Capital Equipment News March 2016

WORK @ HEIGHT: GOOD PRACTICE

WORLD NEWS

INSTITUTE OF WORK AT HEIGHT APPOINTS NEW MEWP CHAIRMAN

The Institute for Work at Height was formed in January 2009 being a merger of the Specialised Access Engineering Manufacturers Association (SAEMA) and the Rope Access and Fall Arrest Association (RAFAA) desirous of creating safe- ty awareness and in turn “professionalism” in the overall Work at Height Industry. It has pro- gressed substantially and strives to become the unified voice for all work at height activities in the country. The professional body, when fully recognised will therefore be able to ensure the standards as agreed in industry and ratified by the rele- vant qualifications authorities are enforced, therefore ensuring execution of the best prac- tice and policies and standards set by the trade association. One of the chambers requiring recognition is the MEWP chamber as they are currently being challenged by the building of acceptable and practical training standards which will involve linking government departments and designing a training incidental use training standard that is practical and supportive of job creation. The appointment of Jean duRandt as the new Chairman of the Mobile Elevated Work Platform (MEWP) chamber as well as the con- stitutional committee of the IWH for both trade association and professional body respective- ly, augers well for the impact the chamber will have in promoting the principles of safety and training for the industry. Jean duRandt is the CEO of Eazi Access Rental, one of the largest suppliers of MEWPs in South Africa and therefore considers it his duty to ensure safe working conditions and collective learning in the industry. Eazi’s ethos of ensuring safe, reliable and effective work at height aligns one hundred percent with that of the IWH. Jean also serves as the Chairman of the Contractors Plant Association (CPHA), MEWP chamber. The existence of a separately constituted trade association and a professional body with fundamentally different constituents has led to conflict as a result of the misalignment of intent and a misunderstanding that led to both parties failing to capitalize on the symbiotic relationship that exists. The committee has therefore been estab- lished to develop a new constitution that will amalgamate both the trade association and professional body whilst ensuring sufficient bal- ance of power and yielding maximum agility in

ENSURING HEIGHT SAFETY Do you know who is using access platforms at your workplace? Have the platform operators been trained and familiarised on the equipment that they are using? Falls from height remain the big- gest killer at the workplace. Most falls occur when people use inap- propriate equipment or methods to work at height. In the European Union, the Tem- porary Work at Height Directive 2001/45/EC has focused attention on safe work at height. In the UK, for example, the Work at Height Regu- lations (2005) state that employers are required to first analyse if any temporary work at height is neces- sary, and if so, to devise a safe way of doing it. The regulations set out a simple hierarchy for managing and select- ing equipment for work at height. Duty holders must: • Avoid work at height where they can. • Use work equipment or other mea- sures to prevent falls where they cannot avoid working at height. • Where they cannot eliminate the risk of a fall, use work equipment or other measures to minimise the distance and consequences of a fall should one occur. YOU NEED TO HAVE TWO FEET AND ONE HAND ON A STEPLADDER AT ALL TIMES WHEN CARRYING OUT A TASK No, this isn’t true. When you need to have both hands free for a brief period to do a job using a stepladder (eg putting a box on a shelf, hanging wallpaper, installing a smoke detec- tor on a ceiling) you need to maintain three points of contact at the work- ing position. This is not just two feet and one hand, it can be two feet and your body (use your knees or chest to help with stability) supported by the stepladder. Ensure a handhold is available to steady yourself before and after.

its operational structure. “It is also imperative to ensure an adequate representation of the practitioner throughout the trade organization and the executive struc- ture within the new IWH, in line with the organ- isational values, being; Serving Transparency, Honesty, Integrity, Inclusiveness, Empowering and Equality. In essence the combined body makes both entities mutually exclusive but de- pendent. To date we delivered a well-balanced constitution structured to deliver a viable and aligned organisation. The draft constitution was ratified by the combined executive committee and should be enacted during the AGM in Au- gust,” concluded duRandt. structure within the new IWH, in line with the organisational values, being; Serving Transparency, Honesty, Integrity, Inclusiveness, Empowering and Equality. “It is also imperative to ensure an adequate representation of the practitioner throughout the trade organization and the executive