Guarding Online Training
GAVIN MOREIRA, Member Services Manager of the CMPA, reports on the NEW CMPA Guarding online training.
According to current WorkSafe Victoria quarry injuries data for the past 12 months, 22% relate to guarding and isolation. A major concern and driving force behind developing a Guarding online training course for CMPA Members’ employees. It take 15 minutes to view the presentation followed by 12 multiple choice questions.
The key objectives are:
To provide an introduction to the CMPA Guideline “Guarding Plant and Equipment in the Construction Materials Industry”.
To understand our legal obligations in regards to guarding plant and equipment.
To provide an insight to contemporary guarding practices used by CMPA members.
To demonstrate a process that can be used to establish and successfully implement plant and equipment guarding specific to your site requirements.
The Guarding Guideline together with the CMPA’s Work Safely Reference Manual aims to support members in meeting the requirements of the Victorian Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act 2004 and the Victorian OHS Regulations 2017.
The Guarding Guideline focuses on the guarding requirements of both fixed and mobile crushing and screening plant and equipment inclusive of concrete agitators/mixers used within the construction materials industry.
OHS Regulation requirements for Guarding
The Victorian OHS Regulations (2017) Part 3.5 Plant lists the following Hierarchy of Controls for Guarding of plant and equipment.
The employer or self-employed person must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that guarding will prevent access to the dangerous area of the plant.
In doing so, the employer or self-employed person must ensure that:
a) If access to the area of the plant requiring guarding is not necessary during operation, maintenance or cleaning of the plant, the guarding is a permanently fixed physical barrier; or
b) If access to the area of the plant requiring guarding is necessary during operation, maintenance or cleaning of the plant, the guarding is an interlocked physical barrier that allows access to the area being guarded at times when that area does not present a risk and prevents access to that area at any other time; or
c) If it is not reasonably practicable to use guarding referred to in paragraph (a) or (b), the guarding used is a physical barrier that can only be altered or removed by the use of tools; or
d) If it is not reasonably practicable to use guarding referred to in paragraph (a), (b) or (c), a presencesensing safeguarding system is used that eliminates any risk arising from the area of the plant requiring guarding while a person or any part of a person is in the area being guarded.
The employer or self-employed person must ensure that the guarding:
a) Makes bypassing or disabling the guarding, whether deliberately or by accident, as difficult as is reasonably possible; and
b) Does not create a risk in itself.
If the plant to be guarded contains moving parts that may break or that may cause workpieces to be ejected from the plant, the employer or self employed person must ensure that the guarding will, in relation to any risk from those broken or ejected parts or workpieces:
a) So far as is reasonably practicable, eliminate the risk; or
b) If it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate the risk, reduce the risk so far as is reasonably practicable.
An employer or self-employed person must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that any pipe or other part of plant associated with heat or cold is adequately guarded or insulated in a manner that ensures that any risk to health or safety is:
a) So far as is reasonably practicable, eliminate the risk; or
b) If it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate the risk, reduced so far as is reasonably practicable.
It is imperative that ongoing scheduled reviews of guarding are conducted by management in consultation with the workers who use the guards.
The objective of the reviews is to ensure that the guarding is:
• Providing the protection that it is intended to;
• Practical to use, i.e., remove, store and replace; and
• Not causing any operational issue, e.g. material hangs ups, blockages and damage to other components.
The following Guarding Rules can be expanded in consultation with your workers to suit your requirements and should be included in your site safety rules, communicated at safety inductions and displayed on your WHS noticeboards.
Never:
• Climb over guards, fences and handrails
• Tamper with guards
• Shovel through or over guards
• Remove guard when machine is operating
• Remove guard without first locking out even if the machine is not operating
• Place other implements such as crow bars through guards
Always:
• Immediately report, damaged, ineffective or missing guards
• Lockout all energy sources prior to removing guards
• Ensure Guards are re installed prior to re starting plant
Thank you to David McKelvie from SafeMix who put together the voiceover and presentations and provided the quiz questions and answers for the online guarding training.
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