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| Pier 3 and the piling barge |
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I often get asked by potential students of commercial diving courses whether or not they really need an ADAS card as they are not intending to work offshore and the onshore work they do probably wont involve actually building structures. The answer to their questions lies within the N.S.W. OHS Act 2000 and Regulations 2001.Now this is generally very dry reading however there are some definitions that are really worth looking at.
Firstly from the Regulations the definition of Construction Work. " means any of the following. (a) Excavation, including the excavation or filling of trenches, ditches, shafts, wells, tunnels and pier holes, and the use of caissons and cofferdams, (b) buildings, including the construction (including the manufacturing of prefabricated elements of a building at the place of work concerned), alteration, renovation, repair, maintenance and demolition of all types of buildings, (c) civil engineering, including the construction, structural alteration, repair, maintenance and demolition of, for example, airports, docks, harbours, inland waterways, dams, rivers and avalanche and sea defence works, road and highways, railways, bridges and tunnels, viaducts, and works related to the provision of services such as communications, drainage, sewage, water and energy supplies".  | | Entering the water |  |
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Another critical definition is Place of Work. Some divers say to me "but I don’t work at a construction site" The Act defines "place of work" as any premises where work takes place. But don’t get excited if you think that the ocean in which you dive is not a premises as the Act goes on to define premises as" (a) any land, building or part of any building, or (b) any vehicle, vessel or aircraft, or (c) any installation on land, on the bed of any waters or floating on any waters, or (d) any tent or movable structure"
I think its pretty clear that if you work as a diver in N.S.W., and you are inspecting bridges, cutting or replacing piles, vacuuming reservoirs, dredging or laying cables or any of the other hundreds of jobs divers complete daily you are deemed by law to be undertaking construction work and your place of work is a construction site.
Now what does this really mean to divers? Again we need to refer to the regulations. They require, amongst other things, that diving in connection with construction work, or to vessels while moored or at a dock or in the slips, must comply with AS/NZS2299.1 and that the diver must hold a current medical certificate and hold the appropriate level of certification issued under the Australian Diver Accreditation Scheme. (ADAS)  | | The Eye beam comes out of the water | |
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The Regulations also require three forms of induction before you can work on a construction site. These are specified as general health and safety induction training, work activity based health and safety training and site specific health and safety induction training. The work specific induction training is generally covered by your ADAS certification which virtually guarantees your competence to your employer. It should however be supplemented by extra training on any equipment or procedures that may be different on that particular site, and of course, the normal risk assessment and site briefing that is carried out daily on all sites. The site specific induction is normally carried out by the principal contractor on the first occasion you visit the site and includes things like location of amenities, evacuation procedures and staff responsibilities etc. Now that only leaves the general induction. A code of practice requires that a certain amount of safety critical information is to be included in this course which nominally takes a minimum of five hours to complete. The information includes OHS law, risk management, consultation, incidents and emergencies and workers compensation. Upon successful completion the student is issued with a statement of attainment. In some quarters this has been known as a green card in deference to the colour of the card issued by some registered providers. It is more correctly called an Occupational Health and Safety Induction Training for Construction workers.  | | Pier 3 and the pylon driving barge | |
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For some time it has been a big fear of mine that Occupational Diver Training Establishments accept their students for three months of intensive training, then turn them loose on the contractors, only for them to find that, in N.S.W. at least, they must complete one more course before they can legally dive. At Descend Underwater Training Centre in Albury they have fixed that problem by including the induction training as part of the level two ADAS course. Descend's senior instructor, Des Walters, who has had many years working on varied construction sites, has become accredited as a Workcover Trainer Assessor for Construction Site Induction and delivers the Workcover accredited course. The bottom line is that divers who complete the Descend course successfully, not only receive the ADAS qualification but they also get the DAN oxygen provider qualification, Recompression Chamber Operator endorsement, Nitrox endorsement and Construction Site Induction certification. This is just another way the team at Descend stays in front of the pack and earned the Best Micro Business in Australia award for 2003.
The requirement for general induction has also been introduced in Victoria and at the time of writing the N.S.W. induction certificate is accepted in Victoria. Just in case you feel this is just a bit too much trouble, the on the spot penalty for failing to ensure OHS training, or for allowing an employee to work without OHS training, or being self employed and working without OHS training, is currently $600.
For further information Descend can be contacted Shop 1, 826 David Street, Albury. N.S.W. 2640. Phone 0260411405 or E-mail dive@descend.com.au or visit. www.descend.com.au.
Article URL: http://www.descend.com.au/commercial/projects/20041164522.htm
Descend Underwater Training Centre
Shop 1 826 David Street
Albury NSW 2640
Australia
Tel: +61 2 6041 1405
Fax: +61 2 6021 6732
ABN: 83 251 221 741
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