The Accident Compensation Corporation’s (ACC) $22 million fund to support the small-to-medium enterprise (SME) sector in reducing workplace injuries should help - but it will need careful monitoring and targeting, says one group.

ACC “might get good bang for its (the taxpayer’s) buck by a targeted approach focused on technology and innovation that will save future injury costs,” according to the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA).

“There have been other schemes in the past that targeted the sector and for various reasons they have been shut down,” EMA chief executive officer Kim Campbell said. “What we need to ensure is that the grants and subsidies are provided to industries and sectors where risks are higher, so that the reduction in accident costs that ACC believes will come about as a result of the scheme, do actually occur.

“That might mean targeting sectors such as construction, forestry, manufacturing, healthcare and social assistance where there are known risks or higher accident rates, and using the grants and subsidies to pay for innovative systems or new technology that might otherwise be inaccessible to those in the SME sector because of their tight access to funding,” he added.