IRATA International

IRATA International – the Industrial Rope Access Trade Association

“What do you do for a living mate?”

“I do Rope Access.”

“You do what?” is the usual response (especially if you are sitting at a bar). The simplest answer is “guys and girls wearing a harness and hanging off ropes”. This description is effective in the pub but barely scratches the surface. It is the industrial applications that have taken a quantum leap forward in the last ten years.

Almost every conceivable trade now utilizes rope access as part of their access and safe Work at Height strategy. With the increasing acceptance of rope access, work scopes are becoming more challenging and complex particularly in remote mine sites, offshore and power generation facilities.

How has rope access grown so rapidly in an environment where falling from height is still one of the leading causes of serious injury or death? How do we convince stakeholders’ that technicians “hanging off ropes” is not only efficient, but can support and achieve large safety margins? There is scant guidance from regulatory bodies when it comes to rope access. The Rope Access standard – AS/NZS 4488; parts 1&2 (1997) is considered by most of the rope access fraternity to be redundant. Most professional safety officers would find little comfort in solely relying on AS/NZS 4488 when allowing technicians to perform rope access on their sites. The only vaguely relevant Code of Practice is the “Safe Work at Height” and it lacks any real depth pertaining to operations, management, compliance and accreditation specific to rope access.

So how do we validate rope access within the current WaH environment?

This is where IRATA International enters the picture. Formed about 30 years ago in the UK, the Industrial Rope Access Trade Association (IRATA) was established to tackle the issues lacking in our industry. In some ways its inception was driven by the North Sea Oil & Gas sector because they saw the true value in rope access but had no system or procedure to validate a company’s safe work methodologies. Perhaps the strongest move of the founding members was to set up a system of compliance (for Member Companies) and accreditation (for technicians) that by today’s standard is far above the norm.

A quick statistical summary before moving on. In the late 80s a handful of companies formed IRATA and developed safe and uniform procedures/guidance for the fledgling rope access industry. Today IRATA’s global company membership is over 576 and there are over 165,000 registered technicians. There are currently 54 member companies in Australasia – and growing. Collectively, Australasia accumulated approximately 1.6 million hours on rope in 2017.

IRATA is now recognized as the world’s leading authority on industrial rope access. IRATA recognised the impact of its global reach and responsibility for managing its International role. Effective communication between experienced people with specialist and current knowledge within their sector and/or region is essential to the progression of industry best practice. To this end, IRATA established regional advisory committees (RACs). Our region is the Australasia RAC.

IRATA Member Companies & IRATA Technicians

Essentially IRATA is an association of Member Companies. The member companies are either Trainers, Operators or both. Amongst many other criteria, it is a requirement of membership that companies employ technicians who have been trained and certified through IRATA’s training scheme (Training, Assessment and Certification Scheme – TACS). Hence the necessity for the other critical element of the association – IRATA Technicians. This system has many advantages not least of which is that:

• Operating companies demand competent technicians for obvious safety and efficiency reasons.

o  This mandates that training facilities and instructors must meet all expectations through audited compliance

o  Potential technicians must be deemed competent by an appointed and independent assessor – not the training provider

o  TACS is routinely reviewed to meet the needs of operational diversity

• Training/Operating companies and Head Office have an effective pipeline for the dissemination of information, new procedures and feedback.

o  All member companies must attend at least one annual meeting

o  Technicians must revalidate their certification every three years, ensuring contact with IRATA at the very least within that timeframe.

More broadly, membership requires independent auditing against the requirements of the ICoP (IRATA’s International Code of Practice) at a minimum of every three years. Annual internal audits, Quarterly statistics and all incidents must be lodged to help better understand and target hazards and shortcomings in procedures. All findings are disseminated (anonymously) back to the membership.

A member company is issued with a unique number and are the only entities entitled to display the IRATA logo. If a company displays the logo without a number it is likely they are not a member company! This can be confirmed on the IRATA website – www.irata.org

Technicians are certified as either Levels 1, 2 or 3. Level 1 being entry level. The minimum requirement to progress to the next level is 12 months and 1000 hours of logged rope access experience which is proven through the upkeep of a logbook.

The presence of a well trained, competent and experienced Level 3 supervisor on every team is fundamental to the IRATA procedural requirements. They are an essential cog in identifying and controlling hazards.

Lastly it must be stated that IRATA is a progressive association which is constantly learning and evolving as a complete system. Member companies use independently assessed technicians and rely on quality training and independent assessment to deliver them. Technicians need the backing of a member company because member companies are independently audited to ensure their procedures are sound and have access to the latest guidance from IRATA International. IRATA International’s Head Office continues to support, offer guidance, collate and disseminate information. Collectively we look after each other, learn, grow and stay safe.

For IRATA ICoP, TACS, WASA (Work and Safety Analysis) and Safety Notices please visit https://irata.org/publications

Australasian Past-RAC Chairman

IRATA International

(Special thanks to IRATA Int’l H.O. & local members)