A recent update to Ontario regulations governing the design and use of suspended access equipment (including boatswain chairs) requires mandatory training for equipment installers and operators plus refresher training every three years.
While Tom Parkin, managing director of one of the industry’s leading trainers — the Workers Health and Safety Centre (WHSC) — sees it as a positive step, he would like all training to meet an accredited provincial standard.
“It would eliminate the weakest courses…but that (accreditation with the ministry of labour) is not where we are right now.”
Parkin says poorly trained installers or operators leave every worker using suspended access equipment open to dangerous risks.
“It’s not a huge number of workers that need to be trained but it is critical that they get it,” he says.
He says while a number of trades training centres have suspended access equipment, there is no standard on such issues as course content, class size or length of the course.
“What we do and others (trainers) do is look at the standard and write training that we believe meets it. We try and be very high-minded about it, maybe others aren’t, but the point is nobody checks to make sure the training is doing what the standard says is supposed to be done.”
“I hope that day will come… we’ll keep working on it.”
He says WHSC believes operators should have a minimum of two days training and installers should have three days. Class capacity should be capped at 12 students. “You need to do hands-on training like this in smaller groups because you need to show them how things operate.”
To date, WHSC has partnered with LIUNA Local 1059 of London to train its members and it hopes to arrange classes with other trades training centres. The course offers both practical and theory segments.
Parkin says failure of suspended access equipment can be because of faulty equipment, but equipment can also fail because workers are unfamiliar with its safe operating limits. Load capacities can vary, depending on how the equipment is assembled.
“If you don’t understand the equipment’s rate of capacity then you can overload it. When you add other stresses (to equipment) like weather and wind, it is a dangerous situation. It’s what we teach in the class.”
He says it is difficult to determine the level of compliance in the industry.
The WHSC’s two-day class for operators covers how to calculate different material loads, such as bricks, mortar, gravel or sand. “Workers need to be able to calculate (the weight) of what they are carrying, including themselves,” says Parkin.
The course also teaches operators where to look for potential problems such as cable kinks and potential breaks as well as an understanding of anchoring points.
Parkin says it became clear that training was essential after the Dec. 24, 2009 swing stage tragedy in Toronto where four workers died when their swing stage broke apart and they fell 13 storeys.
“The pace of where we went from these deaths to (government) recommendations was one year but to fulfill the recommendations took far too long and put many people at risk,” Parkin says.
Regulations on the safe operation of suspended access equipment came into effect Jan. 1, 2017.
Parkin points to working at heights regulations as proof that regulations reduce accidents and fatalities. What’s more, when safety standards were regulated for window washers and their equipment accidents plummeted.
“I understand we have to get everyone on board (with training) but we can’t stall because there is a cost: it is called life. I think we’re in a phase now of trying to alert employers that there is a new standard required.”
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