Test Tagging of electrical equipment?

[pkij]

Ah the test and tag issue. We just went through that here, I am the Safety Officer for the College so have advised admin on when and time frames etc. Qld legislation says that if the appliance if connected to RCD safety switch that cuts down the time between tagging. It was done yearly for all areas except manual arts which was every 6 months. Office areas only need to be done every 5 years.
When the fella was in the prep room I noticed that he was tagging everything for 6 months, when I questioned this he quickly rang his boss and we got the whole "Hostile environment" spiel for labs. My reasoning is that this is meant for industrial labs not school labs, we had a big argument and needless to say we won't be employing them again.
It can be a huge rort and a money maker for some electricians who want to rip off unsuspecting and uninformed schools.
Yes in my experience the test taggers do seem to be in a class of their own when it comes to brain power
Here is the link to the information for qld
http://www.justice.qld.gov.au/fair-and- ... ging#often

[SGG]

Hi Ian
I had the situation where the Maintenance Dept Head (one of his men had the test and tag certificate and was an electrician) didn't want to do ANY test and tagging because of the "change" to the OHS act. (Independent School).This went on for 18mths after equipment should have been tagged. I had microscope lamps with the leads hanging out (I wasn't using them) that he said were "all right to use"! I rang workcover and got the "hostile environment" part which the workcover bloke thought did cover the Science area especially with mechanical damage (dropping), moisture, and chemical exposure. The alternative was that the person who would test the equipment, would have to do risk assessments on the equipment. At the time TAFE (my hubby works there) was having EVERYTHING tested that was movable as were the Catholic Schools so I added that to the conversation with the Maintenance Head. I was not popular for some time afterwoods as somehow I was calling him a liar?!
Finally, the fact that they found I was right and they didn't want to do the risk assessments they just tagged the movable/ student use equipment in Science. They finally ( a year later) got round to the other "high risk" areas of the school (D & T wood tool machines etc).
Unfortunately the bloke who had the certificate has retired and they are very quiet about it!
The rationale behind the testing and tagging is that the equipment is checked for damage at least once a year and the insulation/ earth is working at that time. Also if anything new comes into the dept it should be tagged or if something is repaired.
Hope this helps.
Regards
Sue G

[Kathryn]

What is the current thought on electrical tagging? Has there been any change in the laws since this subject was last discussed in 2010? Not much has been done at our school for years but I would like to do equipment in the science faculty.
Kathryn

[dime]

If you are a govt school, the dept sends a team to tag everything once a year (well they miss a lot, but not to worry). Sorry don't know the story if you are a private school.