Lending a helping hand

The Elevating Work Platform Association of Australia (EWPA) provided a handy overview of what’s been happening in front and behind the scenes, highlighting the impact that COVID-19 has had on how we do business.

As with HRIA, we’ve added a coronavirus web page on the restrictions for members and are supporting members with additional Zoom meetings and social media group. We’ve joined the lobby for industry to remain open as an essential service and have been working with expert partners to assist members, through MST Lawyers for human resource issues and HLB Mann Judd for accounting and business advisory. Work has started on AS 2550.1, however, there are some expected disruptions due to lockdowns.

We hosted our own stand at HIRE21, which was a big success. We would like to extend our thanks to all those who visited us and to our volunteers. The EWPA sponsored the Access Night Dinner on Wednesday with guest speaker Mick Colliss.

New EWPA and TSHA websites are currently being reviewed and improvements made. The TSHA Good Practice Guide is online getting good exposure through LinkedIn, and the Guidance on Machine Conditions has been published, including working underground and shotcrete. This has had record views online.

We will be running webinars to update all our ATs with the new Trainers Manual and CPD requirements. We will also be running ‘demo days’ for the regulators to assist them with their knowledge of MEWPs. Our Chain of Responsibility courses ran from December 2020 to May 2021. Stand out sessions from our member webinar series were Spotters and Secondary Guarding, with record attendance for an online webinar. The national office has worked closely with Victorian Farmers Federation, and we shared their guide recently to coincide with National Farm Safety week. We are now working with Queensland associations on their guidance for telehandlers in agriculture. We are looking forward to getting back to as normal as possible in 2021 and more meetings and less restrictions.