Working Illegilly?

[bookat]

Hello everybody . My boss (I sub) has been sending me out surveying power lines recently which I really like but cant get me on a UA5 course (I been doing it 7 months now).

The other day some of the lads blew a fuse on LV and now they are blaming me that I didnt survey the line properly and they could have been killed.

 

I'm worried that I'll be made responsible if anything happens but I feel that I should have been trained by now. The NO did sit us on an internal course recently but i was already working for 4 months by then.

 

Is this illegal and what can I do? I looked at all the H&S policies and it dont seem right but I'm worried that if I say anything i'll loose my job.

 

Any advice?

[Xaltu]

For clarity, when you say you are "surveying power lines", what exactly are you surveying? Following on from that what exactly were the lads doing when they blew a fuse on a LV line?

[bookat]

For clarity, when you say you are "surveying power lines", what exactly are you surveying? Following on from that what exactly were the lads doing when they blew a fuse on a LV line?

 

I was carrying out surveys for veg cutting on the power lines using the NO RA forms.

 

The lads blew a fuse because I couldnt/didnt get good enough access to the rear of the property (I would have had to climb fences etc) to see that a twig had pushed the lines together by 2cm apart

[tree monkey]

surely the line should have been disconnected from power anyway????

[bookat]

surely the line should have been disconnected from power anyway????

 

Yes should have been shut down but I couldnt see the line properly and couldnt gain access. It looked definately workable from the angles I could see but...

 

I'm gutted obviously but feel my employer has put me in this position without the right training. Ive been asking for a UA5 all 2010 - I thought it was illegil but is there a difference between whats best practice and whats legil?

[Johny Walker]

Yes should have been shut down but I couldnt see the line properly and couldnt gain access. It looked definately workable from the angles I could see but...

 

I'm gutted obviously but feel my employer has put me in this position without the right training. Ive been asking for a UA5 all 2010 - I thought it was illegil but is there a difference between whats best practice and whats legil?

 

they should have survayed the site before commencing,work ,thats 1, off the main rules of liveline cutting , if in doubt walk away ,ther @ fault ,they took the decision to cut not you

[Bolt]

They messed up not you.

 

Is this in the UK? Under G55/2, they should have done a risk assessment, they should have assessed the tree, they should have categorised the tree as A, B, C or D, and they should have selected the most appropriate work technique.

 

They should also be trained (NPTC UA2.2 covers how to do this work) authorised by the NO and they should be competent (although you can't make people competent only through training, you need experiance to become competent).

 

Decision making isn't upto the surveyor, its up to the team on the day. They know how good they are, they know what the weather conditions are, they know what the current state of the tree is.

 

One final thought,

 

How would you having unit 5 have helped? If you couldn't gain access, you couldn't gain access. Having UA5 dosen't give you wings, have you considered red bull?

 

 

 

 

I wouldn't worry about it. It may help push you boss towards getting your unit 5 though, best of luck.

[bookat]

The RA was done (obviously it was wrong), G55/2 has only just been adopted by the NO and all paperwork is to G55/1 still.

 

My question is really that should I have been doing the work in the first place.

I was live cutting all year with no authorisation by NO either although I had passed LVOH.

 

My Contractor never put me forward for training either despite requests. Is this illegal or just not best practice?

 

I think its wrong that major companies take advantage of inexperienced people and don't follow their own codes of practice.

[Bolt]

LVOH?

 

Is this work for WPD then?

[bookat]

LVOH?

 

Is this work for WPD then?

 

 

 

Yep. So have I been working illegally or not?