The Scale of the Problem
ACC accepted over 21,000 soft-tissue injury claims from construction trades in 2023. Those injuries — sprains and strains to shoulders, backs, knees, and necks — resulted in approximately 560,000 days off work. For individual workers, a soft-tissue injury is not a minor inconvenience. It is a career-limiting event that compounds over time if not addressed, moving from acute injury to chronic pain to early exit from the workforce.
For businesses, the cumulative effect is significant: reduced productivity, replacement costs, training overhead, and ACC levies that reflect the sector’s injury profile. Trades with high soft-tissue injury rates — scaffolding and roofing are among the most affected — are paying for a problem that is, in most cases, preventable with the right practices and culture.
The CHASNZ Approach
Construction Health and Safety New Zealand’s “Work Should Not Hurt” programme takes a practical, habit-based approach to injury prevention. The core daily intervention is a worksite warm-up routine: squats, star-jumps, and targeted stretches completed at the start of each shift before physical work begins. The physiological case is straightforward — muscles, tendons, and joints that are cold and tight are more vulnerable to strain under load than those that have been progressively warmed and activated.
Beyond the warm-up, the programme addresses lifting technique, material handling ergonomics, and worksite organisation practices that reduce the frequency and severity of physically demanding movements. The emphasis is on habit formation early in a career — preventing the injury patterns that accumulate over years of poor technique rather than trying to change habits after damage has been done.
Results from Participating Firms
NZS Group, operating 18 nationwide locations with around 400 staff, has been among the programme’s early adopters. Geeves Wellington, a scaffolding specialist employing 45 people across regional sites, reports that the programme has produced a cultural shift: workers now expect the warm-up as part of starting a shift rather than treating it as an optional addition. Regan McIntyre, a participating scaffolder, described the workplace norm: “You are told here right from the start to not throw equipment, lift to your capacity, warm up.”
The Cultural Shift
The old attitude that physical discomfort is simply part of the job — that aching shoulders and sore backs are the price of a trades career — is giving way to a recognition that sustainable careers require sustainable practice. Workers who maintain their physical capacity throughout their working life are more productive, more consistent, and more valuable to employers. The investment in warm-up routines, ergonomics training, and early intervention for developing injuries pays back through longer, healthier, more productive careers. The programme’s title says it plainly: work should not hurt.
