The Australian Chamber of Commerce And Industry has released a Occupation Health & Safety alert to the industry this week with regards to the National Licensing Standard for Persons Performing High Risk Work.

The Licensing Technical Working group met on 13 December 2005 in Melbourne to discuss the public comment for the draft National Standard for Licensing Persons Performing High Risk Work and other administrative arrangements associated with the transition to the VET sector.

The ASCC secretariat aims to present the National Standards for declaration to the ASCC at its meeting on 6 April 2006.

Below is a summary of the amendments made to the public comment draft of the National Standard for Licensing Persons Performing High Risk Work.

For further information please contact the AALARA office.

Summary of amendments to the 2005 Draft National Standard for Licensing Persons Performing High Risk Work

FOREWORD

Adjusted to reflect the creation of ASCC and its additional role in workers’ compensation

PREFACE – Updated to include references to the ASCC

– Deleted reference to Public Comment – Updated reference to co-operative relationships between the VET and OHS, including the aim of the national template agreement

– Added WRMC agreement for a two-stage review, including the review of license classes to commence in the 2nd stage – Added paragraph on data collection and QUESTION BOX

1. TITLE

No change

2. SCOPE AND APPLICATION – Deleted previous ‘exemption clauses’ 2.3 a), b) and c) (see note 1 below) on advice from the Working Group and included an exemption provision in 7.8 under Administrative Arrangements.

3. OBJECTIVES AND PRINCIPLES

– Amended “jurisdictions” to “States and Territories”

4. DEFINITIONS – Amended definition for Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF) to align with the VET/OHS national template agreement (note 2)

– Inserted footnote references to publications on the AQF and AQTF – Amended definitions for:

• Person in control (note 3) – Added missing definitions for:

• State/Territory Registering/Course Accrediting Body • Certificate (note 4)

• Competency (note 5) • Competency Standard (note 6)

• Skill (note 7) • State/territory training authority

– Amended definitions to be consistent with the A glossary of Australian vocational education and training terms, including: • Assessment

• Australian Qualifications Framework • Recognition of Prior Learning

• Registered Training Organisation • Statement of Attainment

• Trainee • Training Package

• Unit of competency – Added definitions, for terms included in the above amendments, including:

• Subject • Australian Recognition Framework

• Qualification – Inserted clause (4.2) on other definitions being contained in the schedules

– Added QUESTION BOX on suitability of definitions

5. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS – Amended clause 5.1 to include exemptions

– Amended 5.4 so remove jurisdiction (replaced with licensing authority) – Amdeded 5.5 so remove jurisdiction (replaced with State and Territory)

6. TRAINING AND ASSESSMENT – Added QUESTION BOX on supervision for under 18’s

– Amended training authority to state/territory training authority – Inserted new headings:

• “RTO Assessors” – the NOTE on the management of assessors now referenced as footnote

• “Statements of Attainment” – new clause - requires a person to apply for a license within 60 days of being issued with a Statement of Attainment.

7. ADMINISTRATIVE ARRANGEMENTS

– Added a new section for exemption applications – Combined license suspension and cancellation under one section to reflect current jurisdictional regulations

– Inserted grounds for suspension and cancellation (modified from NSW/SA/ACT regs and advice from NCWG) – Added clause on suspension and cancellation being for all classes that are grouped by skill sets (added words, Skill Set, to schedule class headings)

– Added new clauses at 7.16 and 7.17 requiring the return of a suspended license after the period of suspension – Deleted reference to jurisdiction in 7.18 (replaced with licensing authority)

Monitoring and evaluation – Removed entire clause, reworded and placed in Preface

RTO management – Inserted new heading and clause

– Added Question Box on the sufficiency of the clause Other

– Added Question Box on the need for Information Exchange clause

8. RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE EMPLOYER OR PERSON WITH CONTROL

– No change

9. RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE LICENSE HOLDER

– Inserted ‘…or the Commonwealth regulatory authority’ into 9.1 – Inserted ‘14 day’ period to report changes of personal details

– Inserted ‘suspension’ and ‘…within such period as may be specified in the notice of suspension or cancellation’ into 9.3

10. TRANSITIONAL ARRANGEMENTS

– Expanded this section to provide more detail and clarity for the transition of existing certificate holders, as well as existing assessors, including: • Requiring evidence of current competency to convert to a new license

• Inserting a table to phase in the conversion depending on the date the current certificates were issued – starting with older certificates first. • Requiring assessors to change to the VET system within twelve months of the adoption of the National Standard.

– Inserted clause on ‘conversion of self erecting tower crane operators who hold tower crane certificates to the new self erecting tower crane class license’ – Inserted Question Box on the transition table and the need for jurisdictions to confirm the timetable and a question on if there were any other

SCHEDULE – Added term ‘Skill Set – to ‘groups of classes’ heading

– Split Scaffolding and Rigging into separate skill set sections – Deleted NOTES on options for:

• Bridge and Gantry crane (3 or more powered operations); • Vehicle Loading crane;

• Forklift Truck; and • Boiler operation

– Added classes for Forklift Operation Skill Set, including: • Forklift; and

• Order picking forklift – Amended definitions for:

• Fork-lift truck (to include reference to order-picking forklift truck) (note 8); – Added definition for:

• Order-picking forklift truck (note 9) – Reordered definitions in alphabetical order

– Amended Australian Standard reference for unattended boilers to read as footnote – Moved Truck-mounted concrete placing booms to Crane and Hoist Skills Set rather then in their own particular Skill Set

SCHEDULE

– Checked all reference to license were license and not licence

Notes Note 1: Previous cl. 2.3: The requirements of this National Standard do not apply to:

(a) the operation of industrial equipment during manufacture, maintenance and repair; if the equipment is not used or operated outside the bounds of the workplace where it is being manufactured, maintained or repaired (b) a person performing high risk work in a case of emergency to avert a serious and immediate threat to safety;

(c) a transport driver holding a valid driver’s licence who is transporting plant and equipment and is only operating the plant for loading, unloading and storage purposes. Note 2: Not listed in NCVER Glossary, of which other VET terms are referenced from (see over page)

Note 3: Consistent with the ASCC National Standard for the Control Of Workplace Hazardous Chemicals, Preliminary draft, 17 October 2005 Note 4: Definition from OASCC

Note 5: Definition from A glossary of Australian vocational education and training terms, Anne Knight and Marianne Nestor, National Centre for Vocational Education Research Ltd, NCVER, 2000 Note 6: Ibid

Note 7: Ibid Note 8: Definition taken from 7019 Guidelines

Note 9: Ibid