Health and safety paperwork for fencing contractors

The hazards that actually matter

Every trade has a long list and a short one. The short one is what the task documents have to deal with properly, because it is where the serious harm comes from.

Underground services

A post hole is deep enough and narrow enough to find a cable or a lateral, and boundaries are exactly where services run. Plans before the job, a locate on site, hand digging or potholing near anything marked, and an unmarked find treated as live. A borer does not stop when it reaches a cable.

Powered post hole borers

Auger entanglement and the kickback when the flight catches a root or a rock. Clothing, gloves and stance, a clutch that works, and no one standing in the reaction arc. Tractor-mounted and handheld versions each have their own failure.

Work on berms, boundaries and live roads

Fencing work sits in the road reserve more often than most trades admit, with traffic passing at speed and the public walking through. Where the work affects a road, the road controlling authority's temporary traffic management requirements apply and a qualified person sets the layout.

Manual handling

Posts, rails, panels and concrete, carried across uneven ground, often with no vehicle access to the line. Driving posts by hand adds overhead work with a heavy tool.

Concrete and cement

Wet concrete burns skin and cement dust is an irritant and a sensitiser. Mixing by hand in a barrow adds silica dust from the dry mix and a lifting problem once it is wet.

Overhead lines and long material

Posts and panels raised upright under a span, and the tipping tray of the delivery truck. Minimum approach distances apply and the assessment happens before the material is lifted.

Power tools and treated timber

Circular saws, nail guns, grinders and chainsaws in the open with no bench. Treated timber dust and offcuts carry their own handling and disposal rules.

Rural work and livestock

Stock in the paddock, wire under tension, strainers and the recoil of a wire that lets go. Terrain, quad and side-by-side use, and distance from help.

What applies beyond the general duties

The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and the General Risk and Workplace Management Regulations 2016 apply to every business. These sit on top of them for this trade:

• The New Zealand Guide to Temporary Traffic Management, and the road controlling authority's requirements where work affects a road
• Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2017, for fuels, treated timber and cement products
• Building Act 2004, for residential pool barriers, which require a building consent and are subject to periodic inspection

Competence and licensing

There is no occupational licence for fencing, with one practical exception: a residential pool barrier is regulated under the Building Act, needs a building consent and is inspected, so the work has to be built to the standard rather than to the client's preference. Where the work affects a road, temporary traffic management is a qualified role and the road controlling authority specifies what it requires. Chainsaw work has its own unit standards, and some substances require a certified handler.

Notifying WorkSafe

Rarely triggered. Excavation deeper than 1.5 m and deeper than it is wide requires 24 hours' notice, which retaining and strainer work can reach. The full list and its exclusions are in notifiable work: the 10 categories.

What a main contractor will ask you for

• Your contribution to the site plan, or your own if you hold the head contract
• A Task Analysis for each task: setout and service location, post hole boring, erection, concreting
• Service location records, and the method for digging near a marked service
• The traffic management layout and the qualified person behind it, where the work affects a road
• Building consent details for a pool barrier
• Sign-on sheets against each document

A document per task, not one for the job. The crew doing one task should not have to read past three others to find their controls, and a site manager checking one task should not have to either.

Where to start

If you are writing from scratch, how to write a Task Analysis sets out the order. If you have been asked for something and are not sure which document it is, which document do you need covers the difference between a site plan and a task document. Our prepared documents for this trade are the Fencing Task Analysis Pack, or single documents from the catalogue.

Sources

• Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, s22 (reasonably practicable), s34 and s36
• Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016, regs 5 to 8
• Health and Safety in Employment Regulations 1995, reg 26 (particular hazardous work requiring notice)
• The New Zealand Guide to Temporary Traffic Management, and the road controlling authority's requirements where work affects a road
• Health and Safety at Work (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2017, for fuels, treated timber and cement products
• Building Act 2004, for residential pool barriers, which require a building consent and are subject to periodic inspection
• WorkSafe New Zealand, Identifying, assessing and managing work risks

This guide is general information about New Zealand health and safety law as at the review date. It is not legal advice and it does not describe your site. Confirm what applies to you with WorkSafe New Zealand or your adviser.