Notifiable work: the 10 categories

Some work has to be notified to WorkSafe at least 24 hours before it starts. The list lives in a 1995 regulation that survived the 2015 Act, and it is shorter and more specific than most people think.

The 24-hour notice rule

Regulation 26 of the Health and Safety in Employment Regulations 1995 requires notice to WorkSafe at least 24 hours before any of the categories of particular hazardous work starts. The duty falls on the employer and on the person who controls the place of work, so on a site with a main contractor and subcontractors more than one party can hold it. Sort out between you who is giving the notice, and do not assume someone else has. WorkSafe has an online form. The regulation is still in force under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.

The ten categories

1. Construction work with a risk of falling 5 m or more (excludes residential buildings of two storeys or fewer, overhead line work, ladder-only work and minor maintenance)
2. Erecting or dismantling scaffolding from which a person may fall 5 m or more
3. Commercial logging or tree felling
4. Using a lifting appliance to lift 500 kg or more a vertical distance of 5 m or more (excludes excavators, forklifts and self-propelled mobile cranes)
5. Work in any drive, excavation or heading with ground cover overhead
6. Excavation with a vertical face over 5 m on a slope steeper than 1:2
7. Work in a pit, shaft or trench deeper than 1.5 m where the depth exceeds the horizontal width
8. Work using or storing explosives
9. Diving work using compressed air or another breathing medium
10. Non-diving work in compressed air

The exclusions, and what notification is not

• The 5 m fall threshold has exclusions. Work on a residential building of two storeys or fewer is excluded, so is work on overhead lines, work done from a ladder only, and minor maintenance. That means a lot of house roofing falls outside the height category, but it does not settle the question: the job still has to be checked against the other nine, and asbestos, hot work or a nearby overhead line can bring it back in. The exclusion is from notifying, never from controlling the fall.
• Lifting has exclusions too. Excavators, forklifts and self-propelled mobile cranes are excluded from the 500 kg by 5 m category.
• The trench rule is about shape, not just depth. Deeper than 1.5 m and deeper than it is wide. A wide, benched excavation 2 m deep may not be caught; a narrow 1.6 m service trench is.
• Notification is not approval. WorkSafe does not sign the work off. You are telling them, not asking them.
• Notification is not the risk assessment. A category applying tells you to notify; the Task Analysis still has to say how the risk is controlled.

How our documents handle it

Every Task Analysis carries a work screening table. The items that are notifiable categories say so in the label, with the exclusion in brackets. The items that are not, the prompts to assess height, services, plant, confined spaces and the rest, do not carry the word. The difference is deliberate: a document that labels everything as notifiable trains people to ignore the label.

Twenty-four hours means twenty-four hours before the work starts, not before the crew arrives. Notify when the programme is fixed, and record the date on the Task Analysis.

Sources

• Health and Safety in Employment Regulations 1995, reg 26 and Schedule (particular hazardous work). legislation.govt.nz
• WorkSafe New Zealand, Notifying WorkSafe of a high risk activity (quick guide)
• WorkSafe New Zealand, Particular hazardous work (notifiable works), worksafe.govt.nz/notifications

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.