Electrical Safety in the ERA - by Tristam Price

Ingham Enterprises Ltd dismissed an electrician for serious misconduct in October 2018. His claim for unjustified dismissal was unsuccessful, as per this Employment Relations Authority determination dated 20 January 2023 which followed a two day investigation meeting a few months earlier.

Actually, very few ERA cases involve tradespersons and we believe that is most likely because trade skills are portable, and employment relationship problems usually disappear when the employee finds another job and hands in their notice (or is dismissed or made redundant but hits the ground running).

However, the former employee and applicant, Mr Suratkar, was 64 years old at the time of his dismissal and was probably too old to hit the ground running. He had reported to Mr Horan, also a registered electrician.

The disciplinary issue was that Mr Suratkar failed to lock out and “tag out” an electrical circuit when repairing a damaged supply cable. As a registered Electrical Service Technician I have also had to isolate electrical circuits in this way when repairing non-portable equipment including fuel pumps when working for ECL/Fuelquip in the 2000s. In his ERA determination Member Alistair Dumbleton has demonstrated an impressive level of understanding of electrical safety - for an ex-lawyer!

Electrical safety is drummed into us by training providers including SiteSafe through refresher courses, the Electrical Worker Registration Board’s (EWRB) monthly newsletter Electron, and hopefully, our employers. Prescribed Electrical Work is regulated under the Electricity Act 1992 and any company policy should follow it, which we’re sure Ingham’s H&S policy did.

Part of the EWRB’s regulatory function is to conduct disciplinary processes against wayward electrical practitioners, many of whom are self-employed. While penalties and costs are not overly harsh and there’s an emphasis on re-training, nothing screams “cowboy” like your name in Electron.

Prosecutions are in the District Court and are typically against unqualified handymen trying their hand at Prescribed Electrical Work, and getting dobbed in by the homeowner when things go (dangerously) wrong. It's common knowledge that when Electron is emailed out, most electrical workers jump straight to the disciplinary and prosecutions section - we just can’t help ourselves.

While no actual bodily harm or property damage occurred as a result of the electrical safety breach that occurred on Ingham’s premises, the administrative fallout was significant and unfortunate.

Section 149 settlement agreements and regulatory bodies

Speaking of regulatory bodies, while not applicable to the Ingham matter, we are aware of a super-secret settlement agreement between a school and a teacher suspected of inappropriately touching girls (for which he was eventually convicted and served about a year in jail), signed in 2014. Before the ink on the Record of Settlement was dry, the Principal should have reported the teacher’s conduct to the Police and Teaching Council, but failed to do so. The outing of that teacher therefore happened when parents of the child victims demanded answers and the wall of secrecy crumbled. For the attempted cover-up the Principal was censured by the Teaching Council in 2016. We reported on this last year.

https://www.leightonassociates.co.nz/post/the-nda-protected-pedo-could-it-happen-here-by-tristam-price

https://www.leightonassociates.co.nz/post/teaching-council-s-position-on-urgent-removal-of-suspected-child-sex-offenders

Similarly, a departing employee can be contractually gagged, via a Section 149 settlement agreement, from reporting unsafe work practices by other employees, as we see in a 2015 case TGP v TFE.

(Para 3): 5. The parties agree that neither will take any further action in respect of the employment relationship or termination thereof. This includes, but is not limited to, making a complaint to the Police, the [relevant professional association] or raising a personal grievance.

While I can’t speak for other trades or professions, any electrical worker who remains concerned about unsafe work practices attributed to their former employer but is bound by a NDA that's supposed to prevent them for reporting the hazard to the EWRB or WorkSafe, should report it anyway, preferably anonymously. And deny making that report if hassled. There are far too many Section 149 settlement contracts with clauses that overreach.