Safety
The 15-minute rule: how long may you work from a ladder?
· 5 min read
This explains the rules that apply in the Netherlands.
Fifteen minutes from the same position is a rule of thumb from practice, not a legal text. The Dutch Working Conditions Decree only allows a ladder as a workplace when the risk is low and the work is short. What that means, and when you need a scaffold tower instead.
The rule almost nobody knows
Ask ten painters how long they are allowed to work from a ladder and nine will shrug. The rule of thumb is shorter than you think: a maximum of fifteen minutes at a time from the same position. That number is not literally in the law. It is how practice and sector guidance make the "short duration" in the Dutch decree concrete.
Not fifteen minutes a day, and not fifteen minutes per job. Fifteen minutes before you have to move the ladder. Sanding a window frame, flushing out a gutter or cleaning a roof window takes you past that in no time.
The rules below are the Dutch ones, from the Working Conditions Decree (Arbobesluit). Belgium and Luxembourg have their own legislation on working at height. The practical advice in this article applies anywhere; the article numbers do not.
What the law says, and what practice makes of it
Three limits together decide whether you may use a ladder at all:
- From 2.5 metres there is a risk of falling. That is article 3.16 of the Arbobesluit. Above that height you have to take measures against falling.
- Up to 7.5 metres standing height. That number does not come from the decree but from Dutch construction: Arbouw does not allow a ladder above 7.5 metres standing height, and between 5 and 7.5 metres only after discussion. If you have to work higher, use a mobile scaffold tower or an aerial work platform.
- A maximum of fifteen minutes from one position, and only for work where you handle light material and keep one hand free to hold on.
Those last two belong together. In law a ladder is not a workplace but a means of access: something to get you somewhere, not something to work from. Under article 7.23, working from a ladder is only allowed when the risk is low, and then if it genuinely takes a short time or the location allows nothing else, for instance because a scaffold cannot reach the facade. All the limits in one place are in ladder, mobile scaffold or aerial platform.
What counts as light work?
The law names no kilos; practice does. A common rule of thumb: you take no more than ten kilos up with you, you use no tool that needs both hands, and you never have to apply force that could push the ladder sideways.
- Yes: replacing a lamp, cleaning a window, tucking away a cable, clearing a gutter by hand.
- No: drilling into concrete, sanding a window frame, working with a pressure washer, carrying a solar panel or a sheet up.
Pressure washers and heavy tools are out for the same reason: the recoil pushes you off the ladder, and at that moment three points of contact are no help at all.
Fifteen minutes, and then?
Then you move the ladder. That is not a trick to restart the clock: behind the rule sits the idea that you should not reach too far sideways. The limit that goes with it is your navel, and it stays between the stiles of the ladder. If you have to reach further, you move the ladder, even if there is time left.
If you notice you have to move the ladder every ten minutes, that is the signal you are using the wrong equipment. A mobile scaffold tower is up in a quarter of an hour and you work from it all day.
What if you do not follow it?
Two things run at once, and they reinforce each other. The Dutch Labour Authority can stop the work and impose a fine. On top of that, as an employer you are liable for your employee's damages, and that amount is usually a multiple of the fine. Read also what is at stake around inspection and liability.
The awkward part comes afterwards: the insurer reads along. If someone drilled from a ladder for an hour and a half, that was no longer short-duration work, and the file will state that the rule was knowingly ignored.
What to do about it tomorrow
- Agree that the ladder only goes up for jobs of a quarter of an hour. Longer than that and the scaffold comes out.
- Set the ladder at the right angle, roughly one to four, and secure it. Those fifteen minutes do you no good if it slides out from under you.
- Run the thirty-second check before every use.
- Write down which ladders you own and when they were last inspected. After an accident that is the first thing you will be asked for.
In short
Fifteen minutes, light work, up to 7.5 metres, and always three points of contact. That is the whole rule. It is not there to make your work difficult, but because a large share of all falls at work happens from a ladder, and because falling three metres is already enough to keep you from ever working again.