As long term operators of high access services, Bells remain concerned about safety in our industry sector.
The Australian Standard 4488 is obsolete and does not provide a policy or regulatory frame work for rope access operations in the 21st century.
Current Licensing and Regulation
A Rope Access technician can complete a four day skills competency course before commencing work. However, in many instances this is not the case and the Rope Access operator is not obliged to provide an up to date certificate of competency. This in itself is inconsistent with the intent of Section 85 of the Qld WHS Regulations 2011.
In many respects in Rope Access is a largely unregulated and unsupervised work activity.
The only relevant Codes of Practice that have any depth, accreditation and independent verification are the Industrial Rope Access Trade Association’s (IRATA) International Code of Practice and the ISO 22846-2 Rope Access Code of Practice.
Facts that bear consideration if the Rope Access industry is to be made a safer and more accountable work activity are:
- The levels of training and certification of Rope Access operators In Queensland are inconsistent and uneven.
- Many Rope Access operators are “qualified” by unaccredited training operators. (In the case of IRATA trained Rope Access operators this is not the case, as the IRATA training company is subject to a regular rigorous external validation and audit.)
- Rope Access operators do not have any obligation to maintain currency of their Certificate of Competency. (There is no current legislation that requires a Rope Access technician to undertake refresher or recertification training unless he is an IRATA technician working for an IRATA certified company.)
- Rope Access is not regarded as a high risk work activity under WHS Acts or regulations.
“We are not saying that Rope Access is an unsafe work practice, far from it but the adoption of ISO 22846 as an Australian Standard would be a positive step to make works even safer”
ISO 22846 – What is it
The Origin
The development of both parts of ISO 22846, Personal equipment for protection against falls – Rope access systems occurred in Australia in the 2010’s was due to a perceived need by Standards Australia to meet industry needs.
There are many factors essential to the safety of a rope access system and a failure or shortcoming in any of them can render the entire system deficient. The Standards offer a comprehensive and international benchmark to measure the compliance and effectiveness of rope access systems. For further details please contact us.
Overseas Development
ISO 22846 has its roots in the late 1990s, when a work item in ISO/TC94/SC4 enabled a working group (WG6) to commence a project to produce a Standard containing advice and guidance for rope access systems.
ISO 22846 was planned as a single document and much of the first draft was based upon BS 7965: 2002 , which in turn had been based upon the IRATA Guidelines (2002). A later draft of ISO 22846 formed the basis of the current IRATA International code of practice (2010), which superseded their Guidelines.
The Two Parts Explained
BS ISO 22846 comprises two parts under the general title, Personal equipment for protection against falls – Rope access systems:
o Part 1: Fundamental principles for a system of work
o Part 2: Code of practice
ISO 22846-1 was published in 2003 (being adopted as a British Standard in July 2012 ) and gives the fundamental principles for the use of rope access methods for work at height. It is applicable to the use of rope-access methods on buildings, other structures (e.g. on or offshore) or natural features (e.g. cliff faces), during which ropes are suspended from or connected to a structure or natural feature; and is applicable to situations where ropes are used as the primary means of access, egress or support and as the primary means of protection against a fall.
ISO 22846-2 was published much later, in 2012 (with immediate publication as a British Standard ). It expands on the fundamental principles outlined in ISO 22846-1 and gives recommendations for:
o planning and management;
o operative competence and responsibilities of personnel;
o supervision;
o the selection, use and care of equipment; and
o advice on how to implement a ‘safe system of work’.
