2010 – 2011 Electrical Safety Office audit campaign

The 2010 - 2011 audit campaign covered more than 20 project areas. For the electrical industry this includes audits of electrical contractors, electrical repairers, and businesses who employ electrical workers (those who do not have an electrical contractor licence).

The purpose of the audits is to ensure industry compliance and offer education to workers and employers about their electrical safety obligations. In this issue of Outlook, three of the areas are profiled.

1 - Electrical repairers' audit

For this audit, Electrical Safety inspectors highlight the electrical repairers’ obligations under the Electrical Safety Act including ensuring safe work processes are in place and systems are documented to ensure work is done safely and competently. Specifically, inspectors look for systems to be in place to ensure equipment is tested to comply with the relevant standards and to ensure electrical equipment is safe.

2 - Solar photo-voltaic (PV) audit

Inspectors highlight solar PV workers obligations under the Electrical Safety Act 2002. Specifically, inspectors make sure only licensed electrical workers perform electrical work with PV systems and work is done under a Queensland Electrical Contractor’s licence.

It is a business’ responsibility to ensure:

• PV systems are designed to comply with relevant standards and
• installations are completed to comply with the Wiring Rules and relevant standards.

Businesses should also be using monitoring methods to ensure safety and installation compliance.

3 - Licence Register Validation audit

Desktop audits are conducted to ensure employers are keeping a register of licensed workers engaged to perform electrical work.

When a business is selected for this audit the business operator has three options to provide evidence of the availability of a licence register:

• return a copy of their licence register
• complete the register template (included in the audit letter)  or
• return a statutory declaration detailing that the register is available.

The Electrical Safety Office would like to highlight the value of the Electrical Contractor Self-Assessment Audit Package.  It is recommended that electrical contractors review the adequacy of their current systems in place against the self-assessment audit package.  Reviewing your documentation when your licence is renewed annually and whenever you have a change in your work processes is a good practice to get into. Download the latest Electrical Contractor Self-Assessment Audit Package.