12th July 2005, 11:00 PM
Moley- I`m in your canoe mate. Seems to me that field ops are expected to turn a blind eye when the grown ups simply can`t be bothered or worse, write a child-like excuse for a risk assessment. I said this before but here goes anyway...any employer that neglects their HS obligations are just spitting in our faces. It`s bad enough that sh*t rolls downhill but it seems that it also has the propensity of floating to the top too. One thing that concerns me at the moment is this fad of producing generic risk assessments where grown ups are simply prompted to tick appropriate boxes. This is not an assessment, this is a side-step. As you rightly say, ex industrial sites (and some rural) have the real potential to pose some very serious threats to the well-being of those working on them. Here`s a couple of points I think are worthy of discussion. For one, how many grown-ups in managerial archaeology are actually qualified to write risk assessments? Who, within the overall loop, can insist upon them in the same way as project designs/method statements? Finally, why the f*ck have I only seen eleven of them in eight years work? (I wrote most of them) and finally-finally, who the hell do these units/individuals think they are? Not only are they breaking the law-they are placing workers in dangerous positions while they continue to pretend that they are incredibly important and competent archaeologists. I have no qualms about going toe to toe with grown ups that err on the side of pig-ignorance in HS. Again-curators out there....can someone please insist that the ALGAO handbook on HS should be held on site every time as a condition? May save some bloodied noses......