Hi Peter. If management are responsible for employees who work in an Oncall or afterhours standby capacity then I feel they should be contactable on their work phones 24/7 in case of emergencies. I would expect this to be written in to their contract and these people compensated additionally for this. Referring to staff who are employed under a contract that states 8-5 or 8 hours between the hours of 6am and 6pm and they have their work phones on during that work period then the expectation should not be that these staff have their work phones on after they finish work. As stated above, work/life balance, well being and well, ones own sanity really. Your thinking is fair. The fact that question was asked is a worry. I myself use my work phone purely for work purposes. It goes off when I get home and any social media, personal phone calls or texts are all handled on my personal phone. If my employer wishes me to be contactable 24/7 that would be a contract renegotiation and job description review, not an expectation they can simply ask for. That's my personal thoughts :o)

Hi Janet, In alignment with what Michelle is saying, there are unit standards that can be obtained surrounding working with EWP's. While I appreciate it is not mandatory, it would be best practice to ensure staff who operate this high risk bit of kit have training and can certainly demonstrate their understanding not only of the machinery and the risks involved in its operations but of hazard identification within the worksite; Part of this would be pre start checks. It's good the company has been working with EWP's for 20 years so should be very familiar in their operations and should not have a problem documenting their competencies. If they do have an issue with this they may be more of a risk to your company than you would like. As a PCBU under the new law we must not only show our people have been trained but they are competent to use the plant/equipment aswell. This would be no different for the subcontractor you are using and I would seek evidence of a satisfactory H&S system before they are engaged to do the work

This happened in New Zealand, seriously? I don't see how anyone could think it's safe to immobilise a vehicle they don't even know is moving or stationary. I would not want to be that manager or any manager who contemplates this course of action. Regardless of anything an employee does,their safety whilst working is priority. This simply can not be done if you can not determine beyond a shadow of a doubt that the vehicle is stationary.