had deadly consequences both domestically and internationally.

In 2020, 11 children died in Jammu after consuming adulterated cough syrup. In 2022, nearly 70 children in West Africa died after consuming Indian-made cough syrup that caused acute kidney failure. A World Health Organisation laboratory analysis found the syrups contained “unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol,” chemicals intended for industrial use.

In their 2022 book The Truth Pill: The Myth of Drug Regulations in India, authors Dinesh S. Thakur and Prashant Reddy T. exposed serious flaws in India’s drug approval system. They revealed that Indian regulators have approved drugs never cleared in developed markets.

Even outdated regulations are poorly enforced, with inspectors and magistrates often overlooking serious violations, including medicines containing negligible active ingredients or dangerous bacterial endotoxins. The authors argue that India’s regulatory system prioritises industry growth over scientific rigor, in other words, profit over safety.

Industrial accidents have surged under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, whose alignment with global capitalist interests has further eroded limited work-safe protections. Policies promoting privatisation, reducing labour rights, and encouraging precarious employment have led to increasingly unsafe working conditions.

India’s 2020–21 labour code reform, which consolidated 29 laws into four, including its Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, have significantly weakened basic safeguards, enabling large domestic and multinational corporations to super-exploit workers.