Health Act 1956

Schedule 3: Offensive trades

You could also call this:

"Jobs that can be unpleasant or unhealthy, like working with animals or waste"

The Health Act 1956 has a list of jobs called 'offensive trades'. You can find this list in Schedule 3, which is empowered by s 2. These jobs include things like blood or offal treating, bone boiling, and nightsoil collection. You might be wondering what some of these jobs are. They include things like collecting and storing used bottles, treating animal hides, and cleaning fish. Some other jobs on the list are fellmongering, which is removing hair from animal hides, and gut scraping, which is cleaning animal intestines. These jobs are all considered 'offensive trades' because they can be unpleasant or unhealthy. They include things like slaughtering animals, storing animal bones and hides, and disposing of waste. You can find the full list of jobs in Schedule 3 of the Health Act 1956.

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This page was last updated on 28 November 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM308754.

Topics:

Work and jobs > Worker rightsWork and jobs > Workplace safetyHealth and wellbeing > Public health

Schedule 2: Diseases notifiable to medical officer of health (other than notifiable infectious diseases), or

"Diseases you must report to a health officer, excluding infectious ones"

Schedule 4: Chemical works, or

"Extra information about chemical works in the Health Act 1956"

3Offensive trades Empowered by s 2

Blood or offal treating

Bone boiling or crushing

Collection and storage of used bottles for sale

Dag crushing

Fellmongering

Fish cleaning

Fish curing

Flax pulping

Flock manufacturing, or teasing of textile materials for any purpose

Gut scraping and treating

Nightsoil collection and disposal

Refuse collection and disposal

Septic tank desludging and disposal of sludge

Slaughtering of animals for any purpose other than human consumption

Storage, drying, or preserving of bones, hides, hoofs, or skins

Tallow melting

Tanning

Wood pulping

Wool scouring

Notes

Schedule 3: amended, on 1 April 1974, by section 56(1) of the Clean Air Act 1972 (1972 No 31).
Schedule 3: amended, on 25 October 1960, by section 5(1) of the Health Amendment Act 1960 (1960 No 96).
Schedule 3: amended, on 1 June 1959, by clause 2 of the Offensive Trades Order 1959 (SR 1959/79).