REGISTRATION OF BASIC SAFETY AND FAMILIARIZATION TRAINING

BACKGROUND

According to the general duties of Employers to their Employees (REG. 8), and employer have to:

Provide a safe working environment for their employees before issuing Personal Protective Equipment.
Provide information, instructions and training necessary to allow employees to work safely.

Employees are trained to understand any risks or hazards associated with the operation of specific equipment.

A Mobile Elevating Working Platforms (MEWP) is a potentially dangerous working tool and therefore an employee needs to be made aware of the potential dangers and how to avoid it.

REGULATIONS

The Driven Machinery Regulation number 18, states:

MEWP’s must be clearly marked with the maximum safe working load.
MEWP’s can only be operated by an operator trained for the specific MEWP.

The General Machinery Regulations states:

(a) Authorized operators of MEWP’s must be fully aware of the possible dangers while operating MEWP.

It is important to take note of different users of MEWPs and what their needs are with regard to training to competence (which means being a professional and permanent use of a MEWP), or just basic familiarization on a specific make and model of a MEWP for occasional use or on-going use after-sales of a MEWP.

WHO CAN DO FAMILIARIZATION TRAINING?

Designated Specialised Access Demonstrator. Must comply with requirements of designation, i.e. be in possession of the following unit standards:

Be current in registration with IWH Professional Body against the designation.
Only do familiarisation training for companies who are registered members of the IWH Trade
Sign a Code of Conduct for IWH registered members