ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades The Gloves are off!(NZ Sparkies)

Rob being so far away hit's the nail straight on the head.
There have been a number of publicised cases here where nothing more than a phone call have landed your EC in very hot water.
Most of these cases have come about from where EC's here have refused to connect non-compliant wiring, 99% of the time, installed by the Home-owner on the other end of the phone.
Most of the time they are told to get an Inspector to test/connect the work, that is after all what the Regulations say.
Only an Inspector can connect H/O work.
Some idiots have gone off at a tangent and complained against the EC and it ends up in front of the EWRB.
Now, with thier Kangaroo court, allsorts of nasty things can and do happen.
To close, I just wish that we'd stop being hit with a $K Stick and concentrate on those that are actually breaking the LAW.
35% of Electrical workers in NZ don't hold a Practicing Licence.
10% hold no qualifications at all, yet they are allowed to work within our Industry.
Who's really at fault here?.

{Moderator Note: Paul or Claus, if you think that this is getting out of hand, be my guest to edit or do whatever you feel to this thread, It is one thing that I feel VERY strongly about!}

Whether the rules which are in place (re connecting homeowner's work) are right or wrong, what strikes me as being completely crazy is that the EWRB should start attacking a sparky for simply following those rules.

It would be kind of like a traffic cop pulling somebody over for driving 30 mph in a 30 zone to tell him off for holding up traffic!

Paul,
I hate to say it mate, but this is the down-side of self-certification.
This is why I am all for going back to the old system of Power Board Inspectors and real Documentation of what is happening with wiring in Domestic places here.
Unfortunately, when signing your name on a CoC, you are in fact certifying all of the work in the house, that happened since the last registered person visited, if one did at all.
If someone gets a shock or the house catches fire after you certify, it is up to YOU to prove that you had nothing to do with the said incident.
BTW, Self-Certification was bought in to make things cheaper for the consumer and the Electrical Contracting Industryas a whole.
Just like power here was supposed to get cheaper.
Boy, someone mucked up thier calculations.

Sounds like you're headed for the queensland system, have a read of our electrical safety act, similar legislation in much of australia now. Inspectors exist only to punish and raise dollars with little understanding of the instrument they represent, even the cops are jealous of their powers under law!

Good ideas once upon a time gone wrong...

Spock,

We've had one or two discussions in the past in which the situation in Qld. (or Australia in general) has been mentioned. For example:

How is Electrical work controlled and inspected in your region?

Australian building-site power tools

I seem to remember another long thread about the inspection and tagging of everything on site, but I can't find that one.




[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 09-06-2005).]