When a supervisor hands back a power tool with a failed tag on it, the first question is usually practical rather than legal: what do we do with it now? The answer is straightforward, but it needs to be followed in the right order. A failed test does not automatically mean the item is scrap, and it is not a sign the business has done something wrong. It means one piece of equipment has been caught before it could cause harm, and it now has to come out of service, be dealt with, and only go back into use once it has been shown to be safe again.
What a failed test actually means
A failed test is a result on a single item, not a verdict on the business. When an appliance does not pass an in-service inspection and test, something about it — the lead, the plug, the enclosure, the insulation or the earth connection — has fallen outside the limits set by AS/NZS 3760, the standard New Zealand workplaces commonly use for testing electrical equipment in service.
Failures range from minor to serious. A scuffed but sound case may only be a labelling question; a cracked plug, a frayed flex, exposed inner conductors, a missing earth pin, or a failed insulation-resistance or earth-continuity reading are all genuine safety problems. In every case the practical meaning is the same: the item is not safe to keep using until it has been put right and shown to be safe again.
Why a failed item matters more than a passed one
A passed tag confirms that a sound item is still sound. A failed tag is where the testing actually earns its keep, because it identifies the equipment that would otherwise have stayed on the bench or in the staff kitchen and hurt someone. A shock from a damaged lead, or a fire started by a faulty appliance, is exactly the kind of harm the process is designed to prevent. The value of a test and tag programme is not the number of stickers issued — it is the small number of dangerous items it takes out of circulation.
The immediate steps when equipment fails
The response follows a fixed order, and it should happen the moment the failure is identified — not at the end of the day and not at the next scheduled round.
- Stop using it and take it out of service. Unplug the item, remove it from the work area and make sure nobody keeps using it in the meantime.
- Tag it clearly. Attach a visible “out of service” or “defective” tag that states, in plain words, that the item must not be used. The tag is a message to everyone who might otherwise pick the item up.
- Quarantine it. Move it somewhere it cannot be returned to the line by mistake — a locked cupboard, a tagged bin in the workshop, or a segregated shelf. Physical separation matters more than the label on its own.
- Tell the people who use it. Let the team know the item is out, especially on a shared site where a different crew might start the next shift. A tagged item that nobody has been told about is still a risk.
- Record the failure and the action. Note the asset, the date, what failed and what you did about it. That record is what turns a one-off event into something you can show you managed.
If the item was already in use when the fault was found, treat that as a prompt to check the equipment around it as well — the same batch of imported leads, the same age of tool, or the same power point may share a problem.
Repair, retest and return to service
Some failures can be repaired, some cannot, and not every repair is something anyone on site may carry out. Two rules keep this simple.
The first is about who may repair. In New Zealand, repairs to electrical equipment are generally prescribed electrical work under the Electricity (Safety) Regulations 2010. Replacing a plug, a flexible lead or a socket outlet has to be done by a registered electrical worker, or by someone working under the supervision the regulations allow. A failed item is not fixed by swapping a plug at the workbench and quietly returning it to the line. If the item needs this kind of work, book it in with a qualified person.
The second rule is about retesting. Nothing goes back into service until it has been repaired and then tested again, with the result recorded. The retest is what confirms the fault is genuinely gone rather than hidden. Only after a clean retest should the old failed tag come off and a current passing tag go on.
If an item is not worth repairing, the correct outcome is disposal or recycling — with the failed tag removed and the item made permanently unusable, for example by cutting the plug off, so it cannot be salvaged from a skip and put back into use later.
The New Zealand framework: law, standard, guidance and practice
Four different things get muddled together in this conversation. Keeping them separate makes the whole subject clearer.
- The law. The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 places a duty on a PCBU to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers — which includes keeping electrical equipment safe to use. The Electricity (Safety) Regulations 2010 sit alongside it and control who may do electrical work.
- The standard. AS/NZS 3760 is a standard, not legislation. It sets out a recognised approach to inspecting and testing equipment in service, including how to decide what to do with an item that does not pass. A business can adopt it to give its programme a defensible, consistent shape.
- Guidance. WorkSafe New Zealand’s position is that what is required is for electrical equipment to be safe and maintained in a safe condition, and that testing and tagging is one way of checking equipment is safe. Testing and tagging is not mandatory in New Zealand, and WorkSafe does not publish a universal rule that every item of equipment has to be tested and tagged.
- Best practice. Many New Zealand businesses go further than the minimum and test on a fixed schedule across all their equipment, because it is the simplest way to demonstrate that the duty is being met and to catch faults early.
Put together, that is why the accurate framing is that the duty is to keep equipment safe, and testing and tagging is one widely used, well-understood way to meet that duty. It is a choice a business makes in response to its responsibilities, not a standalone command that names the process.
What a failed tag looks like
A failed item is not given a period colour from the testing cycle. It is given an out-of-service or defective tag instead, deliberately different from the passing tags so it cannot be confused with a current one. The point of that difference is speed: anyone glancing at a rack should be able to tell instantly that this item is not to be used, without reading the fine print. For the ordinary period colours, see our guide to test and tag colour codes in New Zealand.
Common mistakes when equipment fails
- Leaving it in place. The most common error is tagging a failed item but leaving it plugged in or on the shelf where it will be used anyway.
- “Borrowing” the lead. Taking a good lead off a failed item and using it elsewhere without testing it spreads the problem instead of containing it.
- Repairing it on the quiet. A plug swapped by an unqualified person is both a safety risk and a problem for your records.
- Forgetting the retest. An item that was repaired but never retested has no evidence it is safe.
- No record. If a failure is fixed but never written down, there is nothing to show what was found or how it was dealt with.
Records: what to keep when an item fails
Failure records are part of the wider testing record, and they deserve the same care as a passing result. At a minimum, keep the asset identifier, the date of the failed test, a short description of the fault, the action taken, who carried out any repair, and the date and result of the retest. Losing an item’s history makes it hard to spot equipment that keeps failing, which is often the first sign that a tool should be replaced rather than repaired again. Our article on test and tag record keeping covers the full record set in more detail.
When to bring in a test and tag provider
Small businesses often start by testing in-house, and that can work when someone genuinely has the knowledge, the calibrated test gear and the time. A professional provider is worth considering when the equipment count grows, when you run several sites, when you need consistent records, or when you simply cannot show that the testing was done properly. A full programme usually covers more than appliances — it also includes RCD testing for the safety switches that protect people from electric shock. A managed setup removes the admin burden of chasing due dates and keeps failed items from drifting back into use. You can see the workplace test and tag service we provide, and read about how to set up a test and tag programme if you are building one from scratch.
Bringing it together
A failed test is a good outcome for the process, even though it is a bad outcome for that one appliance. It means the system did its job and stopped a faulty item before it could cause harm. Handle it in the right order — out of service, tagged, quarantined, repaired by someone qualified, retested, recorded — and the failure becomes a routine event rather than an incident. If you would rather hand the schedule, the testing and the paperwork to a team that does it every day, request a quote or get in touch.
