SafeNet Thought for the Day 6th of September 2013 National Code of Practice for the Evaluation of Training Providers for Lifting Machine Operators On the 12th of April 2013 we reported in a Safety Thought that the “National Code of Practice for the Evaluation of Training Providers for Lifting Machine Operators” as promulgated under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1993 and incorporated Driven Machinery Regulations, 1988 was revoked. This effectively means that only forklift and jib crane operators are legally required to have a valid license / training certificate as issued by a TETA Accredited Training Provider. The operators of other lifting machines such as cherry pickers are no longer required to be in possession of valid training certificates. Revoking the above mentioned Code of Practice obviously resulted in these training providers loosing lots of business as some employers may now opt for more informal on the job training for lifting machine operators other than forklift and jib cranes. It has now come to our attention that some of the TETA Accredited Training Provider tells their clients that the previous Code of Good Practice as promulgated on the 18th of February 2005 will now apply. THIS IS NOT TRUE. As with the code promulgated during 2011 the previous code has been revoked and would therefore have no legal standing. It is however our opinion that it may be advisable to continue complying with the provisions of the Code of Practice as promulgated during 2011 and revoked on the 22nd of March 2013 in Government Gazette No. 36258. This opinion is based on the following: 1. Prior to the previous 2011 code being revoked there has been a conflict between the contents of the Driven Machinery Regulations and the code. To rectify this, the Department of Labour has to amend the Driven Machinery Regulations. Revoking and re-promulgating the code would be part of this process. With the promulgation of the proposed new Driven Machinery Regulations (See draft Driven Machinery Regulations as published in Government Gazette Number 34052, Notice Number 163 dated the 4th of March 2011) a new code will be promulgated. The new proposed code would in all probability not differ much from the code recently revoked. The lull in which we currently operate would therefore be short lived; 2. After an incident the competence of the operator will always be an issue. Should the Department of Labour find the operator incompetent the onus would revert back to the employer. What better way than to declare the operator as competent than to send him / her on a formal training course for which unit standards are available; and 3. Even though the code which required that all lifting machine operators must be medically fit and in possession of eye tests certificates has been revoked, it could still be regarded as an inherent requirement of the job which necessitate these medical tests. An uncontrolled diabetic operating a lifting machine could go into a coma and possible kill fellow staff members. An operator with poor sight could in turn cause damage to the employer’s product resulting in financial losses. A relatively cheap medical evaluation and eye test could therefore save lots of money and hassles in the long run.
Posted on: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 12:32:02 +0000
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