Health and Safety

Under the Health and Safety in Employment Act (HSE Act), employers must identify areas and activities where fall prevention is required and take all practicable steps to prevent employees from falling more than 3.0 m. Only where no practicable means of preventing a fall is available is it acceptable to use fall protection.

Fall prevention is required in locations such as an excavation edge, a floor hole, a working platform, an unprotected edge or from a roof.

Fall prevention systems include:

• removing the work to an area free from fall hazards
• scaffolding
• elevating work platforms
• guard rails.

Fall protection systems include:

• safety harness systems
• safety net systems
• personal fall arrest systems.

Notifiable work

The HSE Act defines two categories of construction work – notifiable work and non-notifiable work.

Notifiable work is deemed to be particularly hazardous, and notification must be made to the Department of Labour at least 24 hours before the work begins.

Notifiable work as defined in HSE Act includes:

• where workers risk a fall of 5.0 m or more
• the erection and use of scaffolding over 5.0 m high
• use of lifting appliances raising more than 500 kg more than 5.0 m
• excavations that are over 1.5 m deep and where the depth is greater than the width at the top
• excavations where the vertical face is more than 5.0 m and the slope greater than 1 in 2
• any tunnel or drive with ground cover overhead, regardless of support.
• storage or use of explosives
• work in or breathing compressed air or an air substitute
• restricted work involving asbestos
• demolition
• tree felling in land clearance
• tree felling in maintenance of overhead powerlines.

Note: The above list only includes notifiable construction activities. The Regulations include work that is a notifiable forestry activity.