18th July 2005, 02:55 PM
Well, it looks like we've all got a choice. If H&S practice is bad on site, you can risk your life and carry on quietly, or you can risk your job and complain. I know which is more important to me.
Bear in mind that units often find it hard to recruit sufficient experienced diggers. If you are good at your job but make a valid complaint about a safety matter, your unit would be mad to get rid of you unless you are a serial winger about trivial issues as well.
There's plenty of good practice around and you might be surprised about where to find it. Nowadays I work for a consultancy, and they are mad about H&S, as are most of the major construction companies. They have to be, because it is a key pre-qualification for tender criterion, so if they have bad accident stats they don't get any new work. An important part of my job is enforcing H&S rules on the archaeological contractors.
1man1desk
Bear in mind that units often find it hard to recruit sufficient experienced diggers. If you are good at your job but make a valid complaint about a safety matter, your unit would be mad to get rid of you unless you are a serial winger about trivial issues as well.
There's plenty of good practice around and you might be surprised about where to find it. Nowadays I work for a consultancy, and they are mad about H&S, as are most of the major construction companies. They have to be, because it is a key pre-qualification for tender criterion, so if they have bad accident stats they don't get any new work. An important part of my job is enforcing H&S rules on the archaeological contractors.
1man1desk