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Notifiable illness

You must notify us if a person becomes seriously ill while carrying out work, or as a result of work that your business is responsible for carrying out. This is only if the illness has resulted from an event while the aircraft is in operation.

You must notify us so we can investigate the events that caused the serious illness, or have the potential to cause serious illness while an aircraft is in operation.

An illness might arise from:

  • the condition of the work site, 
  • failure of controls or protective equipment,
  • the way the work activity is organised, or
  • the way equipment or substances are used.

You do NOT need to notify us about illnesses that are not related to work.

What is a notifiable illness?

  • An illness that requires or would usually require someone to be admitted to hospital for immediate treatment. 'Admitted to hospital' means being admitted as an in-patient for any length of time. It doesn't include being taken to hospital for out-patient treatment by the hospital's A&E department.
  • An illness that requires (or would usually require) medical treatment within 48 hours of exposure to a substance, for eg. a natural or artificial substance in any form eg. solid, liquid, gas or vapour.
  • An illness declared in regulations to be a notifiable injury or illness - listed in Schedule 5 of the Health and Safety at Work Act (Mining Operations and Quarrying Operations) Regulations 2016(external link)
  • A serious infection or illness (including occupational zoonosis) to which the work is a significant contributing factor, due to carrying out work: 
  • - with micro-organisms (eg. Legionnaire's Disease caught from working with soil)
  • - that involves providing treatment or care to a person
  • - that involves contact with human blood or bodily substances
  • - that involves handling or contact with animals, carcasses or waste products (eg. E. coli infections)

Note:

  • 'Medical treatment' is considered to be treatment by a registered medical practitioner eg a doctor;
  • 'Immediate treatment' is urgent treatment, and includes treatment by a registered medical practitioner, registered nurse or paramedic;
  • If immediate treatment is not readily available (eg. because the person became seriously ill at a remote site), the notification must still be made.

What you must do

1. Preserve the site 

The person who manages or controls the workplace must take all reasonable steps to ensure that the site where the notifiable event occurred is preserved and not disturbed until a CAA Investigator authorises you to do so. 

The site may only be disturbed if:

  • you need to assist the person
  • it's essential to make the site safe or minimise the risk of someone else being hurt or killed
  • directed to do so by the Police
  • permitted by CAA or a CAA Investigator.

To ensure the site is not disturbed:

  • the work set-up should not be changed
  • any plant, substances or other things involved in the event should stay where they are
  • work that could interfere with the site of the event should stop. Work may continue in other parts of the workplace
  • no alterations should be made to the plant, vehicles, or structures involved. 

2. Notify the CAA

If someone becomes seriously ill as a result of work, then:  

  • You must notify us as soon as possible after you become aware that someone has become ill. 
  • The notification must be made even if emergency services attend. 
  • Only one notification is required for each notifiable event. 

If there are multiple businesses involved with the work, then one of the businesses should be nominated to notify the CAA. 

Note that all businesses involved with the work are responsible for making sure that the notification is made by the nominated business. 

3. Keep records

You must keep records of all notifiable events for at least five years from the date of the event.

How to notify us

You must notify us using the fastest means available to you.

  1. Phone ACCIDENT (0508 222 433), OR
  2. Download and complete the printable PDF form - Notification of a death or a notifiable injury or illness [PDF 354 KB]

Provide us with as much detail as possible about what has happened. You will receive an acknowledgement that the notification has been received.

What happens next?

Once we have received your notification, it will be reviewed by our response team. They will contact you about the next steps. There are a number of options available, including conducting an investigation or inviting the duty-holder to participate in an assisted review of your health and safety system. 

If no action is required, we will confirm this with you. 

While there is no requirement under HSWA for you to conduct your own investigation of a notifiable event, investigations can form part of good practice to identify and manage work risk.

After a notifiable event occurs, you should consider:

  • investigating what happened
  • working out what you can do to stop this happening again
  • making changes.
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