The Australasian Railway Association (ARA) has announced the release of a new national matrix, marking a major milestone that will bring greater productivity benefits to the rail industry and its employees.
The National Rail Industry Worker Matrix Committee and its matrix working group have released the National Power & Electrical Matrix under the Rail Industry Worker (RIW) program.
An RIW matrix is a table that is used to clearly demonstrate the competencies required to hold a particular role to work in the rail industry. The committee continually works to standardise roles across the rail industry nationally.
The matrices provide consistency and outline the agreed minimum requirements across participating rail operators and will assist contractors working for multiple employers, operators or across multiple networks.
The National Power & Electrical Matrix will include the following four national roles in the initial release:
· Traction overhead lineworker – national (in-training)
· Traction overhead lineworker – national
· Distribution overhead lineworker – national (in-training)
· Distribution overhead lineworker – national
The next area of focus will be substation roles, which will be included in the second National Power & Electrical Matrix release.
The next three national matrices to be released in coming months are the National Signalling Matrix, National Engineering Matrix and the National Project Management Matrix.
There are currently four national matrices live in the RIW system:
· National Plant Matrix
· National Trades Matrix
· National Track & Civil Matrix
· National Operator Roles Matrix (network-specific access roles)
RIW was established by the ARA in 2012 and is a national competency and safety management system for rail workers in the Australian rail industry. It provides a single electronic record of their health, education and competencies as they work across projects, move between employers and operate on different state networks.
The RIW Program helps the rail industry meet its fitness for duty and competency obligations under Rail Safety National Law.
By using the RIW System, employers can access information on an employee’s or contractor’s fitness for duty, education and competencies in one place, making it easier to minimise risk and protect the health and safety of their workers.
Organisations which require assistance, or would like to deploy Lineworker role requirements, can contact WorkforceDevelopment@ara.net.au
Go to riw.net.au to find out more information on how RIW can help manage workforce competency.