Under the WAH Regulations, employers must ensure that the most suitable work equipment is selected when planning for activities involving work at height.
When planning work at height, employers must consider the:
- Working environment. This includes the ground conditions, slopes, obstructions, other people working in the same area and public access.
- Space constraints. Different pieces of work equipment will have different dimensions and will require different amounts of working space to ensure they can be used safely.
- Clearance needed for the equipment. For example, overhead power lines can be a risk when working at height. Therefore, it’s important to ensure adequate clearance to eliminate the possibility of a worker coming into contact with any power lines.
- Type of work to be carried out and whether it requires heavy loads on the platform. It’s important that the control methods chosen are suitable for the work carried out, and work equipment must never be overloaded.
