HEALTH & SAFETY A Contractor’s Perspective The value of health & safety in challenging times
We again introduce Dr Esther Walker, Director of Forum Interactive following on from her introductory article in the last edition, examining the challenges facing the onshore wind energy sector in improving safety standards in a difficult economic climate – she now focuses on a contractor’s perspective.
COMPETING PRESSURES – HEALTH & SAFETY VS PROFITS Most people, whether they are health & safety professionals or not, would argue that it is disingenuous for anyone to claim that health & safety is the number one priority of their business. The number one priority of any business must be its financial health: projects need to generate profit.
However, if profitability is achieved at the expense of health & safety (thus contributing to an unnecessary level of risk of injury to employees or to the public), then that is unacceptable. But people will always disagree over whether or not a business has crossed this line, depending on their role and interest. For an effective safety culture to develop, the voice promoting health & safety needs to be as strong as the voice promoting business profits.
THE CONSTRUCTION SECTOR AND WIND-FARM SITES The overall UK construction sector provided 28% of all work related fatal injuries in the UK 2009/10*. As the RIDDOR statistics from the industry demonstrate**, wind-farm construction sites are particularly hazardous and are therefore challenging places in which to enforce safety standards.
THE CHALLENGE
This challenge becomes more acute when organisations are under pressure to cut costs.
If health and safety is regarded as an added cost rather than as an investment in a cost-avoidance strategy, then it becomes a prime target for cost cutting. Therefore, in difficult economic times, an organisation’s ability to enforce and maintain safety standards on site often depends on the effectiveness of their safety leadership.
This article addresses the safety challenge from the contractors’ perspective, presenting the views of David MacDonald, Civil Engineering Director of Global Construction (part of GE Group).
In his experience, the strong voice promoting health & safety has to come from his organisation “I always challenge clients to stand by what they say about health & safety. We would walk away from business if we thought a potential client was putting pressure on us to reduce costs below which we can deliver the job safely.”
CHALLENGE AND TRANSPARENCY ARE KEY What forward thinking contractors and producers might both agree on, is that both organisations need to develop a relationship which encourages discussion and challenges unsafe acts. This is the key to maintaining the right balance between, on the one hand, sound finance and, on the other, effective safety management. Challenge and transparency are key to effective safety leadership.
Contractors may well argue that it is the client organisation that applies pressure to reduce costs to the detriment of health and safety. David MacDonald says “When there’s less money around then it does become harder because everyone’s focus is money. I have to be honest and say that producers often put profitability ahead of health & safety when awarding contracts. It’s tough but there’s nothing I can do about that.”
SAFETY LEADERSHIP – PUTTING IN THE EFFORT Continuous improvement means just that: health and safety has to be a priority every day with managers and supervisors making themselves visible, noticing what is happening on site, talking to workers, identifying and addressing problems as they arise, intervening and showing how important health and safety is to the organisation.
Directors and senior managers of any business would probably claim to take seriously their responsibility for leading on health and safety. However, what sets organisations such as Global Construction apart is their willingness to put in the effort, time and money needed to deliver this on the ground.
David continues: “I cannot speak for other contractors but we don’t look to our clients for a benchmark, we’re aware both as individuals and as a business what is expected from us and we want our business to set standards, not follow them.”
SAFETY LEADERSHIP - ENFORCING SAFETY STANDARDS ON WIND-FARM CONSTRUCTION SITES
Wind-farm construction sites are challenging places to work. As well as the geographical and meteorological dynamics, there is a mix of work cultures as different organisations and teams try to work alongside one another on site. They typically expose workers to some of the most common factors cited in construction site incidents (e.g. movement of heavy plant and vehicles, work at height, work in confined spaces).
David states: “it’s hard to make sure that everyone’s working safely all the time. There are particular attitudes that are difficult to shift. One of my experienced guys says ‘if you’ve been on the job 20 years then you know what you’re doing’ but that’s not always the case and that attitude means that a young lad will keep quiet if he sees an old hand doing something unsafely. I don’t want that. I want our sites to be places where people can challenge one another no matter who they are.”
20
www.windenergynetwork.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96