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Up Topic American Welding Society Services / Certifications / Documentation
- - By flamin (**) Date 09-23-2009 12:30
Hey guys-
I don't know if this is the place to post this question, but I am curious as to how long you need hold on to welding certs (if any) for welders who no longer work for you. Do the certs need to be kept for auditing purposes or any other reasons?

Jason
Parent - - By Lawrence (*****) Date 09-23-2009 13:40
Thats a good question..

You could always scan the hard copies into PDF's and keep em on file indefinatly; this would have the highest CYA potential.
Parent - By welderbrent (*****) Date 09-23-2009 14:20
flamin,

I believe the most critical factor would be the type of work you do.  Some jobs, such as residential railings, would not have near the critical records keeping for any significant amount of time as a natural gas pipeline or a power plant. (Yes, even my guys who weld railings are D1.3 certified)

I would suggest keeping them in the files with the jobs they worked on.  If there are several jobs, run some copies and put one in with the job.  Then, if anything ever comes up on that job, you have the records handy on who welded for you on it with a copy of their certs and you don't have to go through every file since you started in business trying to find the documents required to CYA.

You can be responsible for things on jobs for many years.  While I may not keep taxes that far back, I have work records back to when I bought the shop 13 years ago.  Best to be safe.

Not necesarily required, just good protection.  Just my two tin pennies worth.

Have a Great Day,  Brent
Parent - - By waccobird (****) Date 09-23-2009 14:27
If the Company you work for has a quality management system it should be contained in the policies and procedures of the quality manual. If the company doesn't have these controls in quality and it's documentation I would throw them away when the Welder and the welding he has done has left the shop. Just my opinion they are really worthless with out the welder qualified. AWS  D1.1 doesn't say anything about retention of performance documentation after separation from company.
Parent - - By flamin (**) Date 09-23-2009 15:32
Thanks for the suggestions guys. After doing some investigation through our quality manuals and some of our customer requirement documents, I found the info I was looking for. I think I'll end up scanning all of the certification documents into our system for future reference. Thanks again.

Jason
Parent - By ziggy (**) Date 09-25-2009 01:54
Whenever there is a measure of risk involved, it can be the course of wisdom to seek the opinion of the company's attorney as to what the retention period should be for the records in question. If the attorney's advice conflicts with the written procedure, management may see fit to revise the procedure to mitigate potential risk.

ziggy
Up Topic American Welding Society Services / Certifications / Documentation

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