Electrical apprentice safety webinar 2021

Electrical apprentice safety webinar

Chris Bombolas

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our electrical apprentice safety webinar. I'm Chris Bombolas. I'll be your MC for all for this morning. And I am from the office of industrial relations. Firstly, I would like to respectfully acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which we meet, and elders past, present and emerging. Of course, we're celebrating electricity safety week this week, with a range of free events and prizes. So, thanks for joining us today. Electricity safety week is about raising the awareness of electrical safety. We have some 57,550 licensed electrical workers in Queensland and almost 9,000 electrical apprentices. So, we want to make sure every one of you goes home safely at the end of each and every workday. Throughout today's session, there is an opportunity to ask our electrical apprentice of the year, winners and finalists, any questions you like. Just type them into the live Q and A box on the right of your screen. And we will get to them during the panel session. And get this, just by typing your question, you'll go into the draw to win one of three $100 trade equipment gift vouchers. Now that's an easy competition with some pretty good odds. If you have any technical questions during the live stream, please make sure the sound on your computer is turned on. Try refreshing your browser, and of course, if that doesn't work, contact us via the Q and A chat box. Let's get the official proceedings underway, and I'd like to welcome Donna Heelan, Executive Director of the Electrical Safety Office, to officially kickstart today's event, Donna.

Donna Heelan

Thanks Chris, thank you, everyone. And welcome for today's first event from electricity safety week.

We're here today to acknowledge the important role you all play as apprentices and as tradespeople as our State here grows and grows. That important role includes responsibilities in relation to the professionalism and the safety of yourselves, your mates and your communities. And that's where the electrical safety office comes in.

We play a number of key roles as the electrical safety regulator for Queensland, working with industry and protecting the community. We have a number of key areas, including compliance, supply networks, field services, electrical equipment and licensing. On any given day in Queensland, we are charged with enforcing the state's law, electrical safety laws and seeing that workers have a safe environment in which to carry on your important work.

And as Chris has said, that's a lot of workers. In the vicinity of 12,000 electrical contractors, 57,000 electrical workers and almost 9,000 electrical apprentices. I'm sure that you will all agree that each and one of you and your colleagues, play a critical role in keeping the lights on, and the world as we know it running normally. Without electrical workers and contractors, we couldn't enjoy the good things in life like cold beer, watching your favorite show on TV, having a charge mobile phone, or a summer approaches air conditioning. These things are important at any time, but no more so than in times like today, as we face the ongoing COVID threat. Your work keeps our hospitals ticking and our grandparents and kids safe and secure in their aged-care and school facilities. We like to think our work here at the electrical safety offices pretty special too.

And in the past year, we have had a number of firsts. We've had the first industrial manslaughter charge being laid under the electrical safety act. After a worker was tragically fatally killed after coming into contact with an overhead line. We've succeeded in obtaining three magistrate court injunctions for fire to comply with improvement notices, and issued the first immediate electrical license suspension ever in Queensland. We've also commenced a review into the electrical safety act to ensure that the legislation is keeping pace with emerging technology and industry. As the Executive Director for the ESO, there are a number of emerging trends that are of significant concern to all of us. The first of these is the hazard of working around energized parts, and the risk of injury as a result of an arc flash.

The Director of Field Services, Michael Gibson, is gonna talk more about this very important topic after me. If you haven't done so already, I urge you to Google mark story, and watch how quickly an incident can happen, and how it can seriously affect your life and your loved ones. In the past couple of years, the electrical safety office has seen and dealt with some not so great things, things that come with the territory when you're enforcing the laws to keep everyone safe.

We've had eight referrals to the electrical licensing committee, all involving apprentices, and I've had to attend a number of serious electrical incidents involving apprentices. In one incident, a second year electrical apprentice, working on a switchboard, received an electric shock resulting in burns to the palms of both hands. He will be requiring ongoing treatment to release scar tissue to prevent his hands from curling. A school-based electrical apprentice was replacing surface mounted fluorescent light fittings, when they came into contact with copper conductors resulting in burn on the palm of her hand and knuckle of her index finger. And a fourth year apprentice received a high voltage shock and burns to his arms and head, after an arc flash incident occurred, while working with a circuit breaker enclosure. So, we all know that electricity can be dangerous, and this is where your responsibility kicks in, and the duties of your employers.

And also this is where the Electrical Safety Office is on hand to assist. But truly it is an exciting time to be working in this industry, with the emergence of renewable technologies, such as PV solar, solar and wind farms, not to mention the increasing technologies around batteries, battery storage, independently-owned small scale generation and storage of power, the use of hydrogen electric vehicles, and in some areas, the development of electric commuter airplanes. If you told your grandparents 20 years ago, that you could be flying in an airplane, completely powered by batteries, they would have thought you were nuts. But with all change comes challenges. And one of them is being able to keep up to date with what is happening in this industry. One of the other emerging challenges is mental health.

And I'm pleased that John Brady is here today, to speak to this very important topic that we all need to be mindful of. In addition, I extend an invitation to all of you to please sign up and join our electrical contractors webinar, which is a free live webinar for contractors, electricians and anyone working in the electrical industry to listen to Paul Spinks. And he's engaging presentation, "The wake-up call" on Thursday, the 9th of September at 9:00 a.m. Please go to our website to register. The role of the regulator is to provide information and education.

And one of the critical ways we can do this is through our eSAFE Electrical newsletter. It's full of information just for you. And I would urge you to jump onto the ESO website and sign up to receive this information. And we've recently started an eSAFE Electrical-Apprentice edition, which is targeted just for apprentices in your field. Again, thank you very much for tuning in today.

And I hope that if you take just one thing away, it is about how important your role is, and how you play your important role in Queensland, and how critical it is for you to work safe. Look out for your mates, call out poor work practices and make sure that everyone goes home safely. I'll now hand over to Michael Gibson.

Michael has over 20 years’ experience in the electrical industry, and has an absolute wealth of knowledge and experience in this field. Over to you, Michael.

Michael Gibson

Thank you, Donna. And good morning to everybody.

We wanna use these types of opportunity, it is not only to raise a really important safety message, but also to introduce ourselves as the ESO and the role that we play in electrical safety and that regulatory practices that we implement, to apply the legislation. What I wanna talk today, like Donna said, is working near live parts. Those of you in this industry, if you're new or you've done a couple of years as an apprentice, if you're not aware of the risk associated with this activity, then we really need this message to get hold.

And we wanna engage with you further, not only you, but also the people that you work with and supervise you. So, make no mistake working on or near energized parts is hazardous. It's as clear as that. Is the greatest risks that you will face in your activities. And it's also the greatest risks, where you may be exposed to an arc flash incident. We'll talk about what an arc flash incident is, but look at the damage that some of these incidences occurred. Donna spoken about that already.

And you'll also see some of our messages that we've put out where people have been significantly injured by an arc flash. We talk about significant burn injuries, the shock, the risk of electrocution and the risk of fires that occurred. We wanna make it clear that if you could do all your work day energized, then there would never be a risk of arc flash, or you receiving a shock. But in our industry, that's impossible.

You have to work and undertake testing, you have to work and do your role whether it's testing, fault-finding, proving de-energize, you will be exposed to live parts and you need a process, an Alyssa system of work to do this. If you don't know what an arc flash is. There's a really brief, there's a terrible fault depicting the outcome of an arc flash. What that fault doesn't show is the degree of injury to the worker who held a screwdriver. And the actual screwdriver is still welded to the circuit breaker that that electrician was working on.

So an arc flash, very basically is unintended. it's an unintended discharge of electrical energy and it can be caused by those three or four points there. Often it's an installation breakdown or it's a compromise of installation or damage and contamination to the equipment. It's really poor work practice. It's a failure during switching. It might not be anything you've done. 'Cause we often work with aging equipment, or could be a poor contact or aging resistance. That's created a hot joint. So, these are what we would consider some of the causes of an arc flash. But what we really wanna talk about today is that work practice issue that's gonna put you at the greatest exposure.

Over the last 12 months and I think Donna has already spoken about this as the number of injuries we've seen from arc flash incidents. So, we've got 10 injuries and some of those injuries are quite significant, long-term injuries, where people have been long-term absent from work and the significant impact that that has on people's mental health and not only yourself, but the people around you, your supervisors. So, do not underestimate the hazards associated with the activities you're undertaking and what an arc flash industry and the impact it can have.

What we want to talk about is what's the best way to think about managing the risk of an arc flash. And it's about understanding that hazard. And I think everyone's got to sit back and consider when the activities that they are doing and what, and understand the impact of an arc flash, identify those assets that you can be working on, that you are gonna have greater exposure, and particularly that's gonna be around switchboards, or when you start to work on electrical equipment, when you open up boxes or remove carvers of electrical equipment, that's when you are starting to work near live parts.

We talk about calculating incident energy. It's really complex area, but if I simplify it down to something very small, the bigger the board you're working on, the bigger the bomb if you do something wrong. I don't wanna undermine it, but it's as simple as that. So, when you start working on bigger equipment, it's going to have a greater impact on you if something goes wrong. What we wanna talk about is the developing in what we call risk treatments and the hierarchy of controls to manage that risk and develop those effectiveness in the monitoring review. Now we all know about risk management. So, we'll cover it off as quickly as we can.

There's our implementation of our arc flash controls. Some of that is not always possible, like we said, elimination, work the energized in every situation and we cannot enforce that message enough. If there's no reason to do it, de-energize the equipment you're working on. It's as simple as that. When you have to do testing, you have to confirm isolation, have a safe system of work, have your training, have your competency is up to date, to do those types of tasks. And that's where you'll be learning when you go through your apprenticeship, those types of processes to do it safely. We look at substitution, isolation, engineering, we are getting far better at producing equipment and switchboards that are far safer to people that work in front of, because they actually able to, they're designed to contain and redirect an arc flash incident. So, that's moving forward. But right now we've got a whole part of all infrastructure out there. That's still gonna have that risk.

Administration looks at permits to work. And how are you gonna have your work method statements. And I think it's really really important we put PPE last for a very important reason. It's incredibly important to have your PPE on, but when you look at why it's there for it's just to reduce the level of injury to curable burn. So, it's not there to prevent it. It's just going to reduce that injury. You will be injured, but it's just to get it down. When we're talking about an arc flash. And what we're really working on at the moment in ESO is the human factors about working on or near the risk and arc flash management.

We're actually conducting a study with using the universities and we've spoken to employers and workers and we've analyzed a lot of data to work out. What's the best way we can influence people to start putting slices and working place and manage this risk. So, some of the factors can really affect how the consequences of obviously training. If I'm not trained adequately to do this type of work on placing myself at risk. A lot of the incidents we've looked at over the last 12 months have been errors and mistakes. People are not testing before they touch. It's as simple as that. If you wanna get a very basic message, get it embroidered on your shirt or something, tests before you touch, never assume anything. That's part of this process. Complacency, failure to follow work instructions, a number of times where we'd gone to an incident and a worker has gone outside of work instruction. They've chosen not to de-energize for a very simple reason, not enough lights, whatever, follow your work instructions. That's what they're for. Don't be distracted when you are working near live parts, any distraction is of bad thing. Stop, take a step back rebalance what you're thinking about and start again.

The last couple of points is about the legislative reasons, why too many story arc or arc flash and working on an energized equipment. At the end of the day, unless there's a very set criteria that working energized is actually prohibited. You cannot do it, priority one. If you are choosing to do it, you've gotta sit there and look at those very particular circumstances that are detailed in the electrical safety regulation six and 18.

So, as a little bit of a wrap-up, we speak about how to do our written risk assessments, ensuring that your people are competent in implementing the safe system of work. Three critical areas that we wanna really push forward with, and how we want to help industry and be a part of this process to manage this ongoing risk of the arc flash.

Oh goodness, I've gone one too many, sorry, Chris.

Chris Bombolas

Thanks to Michael and of course Donna and very important messages, particularly surrounding arc flash.

And I think the basic message is work de-energised and don't work in live circumstances, no matter what the reason. And I would urge you once again, that if you want more on arc flash and what it all means, and the consequences of an arc flash and a serious one at that, look up Mark's story, it's available at eso.qld.gov.au, have a look at that. It's quite confronting, but it tells the real story and what can happen. And hopefully it doesn't happen to you. And that's part of the reason that Mark joined us to make that case study film is to get the message through so that it doesn't happen to anyone else in the industry.

To now for a change of tact. So, it's our panel session, and we've assembled three electrical apprentices of the year winners and finalists. And my question to you, who've joined us this morning. There's a shot of our panel. How's your apprenticeship going? Some of you might be first year or those about to finish either way. You've probably got concerns or questions that your just not comfortable asking your boss. Well, here's the thing that you can do. We've convinced three electrical apprentice of the year, winners and finalists to join us today in a panel session where you can ask them anything you like about their electrical apprenticeship and of course they've advanced into a career in the electrical industry. So, their careers are advancing. So, you can ask them what you'd like to ask them that joined us. And it is my pleasure to introduce these guys.

First up, Hannah Watts. Now Hannah finished her electrical apprenticeship in 2020 and is now an Electrical Fitter Mechanic for Queensland health. Hannah was awarded the 2020 Electrical Trades Union Apprentice of the year for her leadership qualities, dedication to the trade and the union. She is also co-founder of Sparkettes Queensland, a Facebook group for women in the electrical trades to support one another. So, welcome to Hannah.

Next up, Nadine Forbes. Nadine is a grade five electrician with Fredon Queensland after finishing her apprenticeship in June this year. Nadine was awarded the 2021 NECA Queensland Apprentice of the Year for her enthusiasm and determination to learn and understand how work is completed safely and professionally. Well done, Nadine, thanks for joining us.

And last and certainly not least is Hans Van der Merwe. Hans is a qualified electrical fitter mechanic at Oakey Beef Exports. He finished his electrical apprenticeship in 2020. Hans was named one of the top three finalists in the Darling Downs South West Region Apprentice of the Year awards, where he was commended for his commitment to dedication, to skills and training.

So, that's our panel. I encourage you to join us via the panel and ask your question. No questions apparently are off limits.

The good news is, three $100 trade equipment vouchers are to be given away for those who ask the question. So, be sure to include your name and email address so we can contact you after the webinar. It's that easy. Ask a question, leave some contact details. And if you're one of the lucky three, we'll get back to you. I know there's plenty of TAFE classes watching today from auditoriums and classrooms. So, if you've got a question holler at your teacher, your instructor, get them to type it in. I don't know if I'll let them win a hundred dollars voucher, but anyway. Just make sure they give you the gift voucher, if your question wins. So, they've got to put your details in not theirs. Let's get started with the panel, welcome guys. Good to be here.

Thank you. You've heard from Michael and Mark, Michael and Donna, I peg your pardon. Do you have a safety tip from your point of view that you've picked up during your apprenticeship and in the early stages of your career? Let's start with you, Hannah.

Hannah Watts

Yeah, mine would be never ever trust anybody. We've already been told this morning that you don't make assumptions because when you make assumptions, that's when you're gonna get into trouble, always test everything. Even if someone tells you they've tested it, always make sure it's isolated before you touch it as well.

Chris Bombolas

Hans, what about you? You started off working as a labourer, and then eventually an apprentice electrician. And now you're fully qualified, safety advice from you.

Hans van der Merwe

Pretty much just make sure you test before you touch. It's as simple as that. I try and impress your tradie. Just keep your head a bit. And make sure you do everything right, pretty much.

Chris Bombolas

And would you also advise those who are watching today to stand their ground if they feel uncomfortable. Because quite often you're a bit intimidated by the senior members of staff around you, your colleagues.

Hans van der Merwe

Look, it's very hard. If you feel unsafe and you try the person and someone force you to do something you don't wanna do, it's very hard to try and stand up to him. 'Cause I think then I'm more than what you do. But if you feel unsafe, you have the right to say, no, I'm not doing it. And then just deal with the consequences as a company. Unfortunately, sometimes that might mean you might lose your job, but if you're a part of the union they will look after you, they did with me. And I'm pretty sure they'll do the same for you.

Chris Bombolas

Nadine, you're the lucky last.

Nadine Forbes

Yeah, I think similarly to these guys test before you touch and be responsible for your own wellbeing, if you don't feel safe, don't do it, but it's up to you to look after yourself. So, at the end of the day, you're the one that's gonna put up with the consequences.

Chris Bombolas

Got a question that's coming from our audience. What's the most important experience or lesson you learnt as an apprentice that you will carry throughout your whole career. So, something that's really stuck in your mind. Who wants to go first?

Nadine Forbes

I think probably on that note was my tradesman was drilling into me that it's up to me to take responsibility for my own wellbeing. And coming from this, he had told me he turned off a breaker and I was to work on some GPOs, and just being a bit smart. I pulled out my volt stick and said better test it. And it was live. I'm very lucky that nothing went further than that, but it was a lesson that I learnt that I'll take with me to test everything.

Chris Bombolas

Hans.

Hans van der Merwe

It's almost the same thing at the replies to start out, to start a contactor. And my trades person told me that the circle was de-energized on pull them in my multimeter and tested the control circuit. And it was 240 still on there. And I was just about to start disconnecting metal. I thought, nah, better test it just in case. And I'm very glad I did.

Chris Bombolas

Hannah.

Hannah Watts

Mine would be that it's okay to have difficult conversations. And like everybody gets the heart racing or am I actually allowed to raise these concerns with someone who's in a power of sort of like authority over you, but it's always okay. And at the end of the day, it's about you going home safely and your employer has that obligation to meet that you're gonna go home safely as well. So, have those difficult conversations. If you need to step back, get advice from people about what you could have done better in the situation. But if you feel like it's a little bit uncomfortable and you know that something could go wrong, always speak up, always say I'm not comfortable, is there a better way to do this job.

Chris Bombolas

Just along those lines just quickly. And we're sort of harping on this and we're getting some questions as we speak. With the knowledge that you have now, and you're further advanced in your career. What do you wish you could tell your first year apprentice self? So, you get we're doing a transformation back to when you started now, what could you tell yourself? 'Cause we've got a lot of first-year apprentices watching today, let's start with you, Hannah.

Hannah Watts

But you have more rights than you think you do. So, in my first year, I actually needed to have a hip surgery, 'cause I've got an impingement and I actually had an employer tell me that I wouldn't be able to do my job with that injury. So, I guess don't let people tell you what you can and can't do. You can achieve anything you wanna put your mind to. And anything you wanna work hard for.

Chris Bombolas

Hans, now go back to your first year that you would be yourself.

Hans van der Merwe

Listen to your trades person, especially if you know for a fact that they know what they’re doing, make sure you study when you go to TAFE. And if you don't understand something, ask, just keep asking questions until you understand it. Don't assume you do, make sure you actually understand it.

Chris Bombolas

That's pretty good. That's probably a life lesson that a lot of us could learn even at 61 years of age.

Nadine Forbes

Similar to Hans is ask more questions. And if you don't understand it and you have to ask six times, ask it until you understand it. We all learn in different manners. And sometimes you just need it explained a little bit different, but just keep asking questions.

Chris Bombolas

It's the adage, isn't it? There's no such thing as a dumb question, particularly if in the end it may save your life. All right, let's go to a question, that's come in from Susan. This is to you guys, when you first started working as an apprentice, what were you most afraid of doing in your job? Was there one thing that you sort of balked at doing, when you first started and thanks to Susan for that question.

Hannah Watts

I don't think I was really afraid of much in my first year. You don't really realize all the dangers that are around you until you're a little bit further in and you're like, oh wow. I was doing all that in my first year. And didn't realize that it could have gone catastrophically wrong. So, I worked underneath locomotors. I was disconnecting locomotors, changing out traction motor oil. So, my apprenticeship sort of wasn't the normal avenue that most people go down. My biggest problem would have been being crushed by a locomotive or being hit by one. So, safety was pretty high on the railways.

Chris Bombolas

Hans.

Hans van der Merwe

I remember one day my trades person opened up a switchboard with like hundreds of contactors in there, just little like control relays and stuff all that. And my biggest fear was that I would never be able to look at that board and understand what's actually going on in there, and not being able to be a good electrician, but I've actually proven myself wrong. And I have a lot of two young apprentices at work, they look up to me now. So, it's good.

Chris Bombolas

How do you feel with that responsibility, just as a follow-up questionnaire, 'cause you started your apprenticeship later in life. You had a few years of work experience behind you. Now you're in charge, how are you handling that?

Hans van der Merwe

To be honest, they always wanna, oh can I do this? Now you stay in there, you watch me do it. I'll show you her do it once, and I'll let you have a go to the next one, as long as I can prove that it's safe for you to touch it.

Chris Bombolas

Let's go to, Nadine.

Nadine Forbes

I guess similarly like when you first start not knowing it's overwhelming and not knowing if I'd ever be able to speak as fluently as my tradesman and know the ins and outs of the industry. I think also in Queensland for me, was working under houses and ceiling spaces was all the animals and vermin that can kill you as well. Probably one of my biggest things that. So, that was one of the things. I think just overwhelming the industry and how much I thought I had to know. But as you get to know, you continually learning.

Chris Bombolas

Let's move on to another of our questions and we thank everybody for joining us and remember the Q and A box while you're watching this, you can get in and win one of those trade vouchers, if you're lucky enough. This is from Danchris, what are the quality of trades person that you look forward to that apprentices should look up to? So, you're looking for qualities in that trades person, someone who's senior perhaps a role model that you can look up to. Maybe we'll start with Hans this time.

Hans van der Merwe

Just watch them. If they always do everything saved, do everything by the book. If they're not sure and ask other trades persons for help or advice or anything, that's a very good quality to have in a trades person I belief.

Chris Bombolas

Nadine.

Nadine Forbes

Yeah, someone who shows leadership skills and is willing to help you and ask questions to you as well as she engages you and encourages you to ask more questions. And if they're not sure admits that they're not sure and engages other tradespeople to get the job done, and share their knowledge as well.

Hannah Watts

Some of the best tradespeople have had the same qualities. And that was they're really approachable. So, whether it be a work question or even like hey, I'm struggling with this outside of work. What's your life advice? 'Cause I work with guys who are substantially older than me. They're not all, they're just substantially older. So, the fact that they're approachable and you can have honest conversations about anything, makes it really easy to learn off them as an apprentice. And it's quality that I'm tryna work on myself as well to be a good trades person that's able to be approached by an apprentice and able to help through life stuff and through work stuff.

Chris Bombolas

Well, let's flip that situation. We've talked about the positives. Let's talk about what could be possible negatives that we can confront in our workplaces. How do you handle workplace banter, particularly if it starts to make you feel uncomfortable, it starts to creep into that bullying territory. What's your advice to an apprentice who might be going through this, 'cause this is a really scary time. You're an apprentice you're trying your best to learn a trade and all of a sudden things aren't going as smoothly as they should. Perhaps we'll start with you, Hannah.

Hannah Watts

That's a really really good question and a really important question 'cause there is a line between banter and bullying, and I think it's hard for people around you to call out bullying, if they still see it as banter and you're not experiencing banter anymore, you're experiencing bullying.

I think you're gonna have to have one of those courageous conversations where you find someone that's an ally to you and you say, this is making me feel really uncomfortable. Would you mind coming and having a chat with the guys, to the guys about what's going on and maybe changing the situation that you're all in as a workforce? 'Cause everybody's there for the same reason. They all wanna enjoy the workplace that they're going to. So, if you're not enjoying that you need to speak up and maybe get someone to help you with it as well.

Chris Bombolas

Hans.

Hans van der Merwe

I've never really had, we always pick on each other and stuff in the workshop and I'm like, oh, I'm used to it sort of thing. I've never really experienced workplace bullying. But as Hannah said, if you do feel uncomfortable, try and find someone to talk to, whether it be a trades person that you work with, and it's another one that's bullying you or whether it's their supervisor or someone, just even HR manager or someone just try and find someone to talk to, to give you a hand with it.

Chris Bombolas

Hans, just on that you say it's a good friendly banter, between you and your colleagues. But if someone starts to feel uncomfortable, not necessarily you you've got to respect that, don't you?

Hans van der Merwe

Oh, definitely, you gotta be able to really people. So, if you see it start to make them feel uncomfortable and you're just joking around, you gotta get up. I think I hit a little bit of a soft spot down, it stopped. Just don’t pushing it. Some people down had to do that. And that's just who people are. You just gotta try and understand, put yourself in their shoes. If someone said that to you, how would you feel?

Chris Bombolas

Yeah, and you might feel comfortable with it, but you've got to appreciate that they may not. So, it's a really fine area, but it's all about respect each other.

Hans van der Merwe

Very much.

Chris Bombolas

Nadine.

Nadine Forbes

Definitely, further on that, I think it's also, if you see someone else in that situation and they might not be comfortable speaking up, for you to go over and just check in with them and say, hey, what's going on? Or do you need to chat about that? As Hannah said, you will need an ally. Sometimes if it's not the person that you can speak with directly, someone else that you can speak to. And I think there way services out there, life we've got Mates in Construction and things like that. Give them a call if you're not sure about what you can do, if you don't feel comfortable talking to the person directly or your supervisors, there is help outside of your organization as well.

Chris Bombolas

And speaking of mates, we will be hearing from them very very shortly. Let's move to another angle and aspect of work. This is from Tyler and thanks everyone for joining us. If you've got a question quickly, 'cause our panel session is rapidly coming to an end.

This is from Tyler guys. What advice do you have for current apprentices who want to stand out and become apprentice of the year or win awards or shine at their work? It doesn't necessarily mean you need a plaque on the wall or you need a certificate or whatever, but they just wanna excel in what they do. What advice would you give them? Let's start this end this time, Nadine.

Nadine Forbes

Engage, buy into it. There's so many people out there willing to help you. And the more you talk to people, the more you read, watch webinars like this and get involved in anything you can take all opportunities that you're faced with.

Chris Bombolas

Become a sponge.

Nadine Forbes

Yeah, exactly exactly.

Chris Bombolas

Hans.

Hans van der Merwe

I'm not sure, I can't really remember what the question was.

Chris Bombolas

You wanna stand out, you wanna achieve, you wanna be the best apprentice you can, be the best trader you can be. What advice would you give them to someone starting out?

Hans van der Merwe

Ask a lot of questions, just keep asking questions. If opportunity comes your way to go and do any kind of like set free set falls in a lot if someone goes, oh, did you wanna do a set free in this? Don't be scared to say yes, I'll do it, I'll do it, regardless of what.

Chris Bombolas

Hannah.

Hannah Watts

Keep on top of your eProfiling. If you're not understanding something at work like you can't win awards if you're not doing your eProfiling, that's part of your apprenticeship obligations. And there aren't many obligations that you have as an apprentice. So, if you want to stand out, make sure you're doing all the scope of work that you need to require to get your electrical license. Make sure you're putting in your eProfiling and keeping up to date with it and go into sponge mode. Like they've already said, suck up all the information from all the people around you. It might not be the way you do the job, but you've just learned to not the way of how to do something.

Chris Bombolas

Here is one for all three of you as well. Have you come across a workplace with a great safety culture where safety is an absolute priority, and everyone thinks it's important. And if you have, what did that workplace do, to create that positive culture? Encourage it, foster it and maintain it. Hannah, you're first.

Hannah Watts

Oh jee

Chris Bombolas

I know it's a tough question, but you may have come across. You may have worked somewhere. It might be your own work. It might be somewhere that we wanna give them a wrap.

Hannah Watts

So, culture is something that is constantly changing and adapting. If you're working somewhere where you don't have a great safety culture, help change it, make it a better place. If you work somewhere where it's already good, make it a great place. You know like everyday you go into work, open your eyes, look at stuff. Have you missed something when you've walked in.

Chris Bombolas

Hans, have you come across a place that has got high one safety?

Hans van der Merwe

I don't really think such a place really exists. There's no limit to how safe you can be. You can always go that extra step further and be even more safe than what. As long as they have procedures in place that you can follow, go above and beyond, 'cause then you're guaranteed to be safe.

Chris Bombolas

Yeah, Nadine.

Nadine Forbes

Yeah, I've worked with any company where safety is taken very seriously steps the hallways through, from little JSS in our pocket PPEs everywhere. And we're encouraged and encourage you if you wanna feel unsafe to step back and say, how else can we do this safer? We all wanna go home safe.

Chris Bombolas

All right, one final quick tip from each one of you, about safety and about the guys that are just starting, that are in the industry that might be wavering, thinking odd I don't know if I can push through this. What advice would you give them, just quickly just to finish off our panel session.

Hannah Watts

Perseverance is key. If you want about enough, you'll get there. You'll finish your apprenticeship. And you'll be like us sitting on a panel maybe, telling other apprentices how they can go through their apprenticeship and excel in their apprenticeships.

Hans van der Merwe

Best tip would probably be, I don't really know actually.

Chris Bombolas

I'll give you more time to think about it. Nadine you're up. You think about it, Hans, I'm coming back to you.

Nadine Forbes

Yeah, just engage in your apprenticeship and take responsibility for yourself. Whether it be your learning, your safety, everything. Ask more questions, take responsibility.

Chris Bombolas

Ask more questions, take care, don't take shortcuts.

Nadine Forbes

Engage.

Chris Bombolas

There's a lot of sort of general safety tips, not just electrical, it's about life, isn't it? What are you got, come on one word of wisdom.

Hans van der Merwe

I had some in my head.

Chris Bombolas

And you lost them.

Hans van der Merwe

Oh, I just completely lost them.

Chris Bombolas

Oh, can't believe it. Ladies and gentlemen, we appreciate these guys taking time out of their work and coming to join us. And we wish Hannah, Nadine and Hans all the best in your careers. Very safe and prosperous careers, guys. Thanks for joining us. Now sit back, relax and enjoy the next segment, because we're now going to catch up with Mates in Construction. Chief Executive Officer for Mates in Construction is John Brady. John has been with Mates in Construction since 2008 and helped develop the national award winning Mates in Construction program in suicide prevention. John, strongly believes that suicide is a preventable problem. Particularly if we can get mates helping mates. This presentation discusses suicide, which some people might find disturbing. If you or someone you know is struggling, we will have some slides up shortly where you can get help and support. So, I'd like to welcome John. Thanks for joining us, John.

John Brady

Thanks Chris, and thanks apprentices. That was fantastic stuff. Welcome wherever you happen to be watching from, it's fantastic to be with you this morning. My name's John Brady and I'm from Mates in Construction.

Some of you will have already come across us, onsite or in your colleges. Some of you maybe not, but if you work in construction or in mining or in energy, you're already entitled to our support and help. And so, what I want to do in this next little piece of time is to let you know who we are, what our approach is and how you can use that approach to help yourself, and more importantly to help the mates around you. And I can tell you now that when you learn those skills, they're not just work skills they're life skills.

You can learn at work, how to help someone who's struggling. And you can take that to your church or to your football club or to your neighborhood or to your mates. And you become a really powerful tool in your own circle. So, let's get started. So, what is the mates program?

We started in 2006 after the Australian Institute of Suicide Research and Prevention, did a longitudinal study into suicides in the Queensland construction industry, and the results were fairly shocking. And when we talk of young workers, what we found was that young workers in our industry are two and a half times, the national average in terms of suicide.

If you wanna know what that means practically, is we lose about 30 workers a year to a death on site from an accident. If you're were under 25 and you work in our industry, you're 10 times more likely to die of suicide than in next work.

So, that was fairly sobering. And we had to look and say, okay, what do we need to do? The first thing we looked at was what wasn't working. If you're in the big end of town where you've got ABIs and tier ones. They had free AP services, employee assistance programs for all their workers. But really tiny percentage took it out. And when you move out out of the big end of town into some of the smaller tiers, what we found is that there was a culture of not asking for help, particularly around their mental health, because it was seen as a weakness.

So, we looked in and flipped it and said, so what was working then? We mightn't have been real good at looking after ourselves, but I'll tell you what, we would do anything for our mate. Our strength wasn't asking for help, our strength was offering help. And so, that become the mates way, we decided not to target the person who is doing it tough, but everybody they worked with. And so, we went onto sites and started to say, we can guarantee that someone in your team is gonna struggle this year. We know the stats. And I must probably want to ask for help. So, you have to identify them, and you have to say, you don't look right and I'll talk a little bit more that in a minute, is it working?

We know now since 2009, we've been able to drop the suicide rates in Queensland construction by over 11%. Now is that enough? Now we're still losing good people.

Aftermath of a suicide, the coulda woulda shooters that doesn't leave you. It's not a normal grief. It's not a grief like after a car accident, when you can say that was the fault. Often the grief after a suicide is terrible. So, any suicide is a tragedy, but we are unique just recently, we were listed on the World Health Organization's website as the world's best practice in workplace suicide prevention. And it's not what mates are doing, but it's what people like you are doing on site, in your company, with your friends, that's what's working. And that's what we wanna continue to keep working 'cause it's actually saving lives.

So, what about the young apprentices? Some of you would have been part of our Speak Up Be Heard research we did, the report came out in February last year, just before we started all the COVID protocols. And there was some really interesting stats on it. 80% of people are doing really well in their apprenticeship. They love it, they're being cared for, they're being taught that growing up in the industry in a healthy and wholesome way. And that's fantastic.

And I hope as I'm talking to you, you are one of them. The 27.3% experienced bullying in the last 12 months and 20% of them, the bullying wasn't just a bit more than banter, it was severe bullying.

So much so that 30% of apprentices in the previous 12 months thought that ending their life was a solution to dealing with that bullying. Both bullying and suicidal thoughts were higher amongst female apprentices. And those who identified as LGBTI. Clearly that is not satisfactory. No it's against the law to arrest and bully, but it has a major impact on people's mental health, on their families and on the productivity they're in workplaces. So, if we look at suicide, why did people choose suicide?

Suicide is a solution to emotional pain, the pain of a broken leg and the pain of a broken heart. They live in the same place in the brain. And if we've been around long enough, we know that emotions come and go. But when you're in the thick of it, that pain can be unbearable and suicide pops up as an option to get rid of the pain. What are the triggers?

Well, we know from the research that for apprentices, 72% of those who took their own life, the trigger was a relationship breakup. Now I don't know what it's like for women when they break up in a relationship. But I know for myself and some of my sons that when we've had breakups, it has been horrible. And I know that my mates, their solution was well, let's get into the pub and we'll find you another one.

And I think Sandra Allen said, There's plenty of fish in the ocean. When you're in the middle of that emotional turmoil, that's not helpful. We need to be able to say to one another look, hey, you're traveling with this. This is tough stuff that really knocks us around. And I'm certain that knocks women around the sames that knocks men around. That bullying is a trigger, because bullying can be overwhelming and the power imbalance can be terrible. And it actually really makes it difficult for the find a why out. Finances, finances can be difficult. Bascue, put a report out not so long ago that said that in construction 80% of us live paycheck to paycheck.

And we're in an industry that has occupational redundancy. That means we work project to project. In good times we learn our projects that we have continuous work, but when we're in times where that doesn't happen, and if we had not in control of our finances, then things can really mount up. My boy's solution is to move home, but eventually you got to leave home.

So, get on top of your finances. And mental illness, mental illness gets thrown around in all sorts of life, but it's actually quite a broad spectrum. We all have mental health and we all go through periods of poor mental health, in the same way that we all have physical health. And sometimes we go through periods of poor physical health. Poor physical health and poor mental health can lead to mental illness or physical illness. And if your mental health gets so bad that we go into clinical depression or bipolar or whatever, then that can be a really difficult thing to deal with.

Also, when we go on sites, we often say to people, how many people have been touched by suicide? And we ask them to show their hands. I cannot think of one site in the thousands of sites I have visited, where they've been less than 50% of the hands go up. And sometimes people can put up both hands and their feet. We know that when you lose a mate to suicide or a family member, your risk profile goes up by 40%. That's why it's so important that we wrap around people. The old way was not to talk, that doesn't help us. It's actually to be able to say to people, hey, you're gone. What's going on for you here and keeping an eye on one another.

So, what do we need to do? Well, the first thing is do something, doing nothing doesn't work, do something, whatever that little something is, do something. There's a little bit of a dichotomy here around seeking help and offering help. Often you hear campaigns like it's not weak to speak. And we know in our industries that the culture of seeking help is not high.

There is evidence that some of you younger people are actually seeking help these days, but anyone can offer help. At mates we often say, when I ring for a mate, the phone is like a feather. When I ring for myself, the phone is like a brick. So, we know that offering help works. Here more to know when someone's struggling, some really simple things.

Sometimes you can see someone struggling. You can see by the way they carry themselves, you can see that they're distracted from their work, which of course is a safety issue. You can see that they're coming in, looking a bit dusty or teary. Sometimes it's the words that they say, It's a red flag for me. If I ever hear someone say, you'd be better off without me. That sense of burden, or I can't take it anymore. Or I just to get outta here. I'm gonna hear that a lot on a Friday afternoon. But when I'm here on a Tuesday, what's going on? Sometimes you might know stuff. You might know there's been a relationship breakup. You might know someone's being bullied on site. You might know that there's been a grief in the family. You might know that the job's coming to an end. And the last one is you just have a gut feeling, a sense that something's not right.

One of my sons lives in London, my oldest son has been over there for 13 years, and I really miss him. But the last Sunday of every month, he rings. Now I really look forward to it, I love chatting to him. Every now and then my wife, Linda will go. I think we should ring Josh, and I'll go, what for? She says, "I think something's wrong." And I'll go, "If something's wrong he will ring us." And she rings and something's wrong. How does she know? He's 12,000 miles away.

So, our intuition has nothing to do with geography or cognition. Our intuition is just stuff we know. We can go into a space and we know it's not safe. We don't know why it's not safe, we have a gut feeling. We know that about our mates and the people we work with. We don't know why they're not right. We just sense that they're not right. And you trust that because you're probably right.

And all I say is, take 10 seconds of courage. You don't need a whole week at courage. You don't even need an hour of courage. Not even a minute of courage, 10 seconds to say, Mate, you don't seem right. Or, hey, you're traveling. I just see you seem to be kicking the dirt a bit. Or I feel in my gut that something's not right. If your mate, is there anything I can do to help. That conversation is lifesaving. So, how can you help?

We use the term solidarity, not sympathy, to stand next to someone and say, mate, on my shift you're not going on that. Is a very very powerful symbol. It's not your job to fix them now, fix themselves. All that go to clinicians, your job is to be with them side by side. I don't have a tattoo, but if I had one, this is what it would say. Seek first to understand before being understood. Everybody's story is so unique, who will listen for that uniqueness?

One of the most powerful things you can ever say to someone is not how are you feeling? But what's your story. And then shut up and listen. Connect them to help. There are a lot of help lines I’ve never seen one jumped down and say, hey how are you going, ever. Help lines don't save people, people save people, you ring on your phone and then you give it to them and say, you speak and I'll wait.

Check in on them. People don't want you to constantly go to them saying are you ok, are you ok 'cause that makes them feel like a freak. What they want to do is feel normal again. I walk on the sites and blokes would just giving me a wink and telling me I'm doing okay. That's all it is, just checking and say, doing all right? Good.

Encourage them, one of the best signs I've ever heard is you have already survived a hundred percent of your worst days. You're resilient. If you're survived a hundred percent of your worst days, I have confidence that you're gonna get through this.

Be confidential, sites, they can be havens for gossip and a whole lot of other. If someone tells you something, be confidential about it.

And debrief, debrief with someone. One of the guys I work with as a plumber and he had a fairly crass term, but it was really useful. He said, when I go to work, some days are working shit. And if I don't wash it off, I go home and I get to spread it all around the house and the family.

Some days we work in very stressful situations. And if we don't talk to someone, we'll go home and spread that stress amongst the family.

Mates in Construction is someone you can talk to, even just a mate. And I guess the message I have, and it feeds into exactly what the apprentices were saying, do not be a bystander, do not see someone's struggling and do nothing about it, do something.

Where's the help. That's the Mates in Construction, help line in 24/7. I want you to take your phone out, and I want you to put that in now. Put it under help or mates. And there are lots of others. Can I just mention the ETU often as an apprentice, you don't have any power. Your power will come from being part of a collective. There's a lot of fantastic bosses there, but they're also some grubs. Use the union to support you as a collective, regardless of what your political views are.

There's a whole range of numbers there. And I'll make certain that I put up family and friends and trusted work colleagues. There's lots of help out there. Make certain you get it.

And wish you well on your apprenticeship. I'm certain you'll do well. And what we're about now with the new generation is we're changing the culture of this industry. A culture that is better, better for women, better for the diverse population we come in, and better for everybody who's gonna be part of it. Thank you very much.

Chris Bombolas

Thanks to John and his organization, Mates in Construction who do a great job. There were some great messages to take home from that. I hope you do. John put up a few numbers for those who might be having some issues, but for us, the ESO, if you have a friend, a family member, a colleague, a mate, that has a lot on their plate, there are ways you can support them as John has mentioned.

On the screen, we have listed some different organizations for someone who might be going through a tough time. I urge you to have a look at those numbers. And if you or someone close to you is in need. As John said, don't be a bystander. Provide them with that contact detail or use it yourself.

As we draw to a close I'd like to thank you for joining us for the first of many events that we have planned for electrical safety week. I wanna say a special thanks to our former apprentices who have now obviously progressed into a full-time workers and tradies to Hans, Nadine and to Hannah, thank you for joining us, we appreciate your input.

There's plenty of other free events this week, and it's not too late to register. So, visit eso.qld.gov.au, or the ESO Facebook page. Now winners of today's $100 trade equipment vouchers will be contacted directly and congratulations to them. And we thank them, especially for joining us.

There's another five, $100 trade equipment vouchers up for grabs as part of our Facebook competition, that tests your electrical knowledge. So, you better get in quick as it ends on Friday.

We would also love to hear your thoughts on some of the topics we have discussed today. We will send you a survey following today's webinar for you to complete. Completed entries we'll go into the draw to win, we're being generous here at ESO.

There's another draw to win a $200 trade equipment gift voucher, it's that simple. So, give us your feedback.

Today's webinar was recorded and will be available to watch and share with your friends or colleagues that may have missed out. It's available at eso.qld.gov.au. That's where you'll find a whole heap of other resources and information on electrical safety.

Keep your eye out for an email from us over the next few days to complete a feedback survey about today's event.

We really value your feedback. It's how we fine tune events like these, for events into the future.

So, if you could spare us just two minutes, we would really appreciate that. Once again, thank you for joining us.

I leave you with a couple of important messages that were said today, and that probably need to be reinforced over and over again.

Mates help mate, speak up, ask questions, work safe, home safe.

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