Back bites

Respect or what?

Do you work for a good employer? Soon you will be able to answer that question with scientific precision, by applying the new Respect for People Key Performance Indicators. These crucial measures chart how many days a year companies allow their employees to escape serious work through training programmes or sickies (Ed - are we sure about this interpretation?).

There are rumours that further diagnostic KPIs are planned to look at the soft issues underlying the employee feel-good factor, such as the availability of quilted toilet paper in site toilets and the numbers of comfy chairs in the canteens. Watch this space!

Bad form

The pathetic saga of the refurbishment of Sutton rail station shows no sign of abating. We first reported of the abusive language of workers erecting a temporary ticket office (12 April). Then there was the fiasco when a ramp to the ticket office had to be removed because it was too steep (19 April).

Now and worst of all, CJ observed three workers making the most lewd and offensive remarks imaginable to women walking past the station last Thursday. All three were wearing Balfour Beatty hard hats.

BB has had a bad press over the past year or so, what with fines running into millions over the Heathrow Express tunnel collapse, the injuries to a worker on the Jubilee Line Extension, and the Bexley train derailment. The firm is also at the centre of the controversial proposal to build a dam in Turkey that will displace thousands of Kurds.

Oddly enough this week sees BICC, BB's original parent company, changing its name to Balfour Beatty. Perhaps Balfour Beatty might be better placed changing its name to BICC.

Pocketed money

On the subject of dams, The Independent carried a piece last week about a senior construction manager on the run in China. Jin Wenchao is alleged to have pocketed about £77m allocated by Chinese banks and investment funds for construction of the Three Gorges Dam. It appears that Wenchao is not alone and dozens of senior officials are said to have embezzled millions by lowering safety and environmental standards and pocketing the difference.

It just goes to show that the British construction industry isn't so bad after all.