> I was talking to one of the knobs at a local rail "facility" recently,
and was
> concerned re a comment along the lines that "volunteers don't apply in
the OH&S
> Act and the Rail Safety stuff is different". I beleive that this is
based on a
> clause in the standard that goes along the line of "OH &S is governed by
> specific legislation and is therefore not the........objective of this
> standard".
The rail safety stuff is indeed different in many regards, although the
two do overlap considerably. However, OH&S is still an issue, especially
in the workshop environments of a preserved railway.
Many groups take over old, inadequate facilities built many many years
ago and run out of these on a low budget. Under these conditions, there
are bound to be breaches of OH&S. This is not an excuse to ignore the
regulations, but is a position that many groups find themselves in, trying
to do much with so little.
> Once, when I was involved with a group here, I was told that "it would
shut us
> down" and "its not neccessary" etc etc, despise all the other points
"occupiers"
> "owners of plant" and so on.(mind they are now shitting themselve a/c
the new
> Rail Safety Act).
Groups ignore these issues at their peril. The fact is in many instances
it would shut many groups down. OTOH, the same could be said for many
businesses & industries currently operating.
I believe the best way to solve these issues is not to attempt to solve
them head on and make the workplace safe 'overnight', but to gradually
instill the idea that safety in the hobby is as relevant as safety in the
paid workplace, that problems should be reported and that obvious safety
hazards should be addressed by managment and not fobbed off as 'we all
know about XXXX, it's always been like that'.
> I am planning some shit based on a famous safety groups "14 point plan",
which
> will tie up nicely a greater part of the issues raised in AS4292.1.
Yeag, let me know what you come up with, it's relevant to me in my
preservation work.
>
> What has been other peoples/groups experiences?
> Comments?
-- Stuart Thyer Gs1000s Photographer University of Melbourne DoD No-1724 777- Relation of the beast_____________