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There's actually a BAJR Guide to the CSCS card that gives away all the answers and can be downloaded for free. It's number 28. I've had my CSCS card for over a year now and have not once been asked/had to produce it on site. The only people who seem to be interested in it are digging units.
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"digging units" = ?
= field archs ?
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GnomeKing Wrote:a simple approach to client / HSE rep etc usually doers the job - problem is weak managers who are not able to broach the subject, fawning and prostituting themselves (+ their staff) because they are unable to have simple straightforward intelligent conversation...
There does also seem to be a larger issue, especially with larger construction companies. They are fond of 'covering their arses' with site mandatory PPE, e.g. gloves, goggles, hi-vis, hard hat and safety boots, usually without any risk assessment. They do this through the CDM regulations under site rules. The rules have NOTHING to do with safety, even though this is always the stated reason. It is done because solicitors tell companies to do it to avoid lawsuits. The HSE appear to be aware of the problem but don't seem to be able to do anything.
PPE is always stated by the HSE as a last resort to a risk. Construction companies seem to see it as some kind of uniform. I reckon this will only change when someone dies from wearing inappropriate PPE and the company manager gets sent to prison. Shouldn't be difficult, there is always a clear paper-trail showing who told who to wear what.
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Can do you a whole list of accidents and injuries caused by unnecessary and pointless wearing of hard-hats, starting with my bad neck, someone who spent 2 days in hospital after trying to catch his hard-hat rather than concentrating on landing after falling a whole 2 feet, someone who's cheekbone was smashed by someone else's detached hardhat (as usual it missed the one he was wearing), have been on an urban site where there were endless incidents caused by members of the public out shopping being hit by wind-blown hardhats, etc etc, etc. They should be saved for 'as required' where there's actually a threat, not worn at all times in the middle of a field 5 miles from the nearest scaffolding where they actually become the threat on a windy day......as for goggles/safety glasses.....
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Seem to get all my PPE checked everytime I go anywhere near the office - the horrors of ISO certification......have to conceal my nice faded hazard vest that doesn't attract those little black beetles - curiously no over-officious H&S bod on site has ever queried that one, wierd, presumably not covered on their how-to-annoy-people-trying-to-get-some-work-done courses.....
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it is a uniform - it is mark of conformity, and a subtle means of oppressing the workforce by masking individuality.........
i try to get 'hard hats worn at all times' lifted imedeatley upon the removal of possible danger - i am totally fed up with the farce of 'putting your hat on quickly if somebody important comes by'
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What's really silly is when we geophysicts have to jump through the same hoops (mainly on roads and pipelines) and attend the same inductions etc - even though we'll be working in ordinary fields weeks or months ahead of any construction activity. Naturally we have to explain that we won't be wearing steelies..... sometimes they still insist that we wear hi-vis, which you can't see under a Barty harness, and worse still hard hats! We also get given ID badges - on little metal chains to hang round our necks. Someone once forbade us from climbing over a gate, so we had to walk up a narrow lane with high hedges (no footpaths) to an open gate, then back again, carrying the kit.
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Yep, yep and yep..........They're all true. No amount of explanation, legal banter, complaint, or official action can persuade the construction industry from its course of idiocy. Other than hoping for a reasonable safety officer, the only option that has ever worked is making it not worth their time bothering you. In my experience a lot of engineers (etc) just want an easy life.
The problem stems from translation from HSE guidelines to on-site regulations. All those 'reasonable' and 'as appropriate' get removed by the goddam solicitors.
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My pet quarry's pretty good at sticking a rock across the entrance into whatever bit I'm working in, once the stripping plant has finished, and just declaring it to be not a quarry working area, that's all that's needed, shame other people can't get their heads around something that simple...my quarry guys worked out years ago that it's the quickest way to get rid of me, save some money and get at their gravel. Works well, with the added bonus that once the rock's there I don't get the endless stream of visitations from people with nothing better to do (like H&S guys) unless they want to actually get out of their vehicles and walk a few hundred metres, god forbid!
