I may be wrong here but I'm not seeing absolute consistency in the fines handed out to electrical workers as detailed in the "Electron" gazette.
I recently read of a case of an electrician fined $2000 ( $1250 fine and $750 costs ) for not providing a compliance certificate to a householder. This is lot of money for a tradesman and I think it was excessive.
In another "Electron" gazette, an electrician was found to have issued a false certificate of compliance, and was not fined or ordered to pay costs.
The Disciplinary investigations and hearings are certainly a necessity and most of the fines are justifiable. But, I think the fines scale needs to be examined by an independent body and made public so that we all know how much the fine will be for what type of offence.
The Government has spent a lot of money standardising the regs and legislating for the whole disciplinary process, which is excellent news for the public as far as electrical safety is concerned, but electrical workers must be vigilant to guard against blatant revenue gathering by the EWRB.
This may be getting off the thread a bit Trumpy but in NZ at the moment, Joe Sparky can be held accountable and fined for not doing his job properly. A couple of years ago a prisoner who was paroled after a sentence for a violent crime repeatedly breached all of his parole conditions and then murdered three people ( the Panmure RSA murders ).
The Parole board official in charge of this case who failed to recall the prisoner after the parole breaches, received one month fully payed "stress leave" after the murders and is still employed at the same position today.
If an electrician makes an error and someone gets hurt, the electrician will lose his license and his job ! !
Whats going on there then ?
As for the refresher courses Trumpy, I am booked in to do mine this month. I am doing the new "site-safe" refresher course. I will let you know if it isn't a total yawn-fest.
