help with a question

[paulmcd201]

a quick question for a company to do electrical testing (fixed wire testing) does the tester need to be a fully qualified electrician or not?

my boss has been sending someone out to do testing on local schools & hospitals and i know he has not got the qualifications but just knows how to do the work, is this legal or not?

To my knowledge he is also forging ecs certificates signing peoples names on them that did not carry out the work.

I have just started work here and im very worried this will come back to hurt me as an employee what should i do?

 

[Pete999]

How many people does the company you work for employ, I ask this particular question as I am aware of many small firms, or one in particular that forges names on installation certificates etc, just trying to get a picture of the type of outfit you work for.

 

[Brightspark2]

You have to be competent...

Qualifications help prove that you are...

 

[Risteard]

It's certainly not illegal, although it may well breach their agreement with their clients. I'm not sure what you mean by ECS certificates being forged - ECS Health & Safety certificate does not say who carried out the work but is used to attain/renew a JIB card.

 

[SirKit Breaker]

a quick question for a company to do electrical testing (fixed wire testing) does the tester need to be a fully qualified electrician or not?

my boss has been sending someone out to do testing on local schools & hospitals and i know he has not got the qualifications but just knows how to do the work, is this legal or not?



To my knowledge he is also forging ecs certificates signing peoples names on them that did not carry out the work.

I have just started work here and im very worried this will come back to hurt me as an employee what should i do?

The Electricity at Work Regs, make no mention about being qualified, it merely states that the person undertaking the work should be Competent. It is down to the individual concerned to deem themselves competent or not. So if they are comfortable with it, then it is no problem. However, sooner or later their "Competence" may come into question, and this is when problems will start. The only way i can suggest to prove competence is by being qualified.

I am not prepared to respond about dodgy ECS cards, it isn't my field of expertise. The former is though.

Cheers..........Howard

 

[trev]

Let's put it this way, if it was your company who would you send out on a testing job. Someone qualified or a monkey?

 

[HappyHippyDad]

Let's put it this way, if it was your company who would you send out on a testing job. Someone qualified or a monkey?

A monkey did fly into space and is also able to recognise it's own reflection so I'm sure it can handle a bit of testing!

 

[trev]

German shepherds have been sent into space mate, ours can recognise himself. Would you trust him to do a bit of testing for you?
He'll probably do it for a couple of dog treats. If we can train him to do it, this time next year we'll be millionaires

 

[HappyHippyDad]

German shepherds have been sent into space mate, ours can recognise himself. Would you trust him to do a bit of testing for you?
He'll probably do it for a couple of dog treats. If we can train him to do it, this time next year we'll be millionaires

A German Shepherd or a electrical trainee.... what a choice??? Ooops I am one!!

 

[Risteard]

It is down to the individual concerned to deem themselves competent or not.

Not sure that I agree. Surely it is for a court to assess competence rather than the individual themselves.

 

[Richard Burns]

To start work you (or your company) deem yourself competent.
If things go wrong then the court may decide that your assessment was wrong and you are not competent!:33:
But the start point is the individual deeming themselves competent.

 

[telectrix]

com·pe·tent

[kom-pi-tuh

nt]
adjective1.having suitable or sufficient skill, knowledge, experience, etc.,for some purpose; properly qualified:

that lets out the Electrical Trainee's then.

 

[R G]

Im pretty sure the schools and hospitals would demand the person working on their installations is not only seen competent but qualified to do so , I would think that sending someone on to these sites would be at conflict with their H&S policy , at the very least that person should be supervised on site,,,


I would think that there could be big problems if these establishments found out ...

 

[HappyHippyDad]

I do find it strange that 'qualifications' are not mentioned or asked for more within the electrical industry.

To be deemed competent to carry out an EICR, best practice guide number 4 states the person must as a minimum:

- Have sufficient knowledge and experience of electrical installation matters to avoid injury to themselves and others.
- Be familiar with, and understand the requirements of the current addition of BS7671 including those relating to inspection, testing and reporting
- Be skilled in the safe application of the appropriate test instruments and procedures.
- Have a sound knowledge of the particular type of installation to be inspected and tested.
- Have sufficient information about the function and construction of the installation to allow them to proceed in safety.

So it still doesn't specifically mention 'qualifications', but I think you'd be hard pressed to possess the above without the correct qualification.

I think its been talked about many times before, but I think there should be more focus on the policing of the industry or rather the lack of it, then I expect less people would be inclined to undertake electrical work they should not really be doing. But its difficult to police an industry that doesn't have any centralised body... just lots of different schemes and thats only for notifiable work!

 

[Risteard]

To start work you (or your company) deem yourself competent.
If things go wrong then the court may decide that your assessment was wrong and you are not competent!:33:
But the start point is the individual deeming themselves competent.

One might consider oneself to be competent or otherwise, but I don't believe that they are in a position to deem themselves to be competent. That must be assessed by others, and as I said ultimately probably by a court.