As an employer, it is your duty to make sure that your employees as well as visitors to the workplace do not face any health hazards and are safe from injury. So, you must manage all the safety risks associated with electrical hazards, as per the requirements of the AS/NZS 3760:2010. For this you need to apply a systematic risk management approach for control or elimination of the risk of electrical hazards.
Inspection and testing of electrical appliances help in determining if it is electrically secure. Again, a tag is a way to keep a record of the testing procedure.
Every electrical item does not require inspection and testing. The frequency and nature of inspection and testing varies according to the nature of the workplace and the risks revolving around the electrical appliance.
Through normal visual inspection, damage, wear or other conditions can be identified. In fact, visual inspection can detect a number of electrical defects. If you conduct testing in your workplace regularly, it will help in the detection of electrical faults and deterioration which visual inspection is not able to identify.
The first phase involves risk assessment, following which you can implement a series of control measures which include:
- Regular inspection
- Routine visual checks
- Replacement
- Repair
- Maintenance
- Use of RCDs (Residual Current Devices)
- Testing of identified electrical equipment, where warranted