Under the Health and Safety at Work Act, a PCBU must notify WorkSafe of certain events as soon as possible after becoming aware of them. The obligation is straightforward in principle and regularly failed in practice, usually because nobody at the workplace recognised that what happened fell within a notifiable category.
The three categories
A notifiable event is a death, a notifiable injury or illness, or a notifiable incident, arising out of the conduct of the business.
Notifiable injury or illness includes, among other things:
- Any injury or illness requiring immediate treatment beyond first aid, or admission to hospital for immediate treatment.
- Amputation, serious head or eye injury, serious burn, degloving or scalping.
- Spinal injury, loss of bodily function, or serious lacerations.
- Injury requiring intravenous fluids or blood transfusion.
- Illness from work-related exposure to a substance, including infections attributable to work with micro-organisms.
Notifiable incidents are the category most often missed, because nobody was hurt. An incident is notifiable where it exposes a person to a serious risk to health or safety from immediate or imminent exposure to things including:
- Uncontrolled escape, spillage or leakage of a substance.
- Uncontrolled implosion, explosion or fire.
- Uncontrolled escape of gas, steam or pressurised substance.
- Electric shock.
- Fall or release from height of any plant, substance or thing.
- Collapse, overturning, failure or malfunction of plant required to be authorised.
- Collapse or partial collapse of a structure, or of an excavation or shoring.
- Interruption of the main system of ventilation in a tunnel or underground excavation.
The key point about notifiable incidents: the fact that nobody was injured is irrelevant. A scaffold plank falling six storeys into an empty area is notifiable. A near miss of that kind is exactly what the category exists to capture.
What you must do
Three obligations attach:
- Notify WorkSafe as soon as possible after becoming aware of the event. For the most serious events this means by telephone immediately, followed by written notification.
- Preserve the site so far as reasonably practicable until a WorkSafe inspector directs otherwise. Limited exceptions apply — you may disturb the scene to help an injured person, remove a deceased person, make the site safe, or where a constable directs.
- Keep records of notifiable events for the required period.
Site preservation is where well-meaning employers cause themselves difficulty. The instinct after an incident is to clean up and get back to work. Doing so before WorkSafe has released the scene is an offence in its own right, separate from whatever caused the incident.
Different regulator, different rules
WorkSafe is the primary regulator, but some sectors have designated agencies — maritime, aviation and rail matters may be handled by Maritime New Zealand, the Civil Aviation Authority or NZTA depending on the circumstances. Businesses in those sectors should know which regulator receives their notifications.
Why businesses fail to notify
Rarely deliberate concealment. The recurring causes are ordinary:
- Nobody on site knew the categories, so an electric shock with no injury was treated as a non-event.
- The injured person went to hospital under their own steam and the business assumed it did not count.
- The incident happened to a contractor, and each PCBU assumed the other would notify.
- It happened after hours and the person who found out did not know what to do.
All four are solved the same way: a short, plain-language list of notifiable categories posted where supervisors will see it, a named person to call, and an explicit instruction that when in doubt, notify. Over-notifying carries no penalty.
What happens after notification
WorkSafe assesses each notification and decides whether to investigate. Not every notified event results in an investigation. Where an inspector attends, they may issue improvement or prohibition notices, and in serious cases an investigation may lead to prosecution.
Notification itself is not an admission of fault, and failing to notify is treated as a separate matter that consistently makes the overall position worse.
WorkSafe publishes the notifiable event categories, the notification process and the online form free at worksafe.govt.nz, along with a 24-hour notification line for serious events.
General information only, not legal advice.
