Friday 5 November 2010

'Government should take some responsibility of electrical business failure' - Stuey Traill

A Cairns electrical business that went into voluntary administration this week, Portsmith's RLS Data and Electrical laying off staff and owes up to $7 million, needed more support from the government.

Electrical Trades Union local organiser, Stuey Traill says that the State Government needs to accept some of the responsibility for the closure.

"The Queensland Government need to overhaul the tender process for Government jobs [contracts]," Stuey Traill told CairnsBlog. "Companies like RLS have been struggling for a long time and continued to win government work."

"They are one of the last in the long list that have been significantly undercutting decent operators. The builders have to use their prices to win the jobs and then expect the companies to work for the unsustainable prices," Stuey Traill says.

"This should be ruled out through government tenders by ensuring the process investigates thoroughly the companies safety record, environmental history, industrial relations history, ability to deliver, financial capability and past record on government jobs."

"It is only the government that can prevent this from happening again."

13 comments:

Mr Grumpy said...

This is another example of bad business people with poor financial skills, undercutting themselves and the rest of the industry to get some work. They should have enough ability to realise that they will lose money.
It's the same excuse every business person uses when they go broke- they always blame the Contactor who they are working for or the Government,the union, the GFC etc etc
Get the basic costs right and don't take on work if you are going to lose money.
There is never any money in the big Gov jobs, most contractors know it.It's not the Governments job to ensure the people who work on the jobs make money

:Kevin-John: Morgan. said...

Why should the government take responsibility for this when the electrical tradespeople and the unionists, still persist in the cronyism which allows their friends, as well as citizens to perform their own extensive electrical work to save money?
Surely this warrants investigation?
But, NO! My landlord just got a talking to, by a placid little electrician.
The government is only protecting their arse just like you guys do!
There are many ex-tradespeople out there Stuey, including myself and some friends both here and down South, who quit their trades years ago, because of the massive amount of cronyism, bullshit and fraudulent practices of unionists.
I was always taught that the government had that exclusive job!

Stuey Traill said...

KJ Morgan,
As I have stated to you previously on numerous occasions, please advise me of the people that you allege are performing unlicenced electrical work so I can investigate.
There is no cronyism from the ETU or myself, all we expect is Companies to comply with Industry standards. This mob did not, their compliance with Australian Standards was disgraceful. The Builders were sick of them but were forced to use them by the bean counters that only look at the short term dollars.
Go and talk to the decent Electrical Companies or the workers in this town and get the facts before you trot out the same old rubbish above.

Colin Riddell said...

Stuey traill you are out of line .
We met kevin j morgan and he is not the full quid.
So let him live in his strange little world .
Shit was there a noun or verb in that?

:Kevin-John: Morgan. said...

Germaine Queer (Adjective Pronoun)!
Never met you in my life!
Only Germaine I know wears handles on her thighs!

:Kevin-John: Morgan. said...

But we did Stuey,.....we did.
What we've been saying is that the person sent to check the alleged "works", allowed a non-licensed person to perform dangerous and improper electrical work, which is not his first time by the way.
No fine, No penalty, just a mild talking to.......and the house is still wired the same!
Nobody listens....maybe if I was a Mason?

Stuey Traill said...

KJ Morgan,
You have not notified it to me.
As stated previously on countless occasions, give me the details and I will thoroughly investigate your claims.
If your claims are found to be true and Electrical work has been done by unlicenced workers I will report the matter to the Electrical Safety Office and request a prosecution.
Wiithout the facts there is not much I can do.

Your call.

:Kevin-John: Morgan. said...

My God, I can't believe this Stuey. I thought you were honest mate?
We stood in your office in Grafton street, TWICE, and you instructed us what our obligations were.
We followed that, reported to the Electrical Safety Office, who I guess were the people that sent the "test" person to investigate.
Like I said before Stuey, NO fines, NO restrictions, just a slap on the hand, and the "work" is still there for all to see.
The house is 11 Purbeck Place, Edge Hill. The owner/landlord is Anton Rath who is a Sunbus driver, and also a liar, cheat and thief!
You people sound exactly like the BSA who never investigated this persons shoddy plumbing work either, so I stand by my statement;
"Cronyism rules in Cairns".

Stuey Traill said...

Bluey Morgan, why didn't you identify yourself by the name we all know you by.
So yes Bluey, you did report the issue to me in general terms and I advised you to go to the Electrical Safety Office (ESO) due to them having the Regulatory Authority to deal with the issue.
What happened from there I have no idea as I do not recieve updates to that level of detail from the ESO.
I don't have the Authority or legal right to penalise any individual for not complying with the Electrical Safety Act, that is the role of the ESO.
I will ask the ESO for a report on their investigations and findings.
As I have stated before Safety Standards are not negotiable but unfortunately I don't have a magic wand to fix all the wrongs, especially when the laws are stacked against us.

:Kevin-John: Morgan. said...

OK Stuey, apologies, now we know who we're dealing with.
The identity you know as Bluey, is a nick-name people use to identify with a guy behind a drumkit, where as most people would agree, I used to vent ALL my frustrations only too well, by pretending that each drum was somebody in government or in the legal sector.
The proper ID which I am now authorised to use, takes our abnormal Adverb/Adjective/Pronoun persona, and places into the legal arena as "In Propria Persona", meaning In the proper person, NOT the stupid Birth Certificate name, which of course the courts will acknowledge is NOT you!
The Queen herself has also gone through this process.
However, that is another issue, the issue at hand is this: For 24 years I was a painter, aircraft finisher, and signwriter in Cairns everywhere, and in that time I saw so many buildings erected in Cairns, using so-called "trades-people" (unqualified), underhanded council approvals, and even some stolen property.
The landlord I mentioned has not only performed illegal electrical "works", but has also completed very extensive plumbing "works" at the same property but after being reported, NOTHING was done. I rest my case!

Stuey Traill said...

Kevin John,
I have recieved feedback from the ESO.
They investigated in March 2010.
The ESO questioned the individual and he admitted doing unlicenced Electrical work. It was de energised at the time.
An improvement notice was issued under Section 55 of the Electrical Safety Act 2002 to have the installation tested by an Electrical contractor. The improvement notice also directed the individual not to perform any further works.
A certificate of test to state the work was compliant was provided by the Electrical contractor.
I dont believe that these actions warrant your assertions that nothing was done or there is cronyism in FN.
I gave you advice in line with my obligations and authority, you exercised your right to report the incident, it was investigated, action was taken against the individual and the installation was tested as safe.
Is that penalty sufficient on the individual sufficient to ensure that he does not do it again or enough to prevent other people from doing it, I don't agree it is.
Unfortunately the legislation does not provide us all with a great deal of ability to stop this.
That is why the ETU is constantly campaigning to enhance the prosecution powers regarding Electrical Safety and WH&S.
I hope this demonstrates to you that the ETU does take this sort of report seriously, I know I personally do, I am passionate about Safety and passionate about my Trade.
Feel free to lobby the State MP's for improvements to WH&S and Electrical Safety.

:Kevin-John: Morgan. said...

Stuey, thanks once again for this update, it will be added to the ammunition against this person for the BSA's investigation into his plumbing "works".
I know these things take time, due to slack administrative processes in government bodies.
We can't interfere with their golf game y'know.
I apologise for any inconvenience, but you know what it's like trying to get ANYTHING investigated in this city, especially when it involves beauracrats and their very dumb language.

Colin Riddell said...

Kevin J Morgan Stuey Traill made you look like what we all thought a dickhead.
Well done Stuey

p.s kjm where you in that movie mask?