Working at height compliance in New Zealand

Who this applies to

WorkSafe New Zealand names the duty holders directly: building owners, facilities managers and property managers who have influence or control over buildings with permanently installed height safety systems. It also covers the businesses working on those buildings — maintenance and service contractors, building and window washers, technicians and installers.¹

If you manage an industrial, commercial or hazardous facility, this applies to you whether or not your own staff ever go on the roof.

Why it matters

Working at height remains one of New Zealand’s highest-risk workplace activities. Falls from roofs, ladders, scaffolding and elevated work platforms continue to result in serious injuries and fatalities every year. Many of these incidents are preventable through proper planning, regular equipment inspections and compliance with safety standards.

WorkSafe has been explicit that this is a known blind spot:

“WorkSafe has identified that many PCBUs with influence and responsibility for buildings that have these systems are not aware of these requirements… If these systems are not competently maintained, there is a serious risk of a fall from height which could result in death.”

WorkSafe New Zealand, Safety alert: Maintaining, inspecting and re-certifying permanent anchorage systems, 10 May 2023.

What the law requires

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, a PCBU must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers and of others affected by the work.⁴ Where height safety equipment is the control measure being relied on, keeping that equipment inspected, certified and fit for use is part of that duty.

Duties overlap. The building owner and the contractor both hold them, and neither can assume the other has it covered.

What needs inspecting, and how often

Anchor and lifeline inspections should be carried out in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions or the relevant sections of AS/NZS 1891.4:2009.¹ AS/NZS 1891.4 is a purchased standard; the precise inspection table sits in its section 9.

The standards that apply

• AS/NZS 1891.4 — Industrial fall arrest systems and devices: selection, use and maintenance. This is the standard your inspection is carried out against.³
• AS/NZS 1891.1 and 1891.2 — harness and lanyard manufacture, and horizontal lifeline systems. WorkSafe notes that end anchor loadings on a lifeline designed to AS/NZS 1891.2 may reach up to 63.3 kN.²
• AS/NZS ISO 22846.1 and 22846.2 — personal equipment for protection against falls, where rope access is involved.²
• Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 — the primary duty of care.⁴
• WorkSafe, Working at height in New Zealand — the good practice guidelines.²

The paperwork most buildings are missing

One requirement is routinely overlooked. Before re-certifying a permanent anchorage system, the person inspecting it should have available, and be shown, the documentation verifying that a Chartered Professional Engineer designed and approved the system.¹ WorkSafe also states that a permanent anchor point should be designed by a chartered professional engineer in the first place, and that each anchor should be uniquely identified so its installation, testing and maintenance can be tracked across its lifetime.²

Who is allowed to do the inspection

A competent person. WorkSafe uses that term throughout its height guidance for inspection, certification and supervision duties.¹²

Fern Group’s inspectors are competent and trained under NZQA 19359. We are also authorised to inspect and service mechanical gear that in-house crews cannot legally touch.

For the workers using the equipment rather than inspecting it, WorkSafe recommends NZQA Unit Standard 23229 for basic travel restraint work, and Unit Standard 15757 for planning, installing and operating fall arrest systems. Refresher training is recommended every two years.²

What a compliant record looks like

Being compliant and being able to prove you are compliant are two different things. In practice an auditor is looking for a current certificate for every item, a unique identifier tying each certificate to a physical asset, evidence the inspector was competent, a clear next-inspection date, and a record of anything withdrawn from service and why.

That is the part most businesses lose control of — not the inspection itself, but the register behind it.

Where compliance usually breaks down

• Gear is inspected but the certificates live in an inbox, so nothing can be produced at audit.
• Nobody owns the expiry dates, so equipment quietly falls out of certification.
• Harnesses are stored badly between inspections and degrade faster than the interval assumes.
• New equipment is bought and never added to the register.
• Anchor points on the roof are assumed to be somebody else’s responsibility.

How Fern Group handles it

Common questions