Health and safety information

Legislative requirements 

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) Council must take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure the health and safety of workers and other persons. ‘Workers’ includes Council employees and contractors and their employees, and ‘other persons’ includes members of the public.  

Contractors working with Council have the same duty of care. The contractor must ensure the health and safety of not only their workers but also Council employees and members of the public.  

The HSWA gives Council and our Contractors joint responsibility for everyone involved in the work and members of the public who may encounter the work. It also requires organisations who work together to consult, cooperate and coordinate with each other to ensure they meet the primary duty of care.  

Our expectations  

We want to work with contractors who share our vision of healthy and safe work activities, and who want to engage in a positive relationship through consultation, cooperation and coordination. We’re continuously improving our health and safety systems, and expect the contractors we work with to do the same. Together, we will manage the health and safety risks in our shared work.   

Our requirements for work involving health and safety risk

We require all our suppliers that do physical work for us, or do work for us where health and safety risk is higher than would normally be present in a typical workplace to either be:

1. Accredited by SiteWise to a Green Status (or better), OR
2. Accredited by an alternative Health and Safety assessor, provided that the alternative accreditation is acceptable to us, OR
3. A current Health and Safety Approved Contractor already assessed and approved by us.

Please note that SiteWise is now our preferred health and safety accreditation system. SiteWise enables suppliers to submit their health and safety systems for independent assessment and grading. The grade is published in the SiteWise database that is accessed by us to assist in the identification of health and safety competency.

Please also be aware that we are disestablishing our current system for in-house health and safety assessments in 2023 in favour of the SiteWise health and safety accreditation system. You are strongly encouraged to seek Health and Safety accreditation from SiteWise if you have not already done so.

More information about SiteWise can be found on the website: SiteWise NZ – Contractor Health & Safety System

Before any work begins the contractor must have discussed the work and the management of risks related to the work with us and any other contractors involved; and for work activities and/or environments that are assessed as being high-risk, a site-specific safety plan will be required. As the work proceeds, the contractor is expected to report any health and safety incidents or issues to us and carry out any monitoring of work we require.

Ongoing relationship with us  

We’re looking for an ongoing relationship with our contractors in managing health and safety risks together. This means aside from the contracted work; we expect the contractor to engage with us in ongoing conversations and continuous improvement around any health and safety issues and risk management.  

Questions about health and safety?  

Email us at Health.Safety@kapiticoast.govt.nz