The most common misunderstanding about contractors in New Zealand is the belief that engaging one moves the risk off your books. It does not, and the Act is not subtle about it.
If more than one business has a duty over the same work, they all still have it. You cannot transfer it, contract out of it, or delegate it away in a services agreement.
Overlapping duties, plainly
When two or more businesses have duties over the same work, those duties overlap rather than transfer. Each one keeps its own. On top of that, each has to consult, cooperate and coordinate with the others, so far as is reasonably practicable, so that all of them can actually meet their obligations.
That last part is the bit with teeth. It is not enough for each party to be privately diligent. If you and your contractor both did sensible things and never spoke to each other, you have probably both failed the coordination duty.
Why the prequal folder is not the answer
Most organisations manage contractors by collecting documents up front: insurance, a safety plan, a few certificates, maybe a third-party prequalification badge. All useful, and none of it is coordination.
The folder tells you the contractor had a system on the day they filled in your form. It tells you nothing about whether the four people who turned up on Tuesday knew about the overhead lines, or that the tank had not been purged, or that another crew would be working above them that afternoon.
What coordination looks like on a real site
Somebody knows who is on site today, not who was approved last year
The hazards your site creates for them are communicated before they start, not referenced in a document they signed
The hazards their work creates for your people are known to your people
Where two crews affect each other, someone has actually sequenced it
When something changes — a new substance, a new exclusion zone — the people on site hear about it that day
The record problem
Almost everyone does some of this verbally, and verbal coordination is legitimate. The difficulty is that it leaves no trace, and the question is usually asked long afterwards: what did you tell them, when, and who was there?
The organisations that come out of this well are not the ones with the thickest folder. They are the ones who can show a short, dated record of what was communicated and to whom — which is a much lower bar than most people assume, and much easier to clear if it is captured as it happens rather than reconstructed.
Counting contractors, and why pricing matters here
A practical note if you are looking at software for this. Many safety platforms are priced per seat, which makes contractors expensive — you are paying a licence for someone who logs in twice a year. Some do not model contractors at all, so they end up as names in a spreadsheet beside the real system.
Contractor management in HazNode treats them as a separate population with their own count, included in the plan rather than charged per head. That is a commercial design decision, not a safety one, but it is the reason contractor records in a lot of organisations live outside the system that was bought to hold them.
Frequently asked questions
Can I transfer health and safety duties to a contractor?
No. Under HSWA duties overlap rather than transfer. If more than one business has a duty over the same work, each of them keeps it, and each must consult, cooperate and coordinate with the others so far as is reasonably practicable.
Is a prequalification check enough to manage a contractor?
It is a reasonable starting point and not sufficient on its own. Prequalification tells you about a contractor’s system at a point in time. The overlapping duty is about coordinating the actual work — the hazards each party creates for the other, communicated to the people doing the job.
What does “consult, cooperate and coordinate” mean in practice?
Knowing who is on site, telling them about the hazards your operation creates before they start, knowing the hazards their work creates for your people, sequencing work where two crews affect each other, and communicating changes on the day they happen.
Do I need to keep records of contractor inductions and briefings?
The Act does not prescribe a format, but you will be asked what was communicated, when, and to whom. A short dated record of the briefing and who attended is far easier to produce at the time than to reconstruct months later.
