Tamra and Greg Zappelli and daughter Danielle, 17, look at a board of photos of Jayden Zappelli, who was killed in an industrial accident in Bunbury.Picture by David Bailey

The death of a Bunbury trades assistant has forced the State Government to propose a major shake-up of the electrical industry.

EnergySafety, the State Government department tasked with ensuring safe practices in the sector, has proposed to ban work on live circuits which would force electricians to either isolate circuits or turn off the power before starting work on almost all projects.

The proposal follows the death of 18-year-old Jayden Zappelli, who died while working in the roof of an East Bunbury home in 2013.

He died after his supervising electrician did not make sure the power was isolated before work began.

EnergySafety announced it would look at the change following the _South Western Times _publishing the Zappelli family's impassioned plea on February 12.

Jayden's father, Greg, who has been campaigning for changes to the law to prevent another death, said it was a positive step.

"But we still have a way to go," he said.

Jayden's uncle and former electrician Mark Zappelli said the immediate focus of any law change should be on the residential sector rather than the complex industrial sector.

The family is pushing for the mandatory installation of RCDs - an electrical safety device - in all homes.

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Apprentice's death could change law

Tamra and Greg Zappelli and daughter Danielle, 17, look at a board of photos of Jayden Zappelli, who was killed in an industrial accident in Bunbury.Picture by David Bailey

The death of a Bunbury trades assistant has forced the State Government to propose a major shake-up of the electrical industry.

EnergySafety, the State Government department tasked with ensuring safe practices in the sector, has proposed to ban work on live circuits which would force electricians to either isolate circuits or turn off the power before starting work on almost all projects.

The proposal follows the death of 18-year-old Jayden Zappelli, who died while working in the roof of an East Bunbury home in 2013.

He died after his supervising electrician did not make sure the power was isolated before work began.

EnergySafety announced it would look at the change following the _South Western Times _publishing the Zappelli family's impassioned plea on February 12.

Jayden's father, Greg, who has been campaigning for changes to the law to prevent another death, said it was a positive step.

"But we still have a way to go," he said.

Jayden's uncle and former electrician Mark Zappelli said the immediate focus of any law change should be on the residential sector rather than the complex industrial sector.

The family is pushing for the mandatory installation of RCDs - an electrical safety device - in all homes.

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Jayden's death could change law

Part of the Time to Act demonstration in central London (Pic: Socialist Worker)

More than 20,000 people marched through central London last Saturday demanding urgent action to tackle climate change.

The Time to Act demonstration was called to put climate change at the top of the agenda ahead of the general election in May and the international talks in Paris in December.

The slogans and organisations taking part were diverse.

But many of those marching were clear that stopping greenhouse emissions is possibleand its capitalism that stands in the way.

Jordan, a student at the University of Lincoln told Socialist Worker, The time for debate has passedwe need action.

The government continues to pour resources into fossil fuels.

That needs to be diverted elsewhere now.

It comes down to inequalitythose at the top wont let go of their profits, and thats why were in this mess.

Kim Hunter and John Atkins had travelled down from York. Kim said, We need people on the streets now because all the issues are converging.

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Protesters hit out at climate chaos

ORLANDO, Fla. As Florida's housing market tanked seven years ago, construction worker David Rager saw jobs dry up. So he left construction, along with 2.3 million others nationwide during the economic downturn, and got a job installing traffic signals and street lights.

"I couldn't afford to sit at home for a month here and a month there," said Rager, 53.

Now Rager is back in construction, working with a crew on a custom-built home in Orlando, framing walls "and doing a little bit of everything." In the past four years, hundreds of thousands of workers have returned to construction, making it among the nation's fastest growing job sectors.

In the busiest markets, there aren't enough construction workers to keep up with the pace of building. In a recent survey of more than 900 contractors by Associated General Contractors of America, 83 percent said they were having trouble filling craft positions. The most difficult positions to fill were carpenters, roofers and equipment operators.

Given the amount of building going on, "it's going to be interesting because we're going to have a labor shortage here in South Florida," said Scott Moss, president of Moss & Associates, a South Florida-based construction firm with offices in California, Texas, Georgia, South Carolina and Hawaii.

Yet it's a measure of how hard the sector was hit that at it has regained just 900,000 of the 2.3 million jobs it lost from 2007 to 2011. The annual unemployment rate for construction workers stood at 9.8 percent last year, down steeply from the industry's 20.6 percent annual unemployment rate in 2010, but still significantly higher than last year's national annual unemployment rate of 6.2 percent.

In the meantime, returning workers such as Rager are finding a different business from the one they left.

___

ALTERED LANDSCAPE

Apartment buildings are going up at a faster rate than single-family homes, a trend fueled by tighter home-lending standards, an increase in people choosing to live in or near urban centers and a drop in the rate of new households being formed.

The rest is here:
Driven away in droves during downturn, construction workers return to find jobs have changed

She said, We are the forces of life. We are the ones with the way forward. The politicians over there are afraid because they dont know what to do. The policies we want are the ones that will make the world a better and fairer place for everyone anyway. That should give us boldness and courage.

TUC general secretary Frances OGrady sent a message of support. And Chris Baugh from the PCS union explained that the technology exists to slash emissions now and create jobs in the process, as CCCs Million Jobs report makes clear.

Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, spoke about its campaign to nationalise the energy companies. He said, Its sick that people can die of cold while energy companies profits go through the roof. Its sick that this system leaves the power in the hands of people who dont care about our future, but their profits. Weve got to take the power back.

Bangladeshi campaigner Rumana Hashem, comedian Francesca Martinez, and left wing Labour MP John McDonnellwhose constituency is threatened by the expansion of Heathrow airportalso spoke. So did speakers from organisations including Greenpeace, Caat, Avaaz, Peoples Assembly, Axe Drax, Frack Free Lancashire, Stand Up to Racism, UK youth against climate change and the French climate coalition.

There are many challenges ahead for the climate movement. But it is bouncing back from the demoralisation that followed the disastrous United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen in 2009. And anti-capitalist ideas are getting more and more of a hearing.

In three weeks time a day of debates is set to take place in London around the ideas in activist and author Naomi Kleins influential book This Changes Everything. In it, she argued that climate change cannot be addressed without taking on the whole system.

In a video message, Klein told protesters to build around those ideas for protests at the Paris climate summit in December, and beyond. She said, We have nine months to reach out to people who arent here yet to be part of the next climate movement.

We need an economy that is 100 percent powered by renewables. We need to transform not just how the power is generated, but who controls it. There has never been a better time to think big.

We bailed out the banksand weve paid for it. No way are we bailing out the fossil fuel companies.

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Thousands take to the streets of London to demand action on climate change

BECHTEL has long been held to account for the people it hires to help construct the three liquefied natural gas facilities on Curtis Island.

As the numbers being fired begins to take over the numbers being hired, workers are asking why it seems to be the fly-in fly-out workers and 457 visa holders that stay on the island.

But Bechtel Gladstone general manager Kevin Berg has rejected the suggestion the company is discriminatory in its approach to redundancies.

Five thousand locals are still part of the 13,600 strong team, with just 18 tradespeople on 457 visas.

Mr Berg said the recruitment program had always been to employ locally first, then regionally, then nationally across the wide range of skill sets required.

"It's critical we have employees with the right skill sets to perform the work we have remaining," he said.

"That means individuals need to be high performing and have the capability and credentials required to perform very specific work activities."

Mr Berg said there had been more than 10,000 redundancies on projects as Bechtel had gone through the different phases of construction.

"You simply can't replace an electrician with a plumber, or a crane operator with a carpenter," he said.

"Nor can you replace experienced tradespeople with inexperienced labour and vice versa."

Excerpt from:
Bechtel rejects claims of discrimination in redundancies

In further damning testimony, Mr Naftali - who has immunity from prosecution - told detectives that a care worker was employed at taxpayers' expense at a monthly price of 1,684 to look after Mrs Netanyahu's elderly father, with the cost filed under cleaning expenses. The payment was later stopped when the prime minister's staff decided it was problematic.

The state comptroller's report noted that annual cleaning bills at the couple's two residences soared unaccountably from around 90,000 in 2009, when Mr Netanyahu took office, to double that two years later.

Mr Naftali also revealed a system of inflating guest expenditure by exaggerating the number of guests to the official residence and falsely stating their nationalities, since the budget for entertaining foreign dignitaries was almost double that for hosting Israelis.

On some occasions, it was stated on log books that there had been 10 guests when in fact there had only been four. It was also recorded on occasion that visitors had been from abroad when they were from Israel, apparently to justify higher expenditure claims.

Mr Shapira's report highlighted spending on takeaway meals - stating that in one year, nearly 12,000 had been spent on outside caterers even though an in-house cook was employed a public expense.

"There is no escaping a criminal investigation of the prime minister's conduct," Ynet, an Israeli news site critical of Mr Netanyahu, quoted unnamed senior legal sources as saying.

Police are investigating whether illicit fees made for unspecified work to an electrician who was not meant to be employed by the Netanyahus because he was an active active member of the Likud party was in fact payment for an earlier debt, Israel's Channel 2 TV station reported. The liberal Haaretz newspaper reported that investigtors plan to question other members of the Israeli leader's domestic staff in the coming days.

Read more:
Criminal probe justified over Netanyahu spending claims, Israeli police chief says

Allen Realty Reports On Electrical Work In Rental Properties

As Simon Allen reports in a recent blog on the Allen Realty website, all electrical work in rental properties must be completed by a registered electrician to guarantee all legal requirements are met and to ensure insurance cover in the event of a fire. There is a limited amount of electrical work that homeowners can carry out in their own home, such as replacing fuse wires. However when it comes to rental properties, it is a breach of the tenancy agreement for tenants to do any work (other than general presentation issues and garden maintenance) without the landlords written approval. This includes building, painting, plumbing, drainage and electrical work.

This becomes particularly important when it comes to electrical work. It is a requirement of the law (Residential Tenancies Act 1986, Building Act, Health and Safety Act) that all electrical work MUST be completed by a registered electrician and if it isnt, then this can negate a landlords insurance.

Following a fire, investigators will examine all electrical fittings and appliances to establish if anything looks different or new, and then may request copies of Certificates of Compliance to prove work was carried out by a qualified tradesman (as many fires are caused by poor workmanship). If the fire is caused by electrical work completed by non-qualifed/non-certified people, the insurance company may not pay out.

Allen Realty recommend landlords and property managers take a careful approach when identifying issues with electrical work, and take steps to protect both themselves and their property if they find anything untoward. Allen Realty property managers carefully monitor the condition of rental properties as part of their property management service and they check electrical fittings and appliances during their regular maintenance inspections to ensure there are no issues with compliance, and if any issues are identified, they arrange for a qualified electrician to visit the rental property to check the work and issue a Certificate of Compliance once the work is confirmed as safe.

Tenants should always be advised of this process and charged for the visit to check compliance.

Regarding repairs, tenants should not have to wait until a landlord has the time or money. Landlords are expected to have the resources needed to complete repairs and make a property compliant. If landlords use a property management specialist they must make sure they follow a set code of conduct and that staff also act in an ethical and professional manner. As a landlord, acting ethically and professionally will help to encourage stable, long term tenancies which help to ensure the rent is paid on time and the property is well looked after.

ends

Scoop Media

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Electrical Work In Rental Properties

IT WOULD seem these days if you ask a neighbour or friend to recommend a good electrician or mechanic, in most cases you'll find yourself getting an enthusiastic reply about their experience with someone.

Try asking that same question of a hospital and you may find yourself listening to something of an entirely different nature, particularly if you - heaven forbid - say you may go public.

It would appear not many of us have something good to say about the public hospital system - shame about that because I'm about to share a different story.

I recently found myself in the position of being admitted for an operation following a procedure that diagnosed cancer, and while I have had some experience with both private and public hospitals, I deliberated over which would provide the best care.

My initial procedure was at the Ipswich General Hospital and I found the surgeon to be thorough so I decided to stay in his care and was so glad I did.

Within two days he rang me personally to ask if I understood my position and discussed what was to follow, all why giving me plenty of question time.

He then told me I would be contacted by admin staff from his department. No more than 30 minutes later I was contacted by hospital staff, booked in and again had everything explained to me.

At every point I received a letter confirming details, an SMS reminder the day prior to an appointment and another the next morning - now that's organisation!

With any operation comes test and a pre-op meeting with the professionals that assign the surgeon and it takes time but it's interesting to note that while you don't get a smile from the general public, all six of the pre-op staff that I encountered were smiling, caring and in a happy mood.

So now the dreaded day of the op arrives and it's hard to muster up a smile but once again the entire staff from the desk to the theatre were police and smiling and in a lot of cases I found them to be full of fun, all my nervousness went out the door.

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YOUR SAY: Dedicated hospital professionals care

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seen here speaking Monday, is under fire over a report of lavish spending. Debbie Hill/UPI/Landov hide caption

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seen here speaking Monday, is under fire over a report of lavish spending.

The household spending of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become a political issue in Israel, where the attorney general is now considering whether to open an official inquiry over allegations of excessive spending and related crimes.

From Jerusalem, NPR's Emily Harris reports:

"Israel's comptroller general issued a report on the Netanyahus' household spending following complaints from members of parliament.

"The report cited 'excessive spending,' such as an average monthly cleaning bill of over $20,000 for two homes and $40,000 spent in takeout food over two years.

"Possible criminal wrongdoing includes hiring an electrician forbidden to work for the prime minister because he's an official in Netanyahu's political party.

"One political rival, Yair Lapid, said the report shows Netanyahu is 'totally disconnected' from ordinary Israelis. Netanyahu's office said household management is changing and blamed a campaign focused on removing him from office."

The story has brought topics such as payments for recycling and garden furniture into Israel's political sphere, about one month before the country holds elections on March 17.

In the wake of the comptroller's report, a new voter survey finds that 41 percent of respondents are now less likely to support Netanyahu's Likud party, reports Ynet news.

Read more from the original source:
Spending Habits Of The Netanyahus Get Scrutiny In Growing Scandal