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09/03/2007 14:13:15 - The Construction Industry
2.2 million people work in the construction industry, making it the country’s largest industry. Due to the very nature of the work involved it is also one of the most dangerous. In the UK alone over the past 25 years 2,800 people have died from injuries sustained whilst working in the industry.
2.2 million people work in the construction industry, making it the country’s largest industry. Due to the very nature of the work involved it is also one of the most dangerous. In the UK alone over the past 25 years 2,800 people have died from injuries sustained whilst working in the industry.
During 2005/06 there were 212 work related fatalities in the UK, 59 of those fatalities were from the construction industry, falling from height being the most common accident. Even though there was 59 fatalities this was a 14% reduction on the previous year.
The continued decline in fatal accidents in the work place is a direct result of the Health and Safety at Work Act, which was introduced in the UK in 1974. However, since 1974 the Act has gone from a single statute to a mammoth and costly paper trail, some businesses argue it is creating barriers to entry for small SME’s and even affecting larger businesses competitiveness within the EU.
Graham Granville, Managing Director of Zircom, a data cabling company from Bromsgrove, said while he considered health and safety a priority, some site agents' rules were "intolerable", lacking even a modicum of common sense. "On many sites you can no longer use ladders or stand on anything other than an approved platform. If I wanted to reach an extra six inches, I would have to hire a platform, find a person who has completed the approved training to install it, find another person to approve it, all for an extra 6 inches working height. This all costs money which must be passed onto the client. The question is why are ladders, if used correctly, suddenly no longer safe? The question needs to be asked are the rules now being made by people who have no practical experience?
Not only are the risk assessments and work procedures on site a nightmare, just getting on site is an operation in itself. The compulsory and lengthy safety inductions can sometimes mean that Zircom have to spend a full day being inducted. "Everyone who enters a site - whether to use explosive gases or deliver sandwiches - has to go through the same site induction. We are then forced to sit through the same thing again at every new site". It’s even got to the level of being told to wash your hands after using the toilet”, said Mr Granville.
The continued development of the Act introducing more and more policy and regulations comes at a cost to businesses especially SME’s. The CBI and Chamber of Commerce suggest that between 1997 and 2005 the ‘red tape’ that surrounds health and safety cost UK businesses approximately £15billion, however, the TUC believe this figure is grossly over estimated a notion supported by the Cabinet Office who suggest, ‘ the real costs of ‘red tape’ is a fraction of the figure’.
As a result of complaints from the business community the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) has urged employers and employees to focus on real risks – those that cause real harm and suffering – and stop concentrating effort on trivial risks and petty health and safety.
It is easy to say health and safety and in particular the ‘red tape’ that surrounds it costs businesses a lot of money. But there is no escaping the fact that it is a necessity in the construction industry though something must be done to find a happy medium for all those involved. Mr Granville believes that bureaucracy is in danger of making safety on sites more difficult and urges the Government's Health and Safety Executive to create a ‘standard’, similar to ISO9000, “A competency card, for example, which can only be acquired after completing a number of industry standard courses and should be renewed every 24 months, then contractors only need to be told about specific site hazards, cutting down the costs to the employer and reducing time wasting.”
Although the government regulations and in particular the Health and Safety Act are welcomed in some quarters, the result is a level of ‘red tape’ that is stifling business, especially SME’s trying to succeed in the construction industry. They have to spend more time on administration rather than on actually running the business and doing the physical job. The ironic part of it all is that the aim of improving the working life of the worker could result in them not having a job.
ENDS
date:09/03/2007 14:13:15
