Killing time

Health and safety will always be the biggest issue in the construction industry, and all who supply and sail in her. There are few who would try arguing that that’s not rightly so. The contentious issue lies in who is actually responsible for accidents and fatalities in the workplace. It’s notoriously difficult to point the finger in such a complex area and where human error is often a driving force.

Corporate blame

Increasingly stringent health and safety measures have been introduced against a backdrop of growing public, political and judicial intolerance of what are perceived to be wrongful corporate acts or omissions.

The system is now primed to come down hard on the corporation represented by its directors. Yet, how can a director who may have been hundreds of miles away from the site at the time of the accident be held responsible – particularly when the casualty wasn’t wearing a safety harness or was maybe somewhere they shouldn’t have been at the time?

Company directors have waited in the dock to answer this conundrum and will continue to do so in consistently greater numbers as prosecutions over industrial accidents rise. What’s more, both company and individuals will have to take the brunt going forward as hanging the blame around the neck of one director or manager will not save the good name of the business or protect the board’s trading reputation with partners or shareholders.

Paper precision

In an industry that is no particular respecter of paper, it’s a paper trail that can save the day in terms of preventing litigation. Most cases start with a reportable accident, which then leads to an internal investigation at the heart of which lies the question: has the reported casualty been supervised properly, and have they received the adequate induction and training on the health and safety issues relevant to that particular place of work or their role?

A foreman or site manager may insist that the casualty with the damaged tendon was instructed to wear gloves and had completed a formal induction procedure that covered appropriate safety clothing. This counts for almost nothing though after the event.

What is needed is a piece of paper signed by the worker stating that they have completed the induction and have also understood the training and incorporated relevant procedures into their working practices.

Many accidents occur at the very beginning of the job, before work has properly begun, or in the final stages of snagging when it is easiest to become complacent

If this simple method is adhered to across every single site and is an automatic part of the process, then there should be little room for litigation.

Companies have a duty of care to their employees and directors have a duty of care to both the employees and the company itself – without which there would be no employees. In order to protect both employees and the business, all employees must be correctly informed and kept up to date at all times.

It’s difficult, when there is a lot of paperwork involved, to prevent workers from becoming immune to this form of red tape. There is a fine line between keeping people fully informed and creating a paper version of white noise.

Stop and think

There is a further issue attached to the point at which the job is viewed as finished and health and safety precautions are no longer a necessary main focus.

Many accidents occur at the very beginning of the job, before work has properly begun, or in the final stages of snagging when it is easiest to become complacent. It is at these key points that the message needs to be driven home again to prevent inertia.

A series of ‘stop and think’ quick-fire safety sessions could prove to be the answer. Health and safety should be apparent at all times and shouldn’t necessarily finish when the job finishes.

It is only at this ‘stop and think’ stage when the message has been reinforced and all relevant paperwork has been duly completed and filed that the health and safety director is entitled to a good night’s sleep (at least until the next job). Hopefully then all issues will have been covered and all workers adequately informed before the buck has to stop.