Capital Equipment News September 2015

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CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS SEPTEMBER 2015 42
WORK @ HEIGHT:
GOOD PRACTICE
Fall protection planning, shaping work at height
Gravity Training cc, founding member
of Institute for Work at Height (IWH),
was established in 2001 and has had
an extensive influence on the fall arrest
and rope access industry, nationally
and internationally. Gravity Training
has experience in various industries
such as telecommunications, mining,
utilities and construction. The begin-
ning of all work at height regulations
was mainly due to the basic assess-
ment of the inherent all risk associated
with fall arrest and rope access work.
According to the South African Oc-
cupational Health and Safety Act 85 of
1993, Construction Regulation Section
9, “All construction work must have a
risk assessment done by a competent
person and all risks and hazards iden-
tified and mitigated.”
Construction Regulation Section 10
requires “a competent person to be
appointed for the preparation of a fall
protection plan and specific steps tak-
en to ensure continued adherence to a
fall protection plan.”
The purpose here is not to compose
manuals or short stories about risk as-
sessments or fall protection planning,
but to highlight the importance of safe
work procedures and the responsibility
involved for all technicians working at
height. Everyone has an equal respon-
sibility towards overall safety, both on
and off a site.
As experts in this field have stated,
South Africa is at the forefront of health
and safety and several countries in Af-
rica have already adopted our regula-
tions.
In 2014 our local government in-
cluded the Construction Regulation
Section 18, which addresses rope ac-
cess work. This gives a clear indication
of the scope of responsibilities when
performing rope access work. A typical
question now arising would probably
be: What does this have to do with
me? Or, where do I even begin to com-
ply with the construction regulations?
The solution invariably involves start-
ing with a baseline risk assessment on
your work scope, typically asking what
the possibilities of injury or death may
be.
Once these questions have been
addressed by competent personnel
or through consultation with industry
experts, one would note that putting
a plan in place is the best solution to
mitigating fall risks. Construction Reg-
ulation Section 10 provides the mini-
mum criteria to compile and implement
a fall protection plan. These include
risk assessment, equipment manage-
ment, medical programme, training
programme and rescue procedures,
which are all related to work at height.
The list of registered work at height
designations set out by the IWH are:
• Rope Access Designations:
• Fall Protection Planner
• Unit Standard (US) 229998 & US
229994
• Level 1 Rope Access Technician
• US 229998 & US 230000
• Level 2 Rope Access Practitioner
• Level 1 & US 229996
• Level 3 Rope Access Supervisor
• Level 2, US 230000 & US 229997
• Fall Arrest Designations:
• Fall Protection Planner
• US 229998 & US 229994
• Basic Fall Arrest Technician
• US 229998
• Fall Arrest Technician
• US 229998 & US 229995
• Fall Arrest Rescue Technician
• US 229998, US 229995, US 229994
& US 229999
The overall aim for technicians and
the work at height industry is to pro-
vide a safe working environment for all
technicians working from any position
with a risk of falling. The only way to
achieve this is to ensure that a com-
petent person compiles the correct risk
assessment, fall protection plan and
procedures for any possible fall risk.
These procedures are vital to eliminate
the risk of injury or death, and it needs
to be ensured that all work at height
procedures are practical and fit for the
specific purpose.
[Barry Lottering – Gravity Training cc]