What WorkSafe's August updates mean for  electrical utilities and contractors

WorkSafe published five pieces of new and updated guidance on 12 August 2026. Three of them impact the work done every day across New Zealand's energy networks.

The biggest is the law itself. HSWA has been amended by the Health and Safety at Work Amendment Act 2026, and the new fact sheet sets out a purpose built around prioritising critical risks. From 1 April 2027, PCBUs with fewer than 20 workers need only manage critical risks, meaning those likely to cause death, serious injury or long-term harm. Larger PCBUs still manage all risks but must prioritise critical ones when allocating time, money and people. For a network owner, that changes how overlapping duties work across the contractor base: WorkSafe will ask whether small PCBUs coordinated on critical risks and whether large ones did so on all risks. Approved codes of practice also gain safe harbour status, and industry can now develop ACOPs for approval. Supporting guidance lands through September and October.

The working at height guidance has been rewritten to sit properly under HSWA, with current notification and notifiable event requirements and new material on safety decking, worker engagement and competency. Poles, towers, substation gantries and rooftop solar all sit inside this. Competency and equipment fitness are where contractors most often come unstuck. Harnesses, anchors, EWPs and fall arrest gear need current inspection and certification records, not a faded sticker from two summers ago.

Safe use of machinery now points explicitly at the hierarchy of controls, with separate sections on lockout and isolation. Isolation is core electrical discipline, but it is a fair prompt to check that isolation devices, test instruments and proving units are calibrated and traceable.

The common thread is evidence. Prioritising critical risks, working at height, isolating plant safely: all of it rests on being able to show your equipment is fit for purpose and your records are current. That is the work we do every day. If you want a hand checking where your certification and calibration sit against this guidance, get in touch.