Contractor ’ s Corner
individual wants to remain in the gas industry without compliance . SAQCC must protect its commitment to the mandate and credibility as a registration body . Ignorance is not an excuse .
Refrigerant gas practitioners who work with refrigeration appliances , air conditioning units or commercial refrigeration equipment are directly involved with the SANS 10147 for refrigeration , the legislative framework of the Occupational Health and Act ( OHS ), and the Pressure Equipment Regulations ( PER ). The specific protocols like the Montreal protocol and its amendments , govern Ozone depletion and global warming . These are therefore some of the requirements of both adherence and compliance . Central to all these factors is safety , but adding to this is education of the people working in the refrigeration and air conditioning industrysector . We need to make sure that the refrigeration appliances , air conditioning units , commercial and industrial refrigeration equipment are of a good quality and operate safely at all times . There needs to be an understanding framework to ensure safety can be achieved and maintained , or , if a practitioner is found to be noncompliant this becomes a concern to the industry and SAQCC Gas .
LOOKING AT GOVERNING RULES As already mentioned , there is the mandate from the Department of Employment and Labour regarding the compliance with the OHS Act and PER . There are then codes of good practice and a code of conduct signed by every registered practitioner , the disciplinary process structure , and the disciplinary process itself . These are rules governing practitioners that covers behaviour , compliance , safety and discipline .
The Pressure Equipment Regulations , in this case regulation 17 , is the origin of the mandate from the Department of Employment and Labour , and the establishment of the practitioner register database of authorised persons – as competent within their scope of work , and therefore cannot be ignored , nor any other regulation in the PER .
From a structural point of view , the Department of Employment and Labour has mandated ( SAQCC Gas ) as the registration body . SAQCC Gas maintains the registration database in association with all four gas associations that cover all the gas types in the country . The four gas associations form the board of SAQCC Gas in accordance with the mandate from the Department of Employment and Labour .
APPROACHES TO THE DISCIPLINARY PROCESS Discipline is directly related to the type , nature and severity of the offence . Any one of the gas associations can discipline their own gas practitioners within their sector of the gas industries .
Any one of the gas associations can implement sanctions that can be remedial ( or a warning can be issued for a first , second or third offence ). Alternatively , the offence can be escalated to SAQCC Gas
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RACA Journal I June 2021 www . hvacronline . co . za