Questions regarding the safety management of electrical work
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Hello, teachers! During the recent city-wide safety inspection, one individual business that produces plastic film – with only three employees, all of whom are family members – was found to have a large number of electrical devices, including a power distribution room and numerous pumps. The power distribution room was filled with plenty of wood and plastic bags, and there were no fire extinguishers or other safety equipment, posing safety risks. In this case, is it also required that self-employed individuals have professionals with electrical work permits on hand? Is there any basis for such a requirement? The background for raising this question is as follows: During the inspections, individual business owners raised the following issue: 1) They do not operate as enterprises, and the above regulations are intended for organizations ； 2) If it is required that individual business owners have professionals on hand for electricity use, then what scale of electricity consumption necessitates the presence of such professionals? It is also impractical to provide professional staff for all electricity-consuming individual businesses, regardless of their scale). Given the above situation, it’s difficult for an individual to provide an explanation. Anyway, when safety issues arise, they not only cause losses to individual entrepreneurs but can also harm the surrounding community; and when accountability is sought, it will be said that our supervision was inadequate. I earnestly request the guidance of all teachers. Thank you!
As a supplementary note: The wiring at the inspection site was in disarray; many devices were not grounded according to standards. The power distribution room was cluttered, lacking insulating pads and insulating tools. When asked, the individual business owners said they were unaware of these requirements. So, is it necessary to require the presence of professional electrical personnel?
In my opinion, electrical work is a type of special operation that requires professionals with relevant certificates to carry out. This requirement should apply in all situations, whether it’s enterprises or individual businesses, but this does not mean that all organizations need to have professional staff. In the absence of professionals, such tasks need to be outsourced to qualified organizations or individuals.
1. In a broader sense, such individual economic units can be regarded as production and operation entities; since they involve production and sales processes, they must comply with the relevant requirements of the Work Safety Law. 2. It is also advisable to check local regulations to see if there are any provisions regarding work safety management for individual economic units； Some provincial regulations on work safety explicitly include self-employed economic entities within the scope of regulation, thereby providing a clear basis for such management. For example, the Shandong Province Work Safety Regulations clearly cover self-employed economic entities: Article 2 states that these regulations apply to the work safety as well as related supervision and management of enterprises, public institutions, self-employed economic organizations, and other entities (hereinafter collectively referred to as production and operation units) that are engaged in production and business activities within the administrative territory of this province ； Where otherwise provided by laws or administrative regulations, such provisions shall apply. Article 2 of the Zhejiang Province Work Safety Regulations: These regulations apply to the work safety as well as the related supervision and management of entities engaged in production and business activities within the administrative territory of this province (including individual industrial and commercial households; hereinafter referred to collectively as production and business entities). Where relevant laws and regulations contain separate provisions regarding fire safety, road traffic safety, railway traffic safety, water traffic safety, civil aviation safety, construction project safety, oil and gas pipeline safety, as well as nuclear and radiation safety and special equipment safety, such provisions shall apply; where no such provisions exist in the relevant laws and regulations, these Regulations shall apply. 3. It is certainly not practical to assign professional electricians to such individual economic units; however, the relevant wiring and installation must comply with the applicable safety and fire protection regulations.