Welfare and low temperatures

[chainoffools]

There's not many professions where men where tights. Archaeology is one of them. :face-kiss:

Us and superheroes!

[troll]

All completely genuine guys! Not only that -everything provided by my employer on my first day! I must admit however that as a recent ex-smoker (head to foot in patches) my diet has changed from normal amounts of food to a scenario where a certain chain store has to replenish its doughnut stock almost hourly. Unsure as to whether this would have implications for my grasp on reality! All the goodies noted in my last post were still there this morning so huzzah!

Its great to see and way, way overdue. Lets see if we can`t achieve a parity right across the industry......Happy days.:face-approve:

[Warren]

When cold weather strikes (well below freezing) and a crew is on survey - sometimes when it takes hiking over rough terrain to access a work area of hundreds or thousands of acres - "welfare units" are not possible

Anyone who goes hiking over "rough terrain" in the kind of extreme conditions described in the first post deserves what's coming to them if they don't go prepared, and I'm doubting there are many people doing that for weeks or months at a time. If that IS the case then I think you can call it an expedition, and as you appear to infer, it doesn't really happen in the UK - where you'd simply put it off until the weather was less life threatening. Hiking over rough terrain is also enjoyable - its not exactly what I think the original point was, but I'm sure you're aware of that as your post appears quite tongue in cheek. I go mountain hiking in winter for fun. I don't go and stand in the freezing cold and shitty weather trying to break frozen ground with a mattock for hours at a time .... for fun.

However, I've found it's often been the case (not aimed at yourself med as I'm making no presumptions) that people who dismiss complaints about adverse conditions (whether weather:face-huh:, pay or whatever) tend to be people who don't spend every single day of their working lives outdoors with a shovel in their hands. Some maybe used to, but now have found a comfy office job where they only sometimes have to go out on a survey or site visit, and find themselves able and more worryingly willing to inflict this upon others.

At the end of the day being a site assistant is a tough job which takes it out of you physically and mentally, and anyone who can't cope with British weather shouldn't be doing it - but there are limits. There are also ways to improve such working conditions, but there won't be any improvements on a large scale until acceptable limits to the kinds of site-endurance that's the subject of this discussion are formally recognised.

[BAJR]

Can't say more than that... tell you ... after many many years as a digger.. I could not do it now... and I am hard as nails :face-angel:
But hell... when I go into the desert I am prepared... when I climb mountains in Croatia on survey... I am prepared
same here!

[Sith]

There are also ways to improve such working conditions, but there won't be any improvements on a large scale until acceptable limits to the kinds of site-endurance that's the subject of this discussion are formally recognised.

Try this for size:

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/cis46.pdf

I urge all of you with any kind of management position to read and inwardly digest this document, which is what we base our requirements on. We do this for two reeasons: because we've all (well, most of us) worked in the field and suffered in cr*ppy site huts like the rest of you; and because our Health and Safety chaps told us that it's the minimum we need you to have to avoid you coming after us for compensation when you get frostbite or food poisoning.

We see it as part of our duty as 'designers' under the CDM Regulations, which our company insists we apply to all of our work (andregardless of whether our contractors think it should apply to them), to make sure that you go home in the same condition that you arrived.

[trowelfodder]

All of your sugguested guidelines have been printed out at my office and are being double checked for compliance. An ammended risk assesment is being produced to include the current weather risks.

I would urge everyone to do the same - health and safety is not a joke. Ive worked on a site where people have got hypothermia so be careful!

[brazier]

Here's a link to how construction contracts should deal with freak weather conditions posted on the 6th January:

http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?sect...9&src=ilaw

All dependent on whether there is a clause in the contract for adverse weather conditions, how it's measured, and under what TLA it is...

[Sith]

There is also provision for extension of time due to 'exceptional adverse weather' under clause 4.4 (h) of the ICE Conditions of Contract.