New licensing system for high-risk work

The South Australian Minister for Industrial Relations, Paul Holloway, announced new arrangements for a national licensing system for high-risk work take effect in South Australia from 1 September 2010.

“The new arrangements are aimed at making safer those workplaces where high-risk work is performed,” Holloway says. “These changes will also make the training, assessment and licensing of high-risk work consistent across Australia.

“The new national licensing system builds upon existing requirements for people who operate items of plant such as a forklift, crane, hoist, elevating work platform or pressure equipment as well as those people who perform scaffolding, dogging or rigging work.

“The national licensing regime requires operators to renew their licences after a five-year period.

“Valid existing Certificates of Competency will continue to be recognised and people will have plenty of time to transfer their current Certificates to the new type of licence.

“Depending on the issue date of the person’s existing Certificate of Competency or ‘ticket’, a person may have up to five years to transfer across to the new system.

Changes under the new licensing system include:

• A new type of licence for those who perform high-risk work - a small plastic card with photo identification, similar to a driver’s licence that will be consistent and valid across Australia.
• The High Risk Work Licence, unlike the present Certificate of Competency or old style ‘ticket’, will require renewal every five years.
• All holders of existing certificates for the classes of high-risk work covered by the regulations will be required to progressively transfer their qualification/s over to a new national licence. People who hold a valid qualification will not need to be re-tested.
• The operation of forklifts and order-picking forklifts will be defined as high-risk work - existing ‘ticket’ holders will need to apply to SafeWork SA to convert their existing ticket to a new national licence.
• A new class of high-risk work will be defined - the operation of a Self-erecting Tower Crane.