HSE to look at ROPSlaw

The uproar caused by recent revelations that plant hirers will have to comply with Euro legislation is forcing the Health and Safety Executive to scrutinise the regulations and see areas where compromise can be made.

It is meeting with the Construction Plant-hire Association (CPA) tomorrow to listen to the representations made by hirers.

The impending regulations known as Provision and Use of Work Equipment 98 will require roll-over protection structures (ROPS) to be fitted to most mobile plant leased, hired or sold onto a second owner.

The new regulations are due to be published in November and enforcement will start on 5 December. Hirers are particularly angry with the anomalies of enforcing this legislation.

Contractors will have until 5 December 2002 to comply but hirers will have to meet this standard on 5 December 1998.

Hirers are also complaining that the hire industry was never consulted. One hirer told CJ. "The HSE sent out 1000 questionnaires and none of them to hirers. It received 100 replies and pushed ahead with the legislation on their basis."

He added that these regulations were not European law but the HSE's interpretation of what European law should be about.

The plant hire industry is also complaining that manufacturers are cashing in unscrupulously on the hirers' plight and pushing their prices for ROPS up. "Manufacturers are now charging double the price," said one angry hirer.