DOCUMENTATION – USER & MAINTENANCE MANUALS & RESCUE PLANS

The Work Health & Safety Act 2011 requires a PCBU (Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking) to provide correct training and documentation to their workers and those who they have control or influence over to ensure their health and safety. This is vital when you have employees or contractors who are working at heights.

Primary Duty of Care, Section 19 (3)

…a person conducting a business or undertaking must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable;

(f) the provision of any information, training, instruction or supervision that is necessary to protect all persons from risks to their health and safety arising from work carried out as part of the conduct of the business or undertaking”.

In regards to a height safety system that will comprise of the following documents;

• Specification information for the height safety system
• Maintenance manual
• User manual
• Anchor plan
• Certification documents
• Rescue plan

The users of the system must also be trained and considered competent to safely use the system and if necessary successfully complete a rescue. The PCBU must ensure that they fully comply with this duty.

Every height safety system is unique and therefore the documentation for the system is also unique. There are general user guides from manufacturers of height safety systems and this can form part of the overall user manual however the manuals need to be site specific and cover any areas which may not be easily understood. All our installations come with the above documentation. If you have an existing system which does not have all the required information we can help. Our first step is usually to complete a safety audit. This audit ensures that the system has been designed and installed correctly.

During this audit process we will look at the following areas;

• the overall design of the system
• the system type – is it fit for purpose
• how the system has been installed – has it been installed correctly and to manufacturers specifications
• is the structure it is attached to able to withstand the force of a fall

Once the above four areas have been assessed as compliant we move onto documentation and training. All working at heights systems must have a comprehensive user guide and maintenance manual. All users of that system must be suitably qualified to use the system and have read this document.

For more information on our auditing process click here. Or call us on (07) 3208 5833 and speak directly to one of our helpful Height Safety Specialists and let us help you ensure that your height safety system and documentation is up to date.