Just a few words on the licencing changes. Pest Management and Fumigation Certification (Licencing) was transferred on 1st September 2015 from WorkCover NSW to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA). Your existing licences will still be valid until their expiry date. The renewal for your licence will be coming from EPA and not from WorkCover. AEPMA has been told by EPA that the price for a Pest Management licence is not going to change for the next 18 months except for CPI. During this period, the EPA will be writing their regulations and will be consulting with AEPMA.
AEPMA will be seeking clarification of EPA objectives in taking over Pest Management and Fumigation Licencing and will be formulating an appropriate and workable position once this issue is clear.
Be assured that your obligations under pesticide, fumigant and general work health and safety still apply and will still be monitored by WorkCover. The only change at this stage is that Licencing has been transferred to the EPA. More information is available at www.workcover.nsw.gov.au
During a recent meeting at the WorkCover office in Sydney, we were made aware that the previous audit of the Pest Management Industry in NSW identified that some Pest Managers were still using Organophosphate Pesticides and their lack of awareness with the associated health monitoring requirements. It is not an offence to use an APVMA registered organophosphate pesticide, however, people using it, must have regular monitoring health checks such as urine tests to look for adverse health effects or exposure. This must be documented and records kept for a Pest Management business. Alternatively substitute with less hazardous products.
The revised Training package CPP30115 Certificate 3 for the Pest Management Industry is available from the training.gov.au website.
In brief, you will still need 13 units of competency to gain a Cert 3 in Pest Management, however you will now need 9 core and 4 electives units (small change from 10 core and 3 electives). Units 5, 6 & 18 for licencing have not changed except for being technically updated. Units 2, 7 and 43 have been renamed to include for complex and high risk operations in the title. You will need to ensure that staff carrying out this kind of work have the appropriate competency.
To gain a Certificate 3 in Pest Management, on top of the 9 core you must have at least 2 units from the Pest Management elective list and can use up to 2 units from another cert 3 or 4 qualification in CPP.
Most of the technical changes in the various unit contents have been done to better reflect the required competence of our Industry today and should not be a burden to most of our members.
The bigger changes are in assessment and hopefully, it will help solve the current inadequacies in the quality of the process.
On another note, don’t forget to mark the FAOPMA/ AEPMA National conference “Solving Pest Problems” in your diaries, to be held on the Gold Coast at Sea World on 14-16 September 2016. I believe it is going to be the best conference ever and I am already looking forward it.
We are still looking for entries for the AEPMA Photographic Competition till 2016. You or your staff can enter as many times as you want, and with summer on its way please take the shot! Details for entry is available on the AEPMA website www.aepma.com.au
Remember the use of Fenthion products is not permitted after October 2015.
Should you have any queries, please feel free to email me at patrick@austrapest.com.au or contact the National Office on 1 300 307 114
Patrick Legey
AEPMA NSW Chairman and NSW National Board Director
Workplace Trainer and Assessor
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