# qualified persons?



## Wirenuting (Sep 12, 2010)

copperwire said:


> Who has the authority to say a person is qualified? Can a compnay appoint a person as a trainer or "expert" in the field to determine if a maintenance person is qualified?
> 
> My company wanted me to determine and sign off on who is qualified to do the electrical work. I have an electrical engineering degree and 20 years of experience in the field. When I say in the field I mean pulling wires, bending conduit and trouble shooting. I was not sitting behind a desk. I have attended many NFPA seminars and OSHA inspections.
> 
> Does that make me qualified?


It does as far as your company goes.

Q) What color is the green ground screw?
A) ?


----------



## rlc3854 (Dec 30, 2007)

Both the NEC and OSHA Electrical Safety Orders stated what is a Qualified Person. Does your company want you to provide NFPA 70E instruction to meet the qualified worker requirement? Can you complete and maintain personnel files of training/experience for each of the staff?


----------



## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

copperwire said:


> My company wanted me to determine and sign off on who is qualified to do the electrical work.


I'd ignore that request and pretend they never asked. As an employee, why should you permit the company to (attempt to) transfer so much liability from them to you? If they insist, I'd probably suggest that they get someone else to develop the guideline by which a "qualified person" will be measured, and you will sign if they meet that detailed guideline. I really don't think you want to both develop the guideline AND certify guys that meet that guideline. Another route might be to find training providers that certify "qualified persons" and push this whole project off onto them.

Curious... does this have something to do with arc flash policies your company is developing? Or... are they just having trouble with mechanics messing around with electrical controls and screwing stuff up?


----------



## Zog (Apr 15, 2009)

MDShunk said:


> . Another route might be to find training providers that certify "qualified persons" and push this whole project off onto them.


No such thing :no:


----------



## Zog (Apr 15, 2009)

copperwire said:


> Who has the authority to say a person is qualified? Can a compnay appoint a person as a trainer or "expert" in the field to determine if a maintenance person is qualified?
> 
> My company wanted me to determine and sign off on who is qualified to do the electrical work. I have an electrical engineering degree and 20 years of experience in the field. When I say in the field I mean pulling wires, bending conduit and trouble shooting. I was not sitting behind a desk. I have attended many NFPA seminars and OSHA inspections.
> 
> Does that make me qualified?


Only the employer can deem an employee a "qualified person" per OSHA and 70E requirements. 70E gives guidance on how to accomplish this, your qualification program needs to meet these requirements. It sounds like you have the needed knowledge, the question is are you able to transfer that knowledge and determine if the employee should be qualified?

Keep in mind the qualified person is or can be a task specific qualification. 

Doing this from scratch is a large task, debeloping the training materials can take hundreds of hours. I recommend an outside vendor does your classroom training based on your companies written policies. Then after the classroom portion you set up task based hands on training specific to that employees job requirements. He is a list to get you started.


----------



## jwjrw (Jan 14, 2010)

copperwire said:


> Who has the authority to say a person is qualified? Can a compnay appoint a person as a trainer or "expert" in the field to determine if a maintenance person is qualified?
> 
> My company wanted me to determine and sign off on who is qualified to do the electrical work. I have an electrical engineering degree and 20 years of experience in the field. When I say in the field I mean pulling wires, bending conduit and trouble shooting. I was not sitting behind a desk. I have attended many NFPA seminars and OSHA inspections.
> 
> Does that make me qualified?




Here is the definition in the NEC. 
Qualified Person. One who has skills and knowledge related
to the construction and operation of the electrical
equipment and installations and has received safety training
to recognize and avoid the hazards involved.

I would say "off the record" if I thought someone I worked with on a day to day basis was qualified. But a new person? Sounds like they need a knowledge test and maybe a trial hire period with some hands on.


----------



## copperwire (Feb 10, 2009)

*Thank You*

Thanks for the replys. No matter how confident you are on a subject it is still good to get some outside feedback. 

To answer the question, yes it is tied into the Arc Flash policy. We had Square-D service conduct our arc flash survey in 2009. At the time we had three very experienced and respected electricians on the maintenance staff. Do to personal issues and an unfortunate accident (unrelated to work) we have lost all three. The new personnel we are getting have some electrical back ground but I do not have the confidence to put them in a motor control center to trouble shoot yet.


----------



## Zog (Apr 15, 2009)

copperwire said:


> Thanks for the replys. No matter how confident you are on a subject it is still good to get some outside feedback.
> 
> To answer the question, yes it is tied into the Arc Flash policy. We had Square-D service conduct our arc flash survey in 2009. At the time we had three very experienced and respected electricians on the maintenance staff. Do to personal issues and an unfortunate accident (unrelated to work) we have lost all three. The new personnel we are getting have some electrical back ground but I do not have the confidence to put them in a motor control center to trouble shoot yet.


Sorry to hear that, but starting with 3 young new guys may be a good thing, you will find with 70E requirements it is hard to teach old dogs new tricks, and you have a good chance to properly train and mold your new crew.


----------



## Wirenuting (Sep 12, 2010)

copperwire said:


> Thanks for the replys. No matter how confident you are on a subject it is still good to get some outside feedback.
> 
> To answer the question, yes it is tied into the Arc Flash policy. We had Square-D service conduct our arc flash survey in 2009. At the time we had three very experienced and respected electricians on the maintenance staff. Do to personal issues and an unfortunate accident (unrelated to work) we have lost all three. The new personnel we are getting have some electrical back ground but I do not have the confidence to put them in a motor control center to trouble shoot yet.


It's hard to allow the new guys access to the MCC's unless they have been trained. We have a similar issue here. The newer guys have no clue how to troubleshoot & repair them. They don't even know how to pull a bucket out. Management closes their eyes to the arc flash issue and will not provide the proper PPE. So it's left up to me to do it. And I was first trained by an old guy on an even older Federal Pacific MCC's. 
Safety is first,,,, right after getting the job completed.


----------

