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Presiding Member's Report
The Electrical Workers Registration Board has pleasure in
presenting its Eighth Annual Report.
Board Membership
The 2000/2001 year has seen major changes in board membership.
John Howarth completed a 3 year term in July 2000. His
departure was followed in January by Laurie Jefferson who left
for 'greener pastures' in Australia. Both served the Board well.
John Churchill, the immediate past Presiding Member, completed
his term in January. John made a very significant contribution
during his six years on the Board and his fine-tuning of the
disciplinary complaints hearing procedures continues to be of
value.
New members are Tim Elms a retired electrical contractor from
Christchurch, Dennis Amiss a registered electrician from Auckland
heavily involved with the appliance industry, Brian Velvin a
contracting electrician and Electrical Inspector from New
Plymouth, along with myself with experience in the electronics
and electrical industries.
One valued member yet to be replaced is Gordon Forgie.
Gordon's resignation was a great loss to the Board. He is highly
respected and his wealth of knowledge and experience, especially
in the distribution sector of our industry, will be difficult to
replace. Notwithstanding, the new members have brought vast
experience to the Board and for the first time in a number of
years three experienced contracting electricians sit on the
Board. We are all acutely aware of the major difficulties faced
by each sector in our industry.
Our two lay members, Ms Belinda Greer and Barrie Mason (Deputy
Presiding Member) have provided stability, continuity, guidance
and wisdom to the newer Board members throughout the year.
Communications
The Board freephone 0800 66 1000 is being well used. A simple
free-phone call will usually provide an answer to some question
concerning the Electricity Act, the Regulations or codes of
practice.
The number of visitors to the board web site is increasing.
The web pages, which contain an extensive range of information,
are provided for both electrical workers and the general public.
There is an expanding range of documents and publications, which
can be downloaded free of charge.
The Board continued in 2001 to fund magazine and TV
advertising designed to encourage the public to always engage a
licenced electrical worker and to ask for the work to be
certified.
Information Dissemination
The Board continues to devote significant funding to providing
educational material to licence holders. The pocket sized testing
guides are one example. Arising from the Board's comprehensive
review of its communication and information dissemination
responsibilities, future contacts with registered electrical
workers will primarily be through direct personalised mail and
the Board's web site.
Complaints and Discipline
A major area of concern is the unacceptably high level of
disciplinary complaints coming before the Board. Almost half of
the Board's time is currently spent on disciplinary hearings. The
tragedy is that most complaints could easily have been avoided.
Most result from failure to test and failure to furnish
Certificates of Compliance. Others are generated as a result of
commercial arguments between clients and electrical workers.
While the Board does not consider commercial complaints,
unfortunately they often transform into compliance complaints
that do end up before the Board.
The Board is calling for much stricter adherence to testing
and certification as required under current legislation. I can
assure you that the Board has made and will continue to make this
area a paramount project. The Board's concerns are shared by our
industry partners, especially the Ministry of Consumer Affairs,
Electrical Contractors Association of New Zealand and the
industry training organizations.
A recent television programme that has shown our industry in a
very poor light, highlights these concerns. While some may feel
that the programme did not paint a fair picture of our industry,
the fact remains that the public perceives what it sees and what
the public is seeing is simply an unacceptable quality of
electrical work and worker competency - "perception is reality".
Refresher Courses
Board members and the Registrar are often lobbied by
registered workers questioning the need for refresher courses.
Recent events and the criticism the courses have received on the
TV3 "Target" programme highlight the continued need for these
courses and the need for improvement in the quality of the
courses offered, especially with regard to testing and
certification. Clearly
course contents need to be reviewed to ensure emphasis on some
areas is lessened in favour of greater concentration on testing
and certification. The Board will soon release a guideline
document for the refresher course syllabus.
Security Industry
During October 2000, representation was made to the Board by
members of the security industry who expressed their concern at
the very large number of workers in that sector who were known to
be performing prescribed electrical work without registration.
Clearly the risk factor is huge. Some of the more serious cases
included metal alarm boxes being at phase potential due to faulty
wiring. The Board, which views these matters with concern, has
called for submissions and is currently in negotiation with other
industry partners and training organisations in an endeavour to
resolve this problem.
Appreciation
The Board wishes to acknowledge the excellent work of the
staff members of the Electrical Workers Licensing Group, Ministry
of Economic Development, the service unit for the Board.
Finally, the Board expresses its sincere appreciation for the
professional and quality services it continues to receive from
Registrar, Mr John Sickels, and the Board secretary Mrs Janine
Anderson.
Murray Willis
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