Health Safety compliance changes

www.business.govt.nz/healthandsafetygroup

For all employers check this out esp those of you in small business because they are going after you as well. We received an alert from our Accountants over the last week detailing the increase in the number of safety inspectors due to NZ's poor accident rates.

www.mbie.govt.nz/what-we-do/pike-river-i...is-being-established

We have a roofing business and over the last 6 months have heard various stories of the inspectors hitting roofing contractors hard in our greater region to the point that working on a single storey roof is now deemed unsafe and they must be railed. Don't be fooled into thinking because they mention P*ke R*ver that they are only after the big corps.

For those of you who think its about time, most roofers don't fall off roofs but the ACC stats don't differentiate for falls. However its adding $1500 approx. to an old fashioned 3 bedroom house roofing job to have it railed.

Not every home owner (read most) want to pay or can pay an additional $1500 to have their roof railed, and apparently the use of harnesses is not acceptable either (which is what we were using when there was doubt or risk).

Its also difficult to get the rails installed relatively quickly as the railing guys are flat out (no roofing railings to prevent their fall ironically).

Cost of building going up, trained contractors and apprenticeships hard to find? I wonder why???? We will be throwing it in next year, 40 odd years in the industry and now they want to tell Hubby its unsafe....

They've been cracking down in Wellington for the last year, 5 months ago we were fined $1500 for working on a single story building. A week later we were dobbed in by somebody driving passed another site, we had learnt our lesson and we had guardrail up and safety netting.
It is certainly adding a big extra for the average home owner.

The way I see it now, we should all be paying the same ACC levys, ther is now no risk in our job. If we fall then somebody gets charged and fined

"Most roofers don't fall off roofs."
Well neither do most drivers crash.

Someone I know fell from a single storey roof. Hit his head. He lived, but was in hospital for many months. His business folded and his family were left struggling financially.

Yes, he was a professional, and had years of experience.

$1500. Not much for a barrier that would have meant a slip was not catastrophic. Every fall from a single storey roof is very likely to result in serious injury, which is why these rules requiring barriers have been in place for quite some time.

It is when we take risks everyday that we tend to minimise them, take shortcuts, or simply get distracted, or slip. Accidents happen, so we need to plan to make them non-life threatening. I am happy to pay for safety, and know that all workers tendering for a job have to take the same reasonable precautions, so no-one cuts corners to get the work.

skyline_glenn;471803 wrote: They've been cracking down in Wellington for the last year, 5 months ago we were fined $1500 for working on a single story building. A week later we were dobbed in by somebody driving passed another site, we had learnt our lesson and we had guardrail up and safety netting.
It is certainly adding a big extra for the average home owner.

The way I see it now, we should all be paying the same ACC levys, ther is now no risk in our job. If we fall then somebody gets charged and fined

Are you finding it difficult to source the guard rail SG? Our fellows up here are saying there isn't enough to go around in NZ and when they had a meeting with the big wigs, they were basically told ''so what''.

Hawkspur;471844 wrote: "Most roofers don't fall off roofs."
Well neither do most drivers crash.

Someone I know fell from a single storey roof. Hit his head. He lived, but was in hospital for many months. His business folded and his family were left struggling financially.

Yes, he was a professional, and had years of experience.

$1500. Not much for a barrier that would have meant a slip was not catastrophic. Every fall from a single storey roof is very likely to result in serious injury, which is why these rules requiring barriers have been in place for quite some time.

It is when we take risks everyday that we tend to minimise them, take shortcuts, or simply get distracted, or slip. Accidents happen, so we need to plan to make them non-life threatening. I am happy to pay for safety, and know that all workers tendering for a job have to take the same reasonable precautions, so no-one cuts corners to get the work.

What about the fellow who was impaled on guardrail when he tripped on it?

There are examples on both sides of when things go wrong, but at least in NSW you get to make a site assessment decision based on common sense for single storey work and you can use harnesses where appropriate.

You cannot have a roof open at all point (to support the rail) if you are pressure cleaning it for example.

$1500 is a lot of extra money a home owner has to find to have roofing work undertaken. Over the last few months we have had to continually chase both homeowners and a large corporate holding for money owed for roofing work. Whilst the corporate has oodles, families don't.

I have no objection to guard rail being required where appropriate (taller than single storey sites) but lets allow the experienced guys to make common sense decisions in their workplace.

I've just been on an NZ Safety Working at Heights course, and the roofers on it had a lot to say about the current issues. The tutor was encouraging them to use harnesses and showed them some great options to make their life easier.

Remrem;471866 wrote: I've just been on an NZ Safety Working at Heights course, and the roofers on it had a lot to say about the current issues. The tutor was encouraging them to use harnesses and showed them some great options to make their life easier.

Good info many thanks!. By any chance did they give you a link to what the regs say for roofing businesses? The only info we have received is what the scaffolding guys are telling us is going on when we book a job and one of those things is that harnesses are not deemed appropriate.... ???

Swaggie I have sent you a PM with the tutor's contact details

Awesome Remrem, many thanks for that I shall follow through and contact him.

Someone should tell the cable and satellite companies this as installers frequently walk on the roof with no harness or rails. I cannot see anyone paying 1500 extra to get cable TV or the extra time it would take to get the rails put up for a 10 min job.

kai;471918 wrote: Someone should tell the cable and satellite companies this as installers frequently walk on the roof with no harness or rails. I cannot see anyone paying 1500 extra to get cable TV or the extra time it would take to get the rails put up for a 10 min job.

Agreed. Who/what protects the guys putting up the scaffold too?

A few decades back it was up to employees and the self-employed to put a bit of thought into what dangers they were putting themselves in and to take what precautions they considered wise in order to avoid injury. If they got it wrong it hurt and was usually cost them at least some lost wages.

It is now however considered normal for a dimwitted employee to lay blame on his/her employer after a workplace injury has occurred, for failing to keep that employee protected, often against that employee's lack of common sense. The result is that employees can now extort payment through the courts from their employer for situations where a workplace has not been made 'idiot proof' enough to prevent every possible risk to an increasingly dumbed down workforce.

In our eagerness to catch up with the liability industries of the US and others, NZ's safety regulations are responsible for rapidly increasing cost in compliance by the contractors and service providors we all use, who of course pass those costs on to us in their charges.

Safer? Debateable.

More expensive? You bet!

there is some sort of change to ladders tradesmen use being floated - wish I had paid more attention when I was told about it. Its no just roofers - try the new electrical codes and safety requirements. Yes electricity can kill but for goodness sake even re wiring or using a second had refurbished plug is causing a mountain of paperwork since 1 July, and guess who ends up paying.......

swaggie;471862 wrote: Are you finding it difficult to source the guard rail SG? Our fellows up here are saying there isn't enough to go around in NZ and when they had a meeting with the big wigs, they were basically told ''so what''.

We have our own system for commercial projects and for houses we just get the scaffolders to install a tube and clip hand rail or a scaffold.

Ladders is another joke. Ladders are only an access tool now, and they prefer a scaffold or stair tower for longer term access(more than a week) So a painter cutting into ceiling or a sparkie installing lights now has to move a mobile scaffold through the rooms. Im all for safety but we now have all our choices made for us. And what about the home owner? they can do as they want and we all end up paying for their accidents.

Hubby and I were talking about it this morning and his understanding of the harness issue is that you can use them, but only if two people are working as the theory is if a roofer is on his own, he could get stuck upside down in the harness....

Common sense is out the window and the nanny office brigade have moved in resulting in ''fines'' and people being employed just to ''fine'' and not educate and improve.