Pay scams blamed for falling safety standards

Exclusive by John d'Arcy



Reduced rates of pay for dismantling scaffolding and employing unskilled workers with bogus training certification have been blamed by unions as causes of falling safety standards.

The allegations come in a week when the Health and Safety Executive has launched a fresh safety blitz on London construction sites with particular emphasis on safe practice in scaffolding.

Ann Peatfield, HSE principal inspector in charge of the London initiative, said: "Over the last two years we have seen a number of scaffold collapses in central London where members of the public have had a lucky escape.

"We want to ensure that principal contractors are properly planning and controlling work on their sites as required by the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations. Inspectors will have no hesitation in taking enforcement action against those who fail to take the necessary action to control risks both on and around their sites."

Alan Dalton, health and safety co-ordinator at the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU), said a special meeting of scaffolders in Liverpool had identified cut-price rates of pay as a major source of concern as far as safe working is concerned.

He said: "The scaffolders said they are only paid around half the rate, or given half the time, to take scaffolding down as compared with erection. Hence they have to overload the scaffolding to make any money. Such a system of payment might itself be viewed as a breach of the CDM and other construction regulations."

Dalton added that the consensus at the meeting was the HSE inspectors never went onto scaffolding jobs to inspect the reality. He welcomed the HSE blitz.

A Ucatt spokesman said: "It is a question of whether enough provision for safety has been built into the contract price.

"You also have to ask whether the operatives have been properly trained and whether only those with accredited skills are being employed. We are getting reports of operatives using bogus scaffolder certification cards.

He said accidents in scaffolding can only happen if the operatives not competent or if the scaffold is not properly erected because of pressures on time or cost.

In a response to concerns over the safety implications of reduced rates of pay for dismantling scaffolding, the HSE has noted that the CDM regulations do not deal in any way with methods of payment.

But, in a letter to the TGWU's Dalton, the HSE points out that "the employer must provide adequate time, resources, and training for employees to carry out the work safely. If he does not and there are health and safety implications then he is in breach of health and safety legislation and open to formal enforcement action. If your members inform the HSE of specific jobs, whereby they are required to carry out unsafe practices due to time pressures by employers or principal contractors, then we will be able to act on that information - confidentially if requested."