• Brendan Woodnutt
    2
    We recently were advised by a client that to have access to the site of our client (we are a sub contractor of) we would need to gain pre approval through a third party H&S provider at a cost of $110 + GST per worker.
    This troubles me s me as it appears that it is contracting out of safety. Be interested in your comments. This is also a way we do not want to go in this country. This is a barrier to work for some people and I believe has some Labour Issues?
  • Jan-Ulf Kuwilsky
    22
    I'd be asking what you're gaining from this, especially if it is on a per worker basis. Is it part of the induction process and the primary induction? If so, it may be okay, as long as that process is robust. I would be worried if each worker then also still had to go through your primary site's induction as a separate step, as you'd wonder what benefit each organisation is gaining (other than costs).
    There are a number of third party H&S pre-qualification providers within NZ, but they work on a company to company basis, not at the worker level, as far as I know.
  • Mike Saunders
    3
    Hi

    There is quite a bit of discussion on this topic under Contractor Pre Qualification / Approval systems on this forum
  • Marie Fleming
    7
    The bottom line is - its a rip-off and a classic case of contracting out your duty of care plain and simple.
    Me personally - as part of my role being a Health Safety & Risk Advisor, I conduct due diligence on behalf of my company even though we participate in prequalification process with a third party organisation, at a ridiculous cost - for what? not sure. I do not trust the concept of third party ensuring safety within our organisation. if your company has a robust safety management system then you would not need to rely on a third party organisation to do your job!
  • Tania Curtin
    112
    That sounds very odd Brendan. Are they assessing each individual? What on earth does that 'pre-approval' involve?
  • MattD2
    337
    That sounds very odd Brendan. Are they assessing each individual? What on earth does that 'pre-approval' involve?Tania Curtin

    Doesn't sound odd at all to me... what it does sound like is sitting a Construct Safe test (or even attending a SiteSafe Passport training).

    And just to clarify, just because it sounds like the norm to me, doesn't mean I agree with this norm :wink:
  • Allister Rose
    5
    how is contracting out described in the Act? I think you may be confusing “normal” terms with terms in legislation
  • James Williamson
    2
    Hi Brendan, I agree with MattD2 it sounds like a Constructsafe test, which is becoming the norm. It depends how your client spins it.
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