Working with electricity belongs to the category of potentially high risk jobs. Governments enact various legislatures to ensure safety of workers and to eliminate potential risks to the very least amount. Electrical maintenance jobs can go wrong any minute, so prior laws are set out to define requirements for electrical safety with regards to use and design of equipments and to establish prerequisite standards regarding who can work with electricity and how to carry on with the job.
For workers who have been long enough to this kind of job, electrical maintenance becomes a routine and ordinary day-to-day task that most tend to neglect the hazards involved. This has a bigger impact on younger workers since modern technology in electricity has become much more complicated, and sometimes, for want of work, they tend to accept jobs without prior trainings or ample knowledge of the groundwork. Because electricity is so much a part of everyday life, the salient risks are often ignored.
Competence of the job is another prevailing issue in electrical maintenance. Competence should be defined in terms of sufficient training, long years of experience to qualify and skills base to depend on. A good illustration of the necessity of competence in the job is the accident involving a 17 year old electrical apprentice named Tim Martin. Tim was under the supervision of his electrical contractor who had more than twenty years experience in the electrical field. Their assignment was to service signs of fast food chain outlets across Queensland, and it was supposed to be a relatively safe job since signs are separate from the main power. It was expected to be an ordinary day for an electrical maintenance job.
Hazards in this job are not restricted to electrocution from the main source of power only. As in the case of Tim Martin, he was assigned to climb up an elevated work platform without proper supervision perhaps since it was deemed to be safe and easy assignment. If somebody was able to point out the danger of the platform’s position, Tim wouldn’t have been exposed to the electrical current energising the large aluminium rod he was transporting to the site. If he had extensive experience in the kind of work he was doing, he could have anticipated that the rod would be exposed to the high voltage power lines. Tim’s death could have been prevented if supervision was close at hand.
Deaths resulting to electrical-related tragedies accumulate each year across Australia to an alarming quantity. It has been noticed that quite a significant augmentation of the number of unlicensed and uninsured contractors have been conducting electrical maintenance jobs in various buildings and establishments, and the increase of this population has alarmed government authorities and insurance agencies. A business establishment or any company hiring an unlicensed and uninsured contractor has higher liability risks for any untoward accidents that could happen. This is a good warning for all business and company owners. Keep out incompetent and unlicensed electrical contractors from your doorsteps to avoid problems and liabilities in the future.
AUTOPOST by BEDEWY VISIT GAHZLY
