Over the next three months, WorkSafe New Zealand health and safety inspectors will proactively visit residential construction sites across the country to see how the risk of falling from working at height is being managed.
These assessment visits aim to strengthen residential construction businesses understanding of their health and safety responsibilities, including for subcontractors and tradespeople. The information gathered during these visits also provides valuable data and insights on current practices and areas for improvement to share back with the construction industry.
This is part of WorkSafe's ongoing strategic priority focus on construction as a high-risk sector. Despite being a well-known critical risk, falls from height are a persistent cause of injury and death in residential construction. Each year on average, falls from height cause 4 fatalities, 100 serious injuries, and around 1,000 injuries that require more than a week away from work. Around 40% of falls from height occur in construction.
WorkSafe Area Manager Barney Hoskins says, "We're looking to see that businesses have identified where workers could fall from height and put effective safety controls in place to prevent that from happening."
Ladders are involved in about 40% of fall from height injuries in construction, while falls from or through a building are the most common cause of fatal or very serious injuries such as spinal fractures and head injuries.
"We know from our investigations that lives can be saved when businesses take the time to identify hazards and assess the risks, then select the right equipment for the task and ensure it is used correctly," says Barney Hoskins.
A common myth is that controls to prevent falls from height can be relaxed for short duration tasks. Whether a job working at height will take five minutes or five hours, if there's a risk of falling then appropriate fall prevention control measures must be considered and put in place.
"Construction sites are dynamic environments, with multiple trades often working alongside each other. Good communication and co-ordinated planning is critical to make sure controls remain effective throughout the life of a project to keep everyone on site safe," says Barney Hoskins.
While the focus of these proactive assessments is to engage with and educate businesses, WorkSafe will take action if serious health and safety risks are not being managed. About 45% of enforcement notices and 70% of prohibition notices over the past two years in the construction sector were about the risk of falls from height. In these cases, the WorkSafe inspector works with the business to support them to make improvements to meet their health and safety responsibilities.
In August, an Auckland company was fined after work continued on a residential building site following a prohibition notice for working near an edge without adequate fall protection. The site also had temporary platforms, partially removed scaffolding, and non-compliant and unsecured ladders.
Company falls short after ignoring WorkSafe notice
WorkSafe has updated its Working at height in New Zealand good practice guidelines to better reflect the Health and Safety at Work Act, add current WorkSafe notification and notifiable event requirements, and introduce new content and examples around risk management, safety decking, worker engagement, and contemporary control expectations.
