11/11/2017
Here are some thoughts about Work Health and Safety in the electrical industry.
The key question is “how do employers know that their employees are competent to work safely?” what evidence can they produce to show that whs competencies have been achieved? (Note: “employers” are PCBUs).
Initial Trade Training
Electrical workers learn about work health and safety during their electrotechnology training by successfully completing the unit of competence UEENEEE101A
The basic skills and knowledge included in UEENEEE101A are:
• Basic legal requirements
• Work environment
• Manual handling
• Chemicals in the workplace
• Working at heights
• Confined spaces
• Physical and psychological hazards
• Working safely with electricitywhs
• Life support
Note the lack of asbestos training – present in millions of switchboards and other building materials in every electrical worker’s work environment.
Note that actual electrical safety represents one out of 9 topics.
TAFES allow 15 – 20 hours to address this competence. TAFEs and RTOs are under extreme pressure in resourcing the training modules they are required to deliver. There is no budget to go beyond the minimum requirements.
It defies belief that anyone could gain competence in all these topics in 15 hours. However, employers are entitled to expect that people who have gained electrotechnology qualifications will have this competence.
Continuous professional development.
Further, in NSW there is no requirement for CPD, so what little has been learned in the course will be forgotten over time, and there is no requirement to keep up to date with changes to legislation or technology.
Publicly available whs materials
Publicly available guidance in relation to electrical safety is provided by:
The WHS Act – about 250 pages
The WHS Regultions – about 650 pages
Codes of Practice – Safe Work NSW publishes some 24 Codes of practice, one of which is “Managing electrical risks in the workplace”.
These documents are not designed to be readily understood by average electrical workers.
Note that there are no generic Safe Work Procedures covering the typical tasks undertaken by electrical workers. It is up to individual employers to develop these and ensure that they are understood by employees. Large employers can do this. Smaller contractors may not.
So, the fact that these resources exist gives no assurance that electrical workers are familiar with them.
Employers WHS responsibilities
Employers must ensure that electrical workers are equipped to work safely – have the basic competencies and adopt a culture of safety – physical and psychosocial.
Employers must be able to demonstrate that they are confident of their workers’ competencies. They can demonstrate this by:
• Ensuring workers have been successfully trained and assessed by third parties in various topics. The quality of this training and assessment provided by third parties can be very suspect. E.g. 15 hours training in UEENEEE101A.
• Providing in-house induction, training, assessment and reviews
• Providing SWPs and ensuring that they are signed by workers and counter-signed by their supervisors/managers to show that they are aware of safe work procedures.
Ultimately, employers are responsible for the induction and re-training of their employees in WHS topics; they should not simply assume competence because and employee holds a licence.
Factors to be considered
The UEENEE101A list of skills and knowledge provides guidance but is by no means comprehensive. It is particularly light in the area of working safely with electricity.
Much of this material cannot be absorbed quickly. Trainees should be able to work at their own pace, addressing topics need to be spread over time. They also require regular revision, refreshe training and assessment.
Employers should be aware of how their employees are coping with training by getting feedback from supervisors and from the results of assessments.
The challenge
The challenge for SIESN and other interested parties is to use industry experience to provide employers with the practical resources they need to meet their whs obligations. Resources could include:
• Examples of industry incidents (cut down to the essentials,) to provide employees with insights about workplace safety
• Model policies – emphasising a culture of safety
• Model manuals on whs which can include risk management procedures
• Model SWPs/Checklists which they can use to develop their in-house procedures
• On-site support via material such as risk control procedures accessed by tablets or cell phones
• Assessment tools
