[committee] UCC 'test-and-tag'

[Timothy Chapman]

Dear SOC,

Speaking on behalf of the UCC committee, we have recently received your
request to 'test-and-tag' all of our plugs. We would appreciate it if you
could please outline why this is *necessary*.
UCC has (as you would expect) a very large number of electrical devices,
and so, such a requirement is exceptionally onerous for the club — to the
tune of several hundred dollars per year.

Examining the UWA Electrical Safety Guidelines
<http://www.safety.uwa.edu.au/topics/electrical-safety/testing-tagging-guidelines>,
we were able to identity the section of the requirements this seems to be a
result of.

*"UWA uses a risk management approach to determine where specific testing
of electrical equipment is necessary. This is achieved by defining
workplaces as hostile or non-hostile electrical environments and then
specifying the required frequency of either Visual Inspections or Testing
and Tagging"*

While it seems good for the clubs on UWA to follow the UWA safety rules, we
note that the regulations split environments into two categories: Hostile
and Non-hostile.
The requirement of "Testing and Tagging" *exclusively* refers to "hostile
environments". According to those regulations a *non-*hostile environment
is defined as follows:

*"This is a workplace that is dry, clean, well organised and free of
operating conditions that may result in damage to electrical equipment or
the flexible supply cord."*

We are strongly of the impression that UCC firmly fits into the category of
*non-hostile*, and as such this requirement seems to be unnecessary.
>From your request, we can only conclude that you have classified UCC as a
hostile environment.

Would it be possible to get a thorough and well justified explanation for
why UCC has been singled out and identified? *(see email from Taco
Shiraishi on May 15)* Since if we were to go ahead with the tagging, UCC
appears to be expected to pay a significant sum out of pocket for
superfluous electrical testing.

Looking forward to your reply,

Timothy Chapman
UCC Ordinary Committee Member
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://lists.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/pipermail/committee/attachments/20190522/beef41ac/attachment.htm