Safety Training Provider Fined for Falsifying Certificates

A Victorian occupational health and safety training organisation has been convicted and fined $200,000 for falsifying scaffolding and forklift training records. An assessor employed by the company has also been fined $25,000 without conviction.

ATTA Quality Training Services Pty Ltd pleaded guilty in the Sunshine Magistrates Court to 14 charges under the Occupational Health and Safety Act of knowingly providing false information.

The court heard ATTA falsified notices of assessment for students attending courses in basic scaffolding and forklifts by certifying that students had attended a full two day course when in fact the courses had finished at lunch time each day.

ATTA’s certification also stated certain mandatory topics had been covered, despite evidence from students that no such training had taken place.

All affected participants were provided with options to either show evidence of their competency or undergo re-assessment.

The matter was a catalyst for changes in 2017 that saw WorkSafe become responsible for registering independent assessors in addition to its existing role of registering the training organisations.

WorkSafe Health and Safety Executive Director Julie Nielsen said certified training for users of particular types of equipment was essential to ensuring workers make it home safely each day.

“Without certified training, inexperienced and possibly incompetent workers operating machinery would pose a potentially deadly risk to themselves and all around them.”

“Registered trainers have a legal responsibility and a community obligation to train workers property and WorkSafe will not tolerate assessors or organisations who cut corners or fail to play by the rules.”

Who needs a licence?

• A person must not do high risk work unless he or she holds an appropriate high risk work licence in relation to that work.
• High risk work licenses include scaffolding and rigging licence, crane licence, hoist licence and forklift licence.
• Training for a high risk work licence must be provided by a registered training organisation authorised by WorkSafe.
• Authorised RTOs do not assess applicants. They must affiliate with individual assessors authorised by WorkSafe and WorkSafe must acknowledge the affiliation before any assessments take place.