NZ Post has revealed the number of dog-related incidents involving postal workers is down on the previous years' figures, but said dogs still pose "critical risks" to workers.
There were a total of 299 incidents reported in the year between March 1, 2023 to February 29, 2024, according to NZ Post — an average of 5.7 a week.
Of those, 112 incidents were categorised as "injuries" and 60 required medical attention.
It was a small decrease on the previous year from March 2022 to February 2023 in which there were 313 incidents reported, and 393 the year prior.
NZ Post chief people officer Monica Ayers told Breakfast the organisation take these risks "incredibly seriously" and have been doing a lot of work on addressing critical risks in the business areas.
"We're down around 100 [incidents] this year on previous years. We were up over 400 in aggressive animal incidents in a year, so it's a good improvement but its still obviously too many and we want all of our people to be safe."
Ayers said NZ Post had done a lot of work with staff and contractors on safety training and "to stop if they felt there was any danger".
"We've put a lot of training in place around how to recognise a playful dog vs an aggressive dog."
"It's really our peoples' situational awareness that keeps them safe."
She said dogs on properties still cause an "unexpected risk" and people should keep dogs secure if they were expecting a parcel.
"If a dog jumps a fence, or when a customer opens the door to receive a delivery and the dog rushes out of the house, that's when unexpected events and that’s some of what we're hearing about."
In June last year, NZ Post proposed reducing the number of mail roles by about 750 full time workers over the ensuing five years. At that time, NZ Post had a workforce of 4500.
NZ Post reduced deliveries of post to three days per week — the fewest permitted under a deed of understanding with the government — from July of 2015, at a loss of 400 posties.
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