Glossary

Administrative control is a system of work or safe work method that helps to reduce a worker’s exposure to a fall hazard. Administrative controls are often used to support other fall prevention measures.

Anchorage means a secure point for attaching a lanyard, lifeline or other component of a travel restraint system or fall-arrest system. Anchorages require specific load and impact capacities for their intended use.

Arrest force is the force imposed upon the worker and the anchorage point the moment the fall-arrest system stops the fall.

Australian Standard, Australian/New Zealand Standard, AS and AS/NZS refer to standards developed and published by Standards Australia International. These are voluntary technical and commercial standards.

Certificate of competency is referred to as a license for high risk work in this document.

Client means any person who commissions design work for a structure.

Competent person means a person who has acquired through training, qualification or experience (or a combination of these) the knowledge and skills enabling that person to safely perform a specified task.

Construction project means a project involving construction work, and includes the design, preparation, and planning.

Construction site means a place at which construction work is undertaken, and any other area in the vicinity where plant or other material used or to be used in connection with the construction work is located or kept during the construction work. It does not include a place where elements are manufactured ‘off site’ or where construction material is stored as stock for sale or for hire.

Construction work means any work on or in the vicinity of a construction site carried out in connection with the construction, alteration, conversion, fitting out, commissioning, renovation, repair, maintenance, de-commissioning, demolition or dismantling of any structure, and includes:

• the demolition or dismantling of a structure, or part of a structure, and the removal from the construction site of any product or waste resulting from the demolition or dismantling;
• the assembly of prefabricated elements to form a structure or the disassembly of prefabricated elements, which, immediately before such disassembly, formed a structure
• any work in connection with any excavation, landscaping, preparatory work, or site preparation carried out for the purpose of any work referred to in this definition; and,
• any work referred to in this definition carried out under water, including work on buoys, obstructions to navigation, rafts, ships, and wrecks.

It does not include the exploration for or extraction of mineral resources or preparatory work relating to the extraction carried out at a place where such exploration or extraction is carried out.

Design in relation to any structure means any drawing, design detail, scope of works document or specification relating to the structure.

Designer means a person whose profession, trade or business involves them in:

• preparing designs for structures, including variations to a plan or changes to a structure; or,
• arranging for people under their control to prepare designs for structures.

Elevating work platform means a telescoping, scissor or articulating device, or any combination of these, that is used to position personnel, material or equipment at an elevated work area.

Fall-arrest harness means an assembly of interconnected shoulder and leg straps, with or without a body belt, which is designed to distribute forces to minimise the likelihood of injury resulting from an arrested fall, and to prevent the wearer from falling out of the assembly of straps. It consists of a full body harness (parachute type) together with associated components such as a lanyard and personal energy absorber.

Fall-arrest static line means a horizontal, near-horizontal or vertical line (for a ladder fall-arrest device) to which a lanyard may be attached and which is designed to arrest a free fall. Each end of the line is connected to a fixed anchorage point. The line may be made of metal tubes, metal rods, steel wire rope, synthetic webbing or synthetic rope.

Falling is a reference to a person falling, and includes a person falling from, through or into a place or thing.

Fall injury minimisation system means equipment, material or a combination of equipment and material that is designed to prevent, or reduce the severity of injury to a person if a fall from one level to another does occur.

Free fall is any fall or part of a fall where the person falling is under the unrestrained influence of gravity over any fall distance, either vertically or on a slope on which it is not possible to walk without the assistance of a handrail or hand line.

Formwork means the surface, supports and framing used to define the shape of concrete until the concrete is self-supporting. It includes the forms on which the concrete is poured, the supports used to withstand the loads imposed by the forms and the concrete, the bracing that may be added to ensure stability, and the footings. The formwork structure is called the formwork assembly. Parts of the formwork assembly are also known as falsework. Examples of formwork include prefabricated systems such as slip forms, table forms and jump forms.

Guardrailing is a protective barrier attached directly to a house, building, scaffold or other structure by posts.

Hazard is, with regard to falls from a height, any situation where there is potential for someone to fall from one level to another.

Individual fall-arrest system is a system designed to arrest a fall and consists of some or all of the following:

• anchorage;
• retractable lifeline;
• lifeline;
• rope grabs;
• inertia reel;
• wire grabs;
• lanyard;
• rail system;
• shock absorbers; and,
• harness.

Industrial rope access system means a work positioning system used for gaining access to and working at a work face, usually by means of vertically suspended ropes.

Inertia reel (also known as a self-retracting lanyard or fall-arrest block) Is a mechanical device that arrests a fall by locking onto a dropline and at the same time allows freedom of movement.

Ladder fall-arrest device means a device that travels along a fall-arrest static line, parallel to a ladder, and locks onto the line when loaded. The device can be loaded only in the direction of the line.

Lanyard means a line used, usually as part of a lanyard assembly, to connect a harness to an anchorage point or static line.

Lanyard assembly means an assembly consisting of a lanyard and a personal energy absorber. The lanyard assembly should be as short as reasonably practicable, with a working length of not more than 2 metres.

Likelihood means the probability that an event will occur.

National Standard for Construction Work or National Standard means the National Standard for Construction Work [NOHSC: 1016(2005)], declared by the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission, and as amended.

Passive fall prevention device means material or equipment, or a combination of material and equipment, that is designed to prevent a person from falling, and which, after initial installation, requires ongoing inspections to ensure its integrity but does not require ongoing adjustment, alteration or operation to perform its function. Examples include scaffolding and perimeter guardrailing.

Person with control means:

• a person with control over the workplace; or,
• a person with control over work.

Person with control over a workplace means a person who has management or control of a workplace. An owner of a workplace and an occupier of a workplace can be persons with control of workplaces, to the extent that they have management or control of the workplace. An employer may also be the owner or occupier of a workplace.

Person with control of work means a person who has management or control over work. An employer, owner, manager of a labour hire company, franchisee and franchisor, will be a person with control of work and a self-employed person, such as a sub-contractor, can be persons with control of work. Each is considered a person with control of work to the extent that they have management or control of the work.

Personal energy absorber (or deceleration device) means a device, used with a fall-arrest harness and lanyard, which reduces the deceleration force imposed when a fall is suddenly arrested, and correspondingly reduces the loadings on the anchorage and the person’s body. The energy absorber may either be a separate item or manufactured as part of the lanyard.

Reasonably practicable means what can be done and which is reasonable in the circumstances taking account of:

• the probability (likelihood) of the hazard or risk occurring;
• the degree of harm arising from the hazard or risk;
• the availability and suitability of ways to remove or mitigate the hazard or risk;
• the state of knowledge about the hazard or risk and ways it may be removed or mitigated; and,A
• cost of removing or mitigating the hazard or risk.

Restraint line is the line securing workers to a point of anchorage and is used to prevent a person from reaching a point from which they could fall.

Risk means the likelihood of a hazard causing harm to a person.

Safe work method statement means a statement that:

• identifies a work activity assessed as having a safety risk or risks;
• states the safety risk or risks;
• describes the control measures that will be applied to the work activity;
• describes how safety measures will be implemented; and,
• includes a description of the equipment used in the work, the qualifications of the personnel doing the work and the training required to do the work safely.

Scaffold is a temporary structure specifically erected to support one or more access platforms or working platforms.

Solid construction means a constructed supporting surface that:

• is structurally capable of supporting people, material and any other loads intended to be applied to it;
• is provided with protection at its perimeter, around open penetrations and around any other area necessary to prevent persons from falling;
• has an even and readily negotiable surface and gradient; and,
• is provided with a safe means of access and egress.

Structure means:

• Any building, steel or reinforced concrete construction, railway line or siding, tramway line, dock, ship, submarine, harbour, inland navigation channel, tunnel, shaft, bridge, viaduct, waterworks, reservoir, pipe or pipeline (whatever it contains or is intended to contain), structural cable, aqueduct, sewer, sewerage works, gasholder, road, airfield, sea defence works, river works, drainage works, earthworks, constructed lagoon, dam, wall, mast, tower, pylon, underground tank, earth retaining construction, fixed plant, construction designed to preserve or alter any natural feature, and any other similar construction; and,
• any formwork, falsework, scaffold or other construction designed or used to provide support or access during construction work.

Total fall distance is the total distance a person is likely to fall during both the free and restrained parts of a fall and includes the maximum dynamic extension of all supporting components.

Travel restraint system means a system in which a harness or belt is attached to one or more lanyards, each attached in turn to a static line or anchorage point, so as to restrict the travelling range of a person wearing the harness or belt and preventing them from reaching a position from which they could fall.

Work box means a personnel carrying device designed for attachment to a crane for the purpose of providing a working area for persons elevated by and working from the box.

Work positioning system means any equipment, other than a temporary work platform, which enables a person to be positioned and safely support.