New Zealand’s workplace safety regulator will take control of scaffolding Certificates of Competence from the industry body that has administered them for almost 20 years, saying certification decisions should sit apart from membership and commercial interests.
WorkSafe New Zealand will begin bringing the scaffolding CoC function in house over the coming months, ending an arrangement under which the Scaffolding, Access and Rigging New Zealand association (SARNZ) has issued the certificates on the regulator’s behalf.
The regulator plans to take over managing new CoCs and related complaints by the end of this year.
WorkSafe said the change was driven by a view that regulatory functions work best when they are clearly separate from industry advocacy and commercial or membership interests. It said bringing certification in house would provide greater independence and consistency, and allow certification, complaints and compliance to be handled within a single regulatory decision-making framework.
The statement, issued jointly by WorkSafe and SARNZ, acknowledged that SARNZ’s role as an organisation led by and accountable to industry is at times distinct from WorkSafe’s regulatory responsibilities.
SARNZ represents members, supports training and promotes safer practice across the sector. The statement said SARNZ will continue to represent industry perspectives through the transition.
For scaffolders and employers, the certification requirement itself does not change. Certificates of Competence will still be required where the regulations demand them, and the competence expectations remain the same. What changes is who administers the process, how information is managed, and how supporting systems such as cards, registers and complaints pathways are delivered.
Questions over what happens to existing cards, where the register will sit and who to contact during the handover have not yet been answered. WorkSafe and SARNZ said they will continue to work together over the coming months to address them.
The move also sits alongside WorkSafe’s wider work to improve how it delivers permitting activities including licensing, certification and registration.
The separation of regulator and trade body is relevant beyond New Zealand. Similar structures exist in other markets, including the UK, where CISRS operates within the NASC orbit, and in the US, where SAIA sits close to training standards. A national regulator publicly stating that certification should not be administered by a membership organisation gives other regulators a reference point.
Scaffmag has approached SARNZ for comment on the impact of losing the function.
