Night Work and OH&S

**Tranzaction** · 19-09-08, 01:54 PM

Hi,

This is probably more of a general question with regards to OH&S rather than in the security industry.

We have an installer heading to WA for a night time installation and was wondering if there is any legislation to say that more than 1 person is required for any height work (installing cameras, alarms) if it is done during a time when there will be no other people around (i.e. at night).

A quick discussion with ASIAL and they werent sure and were not aware of any such thing, though it may fall under Workcover rather than anything else.

I thought i'd make a quick post to see if anyone was aware before jumping onto workcover.

Thanks

**intelliGEORGE** · 19-09-08, 02:43 PM

Originally Posted by Tranzaction

We have an installer heading to WA for a night time installation and was wondering if there is any legislation to say that more than 1 person is required for any height work (installing cameras, alarms) if it is done during a time when there will be no other people around (i.e. at night).

Thanks

Well put simply, it comes down to "Duty of Care". At the end of the day you have to create and implement correct risk assessments and controls for your employees aka Safety Work Method Statements (SWMS)

Task: Working at height

Risk: Manual Handling, Falling - Head Injuries/Broken Bones etc

Both should be considered as Medium to High risk. So if it were me quoting the job I would have allowed for 2 people. Last thing you want to happen is for the poor bloke to fall off the ladder and not able to receive medical attention ASAP.

If you send your man out to do a job and something happens on site then workcover will determine whether or not there was adequate duty of care, if they find that it was inadequate then you will be fined under the legislation.

In the case of a corporation (not being a previous offender) - $550,000
In the case of an individual (not being a previous offender) - $55,000

**watchdog** · 19-09-08, 04:38 PM

[If you send your man out to do a job and something happens on site then workcover will determine whether or not there was adequate duty of care, if they find that it was inadequate then you will be fined under the legislation.

If something happens they WILL find that your SWM is deficient & you WILL be fined. If something happens there is NO way out.

**Privatteer** · 19-09-08, 05:48 PM

Discussed this when I was getting a Bluecard/Marcsta certification.
Worksafe reps position on working at heights was there had to be a second person within visual range and that was during the day.
Height being classed as anything where a fall would cause injury....

Working alone at night, poor lighting etc, with no one around would be high risk specially if it requires more than a step ladder.

**Security-Tech** · 20-09-08, 11:11 AM

we suffer from this all the time,
out of towners come in do everything "cheap" and dont abide by laws / regs etc and take all the work,
dodgy.

anyone heard of css (commercial security specialists) based just near us in Cairns

1 yr free monitoring under 4 yr contract,

cctv double the price on the never never,

found out yesterdie, that they are gone, bust, bankrupt

TYPICAL fly by nighters, shonkies

**admin** · 20-09-08, 12:50 PM

I dont work in the industry but have worked at heights for my last employer and have a boom lift ticket.

There is no way under OHS laws and guidelines that one person should be doing that at night on their own. I think intelligeorge covered it all with his explanation.

**WhiteOx** · 20-09-08, 01:38 PM

I used to work night work in a plastics factory.
There was only about an hours work for one person to do in an 8 hour shift but they needed 2 people there for safety reasons.

**keef82** · 20-09-08, 06:26 PM

Originally Posted by Security-Tech

we suffer from this all the time,
out of towners come in do everything "cheap" and dont abide by laws / regs etc and take all the work,
dodgy.

anyone heard of css (commercial security specialists) based just near us in Cairns

1 yr free monitoring under 4 yr contract,

cctv double the price on the never never,

found out yesterdie, that they are gone, bust, bankrupt

TYPICAL fly by nighters, shonkies

sounds like custom security to me, they sign ppl up on big contracts and slap a sierra in

**mudcrab** · 20-09-08, 08:34 PM

Basically other's have covered it, you can't work on your own anymore..........

**Keystone** · 21-09-08, 07:44 PM

On a side note, whats the go with roof space access ?

I take it that also shouldn't be done alone ???

**Keystone** · 21-09-08, 07:48 PM

Originally Posted by Security-Tech

anyone heard of css (commercial security specialists) based just near us in Cairns

Used to be called SSS, originaly started in Darwin about 5 years ago.

Where are you. Townsville ?

**manicretep** · 21-09-08, 09:50 PM

Originally Posted by keef82

sounds like custom security to me, they sign ppl up on big contracts and slap a sierra in

from what ive seen here in the bay they use Crow,

They took one of ours which was 18 days out of end, but took them over, they breached the contract stole my panel $ 45 ex a month job, they offered 33 simple to take over, but the new board didn't know of the contract, nothing was on file and didnt bother asking..

so cost them the client when I took it back and set the cops on the installer for "stealing my gear", no wonder they gone down, will chase up all the signs round town now I know that, thanks guys.

**Keystone** · 22-09-08, 06:58 PM

Originally Posted by manicretep

from what ive seen here in the bay they use Crow,

So does CSS/ SSS, maybe the same company.

**Security-Tech** · 23-09-08, 08:09 AM

a little bit more south there friend,

CSS use sierras and SSS arent the same frorm what ive measured,
Custom that is, maybe commercial are one in the same as SSS, ADT seem to have taken their lines, (adt stickers on clients buildings now)