Alteration without authorisation and an unrecorded handover
A scaffold was handed over three weeks ago for a crew of roofers. On a Monday morning the site manager finds that over the weekend someone has removed the internal ladder access hatch and two guard-rails to slide roofing sheets onto the platform, added a plank ramp from the platform to the roof, and hung a gin wheel from a ledger without any bracket. The handover certificate on file names a person who has since left the company. The inspection tag has not been updated. Two roofers are already working on the platform, one without a harness, and the plank ramp has no edge protection.
1. What are the immediate actions, and who is responsible for what?
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Immediate actions (stop first, fix second):
- Stop work and get both roofers off the platform and the plank ramp to a safe place. Do not let them 'finish the sheet' first.
- Barricade the base and tag the scaffold 'do not use - inspection required'. Isolate the gin wheel area in case the ledger has been damaged.
- Secure the open edge where guard-rails were removed, or keep everyone away until it is restored.
- Check the plank ramp: no edge protection and no fixing means it is a fall path, not access. Remove it.
Responsibility:
- The PCBU/site manager owns the safe system of work: authorisation of alterations, inspection regime, handover records and supervision.
- The person who altered the scaffold without authorisation breached the permit/alteration controls; investigate who and why.
- The roofers had a duty to not use a scaffold they knew was altered and unprotected; the one without a harness was working at height without fall protection.
- The competent/licensed person must inspect and confirm the scaffold is sound before re-use, and issue a new handover naming a current person.
Then: restore the ladder hatch and guard-rails to the design, remove the gin wheel and fit a proper designed bracket or use another lifting method with edge protection, provide harness anchor points and a rescue plan, re-inspect, re-tag, re-brief the crew, and introduce an alteration permit so weekend changes cannot happen unrecorded.
2. How should the site prevent a repeat, and what records should be rebuilt?
Read the worked answer
The repeat risk is a system gap, not just a careless act, so address authorisation, access and verification.
Prevention:
- An alteration permit: no one removes guard-rails, ties, bracing, hatches or adds brackets/gin wheels without written authorisation from the scaffold designer/competent person. State what is permitted and what needs design.
- Physical controls: lock or secure access ladders/hatches out of hours; keep the scaffold tagged with a clear 'do not alter' notice; control who has spanners and couplers on site.
- A designed materials-handling point for roofing sheets, with edge protection, so the informal ramp is not needed.
- Supervision on weekends and a start-of-shift check of the scaffold before anyone goes up.
- Brief all trades on the alteration rules and the fall-protection and rescue requirements.
Records to rebuild:
- A current handover certificate naming a person still employed, with the design and configuration it covers.
- A new inspection record after restoration, and a tag update.
- The alteration register showing what was removed, by whom, when, and what was restored and by whom.
- The investigation record and corrective actions, with sign-off.
- Training and briefing records for the crew, and the permit issued for any future alteration. Keep these with the scaffold file so the next inspector can trace the scaffold's history.