Don't lose your High Risk Work licence
SafeWork NSW Inspectors have responded to a number of incidents that have resulted in the suspension or cancellation of high-risk work licences.
These incidents involved the operation of tower cranes, slewing mobile cranes, vehicle loading cranes, forklift trucks and the undertaking of scaffolding work.
Safety information
Persons must be authorised to undertake high-risk work. High-risk work licence holders must ensure they take reasonable care for their own health and safety and must ensure that their acts or omissions do not adversely affect the health and safety of others.
Inspectors have the power to immediately suspend a high-risk work licence where there is an imminent serious risk to the health and safety of any person.
Several licence holders have recently had their licence suspended or cancelled resulting in them not being authorised to undertake high-risk work. Persons who have had their licence cancelled will need to be retrained and reassessed as competent. They may also incur a disqualification period where they are unable to apply for another high-risk work licence. Penalties apply for persons undertaking high-risk work while their licence is suspended or cancelled.
High-risk work licence holders must:
Only do work you are licenced to carry out
- always have your licence available for inspection when undertaking high-risk work
- only carry out high-risk work for the class of licence you hold
Be familiar with the plant before you start
- ensure that the plant is in a safe condition prior to operating
- know all the operating controls and the limitations of the plant
Operate the plant safely
- operate the plant in a safe manner and within its rated capacity and capability
- ensure you take reasonable care to carry out the high-risk work safely and competently
Control access to / separation from the plant
- prevent unauthorised or unintentional use of the plant
- have adequate pedestrian separation and traffic control measures in place
If an incident occurs
- ensure that the plant is inspected by a suitably competent person before it is put back into service.