What Happened and Why
Josh Bowles, 38, had been working for commercial cleaning company Prowash for two months when he fell six metres from a wet rooftop in central Wellington. The roof was slippery from both rain and cleaning chemicals. Bowles had no prior experience working at height and had received no formal training in harness use, roof anchors, or fall-prevention equipment. The fall resulted in a traumatic brain injury, multiple broken bones, more than six months in hospital, ongoing chronic pain, and permanent inability to return to work. He is a father of five.
WorkSafe’s investigation found that Prowash had some limited edge protection in place — but it was inadequate for the job. No harness system was provided. No documentation of safety procedures, hazard identification processes, or risk assessments was produced. WorkSafe principal inspector Paul Budd stated plainly: “This was a preventable fall which has permanently impacted a young father’s quality of life.”
What the Law Requires
The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 requires employers to eliminate risks so far as is reasonably practicable, or where elimination is not practicable, to minimise risks using the hierarchy of controls. For work at height, the hierarchy is clear: engineering controls that physically prevent falls (scaffolding, edge protection) are preferred over administrative controls (work procedures) which are preferred over personal protective equipment (harnesses). A harness is the last line of defence, not the primary control.
Budd’s guidance on the appropriate controls: “The most effective controls are those that don’t rely on active judgment by workers” — including scaffolding and edge protection that prevent falls regardless of worker attention or fatigue. Administrative controls and PPE alone — particularly for workers who are new, untrained, or working in adverse conditions — do not meet the standard the legislation requires.
Practical Prevention Requirements
Every rooftop job, regardless of how routine it appears, requires a site-specific risk assessment addressing: roof pitch or slope, presence of fragile surfaces or skylights, weather conditions, and the specific work to be performed. Written safety plans should be standard, shared with all workers before they start. Edge protection should be installed wherever possible; where it cannot be, a harness system is essential — but workers must be trained in its use before they are required to use it on site.
Weather is the most common variable that transforms a manageable risk into an unacceptable one. Wet roofs significantly increase slip risk. WorkSafe’s position: it is better to delay a job than to proceed in unsafe conditions. No deadline or billing pressure justifies exposing workers to a preventable fatal hazard. For employers who have not done so recently, reviewing your written safety procedures for all work at height — and verifying that training records actually exist for the specific workers doing the specific tasks — is not optional. It is the baseline from which compliance begins.
