WorkSafe inspectors are visiting residential sites. Here's what they're looking for

WorkSafe has started proactive visits to residential building sites around New Zealand. Between now and the end of the year, inspectors will be checking how builders manage the risk of falls from height, including duties that extend to subcontractors on the job.

WorkSafe's own figures show why. Over the past two years, about 70 percent of the prohibition notices it issued in construction were about falls from height, and ladders were involved in around 40 percent of fall injuries in the sector.

Area manager Barney Hoskins said inspectors want to see that businesses "have identified where workers could fall from height and put effective safety controls in place". He also pointed out that sites change daily, with several trades working side by side, so the plan has to keep up.

That last point is the one we'd take to heart. Most sites have a plan for the frame going up. Fewer have one for the week the plumber, the sparky and the roofer are all upstairs at once, or the afternoon a bit of protection comes off to get a job done. That's when someone ends up on a ladder near an open edge for "just five minutes". WorkSafe is clear that a five-minute job needs the same thought as a five-hour one.

We look at it through the hierarchy of controls. Stopping someone reaching a fall sits above dealing with a fall once it has started, and both sit well above a ladder and care. Every control has its place; our thinking is on the Why it works page.

WorkSafe has also updated its good practice guidelines, Working at height in New Zealand, with new material on risk management, safety decking and worker engagement. Worth reading before an inspector turns up.

The takeaway: walk your site this week the way an inspector would. For every upper-floor task, and every trade, ask what they're standing on and what stops them going over the edge.

Source: WorkSafe New Zealand, "WorkSafe's focus on residential construction sites aims to prevent falls from height" (2 October 2026), https://www.worksafe.govt.nz/about-us/news-and-media/worksafes-focus-on-residential-construction-sites-aims-to-prevent-falls-from-height/