Disruption feared for CSCS deadline

Widespread disruption to the start of works across Major Contractor Group (MCG) sites is being feared for Monday, as main contractors tighten their site-access checks to coincide with the group’s 1 October deadline for all workers to either hold a CSCS card or be in the process of acquiring one.

Sites have been instructed to bar access to any workers who do not show their CSCS card or a confirmation letter, supplied by the organisers of the scheme, to provide evidence that they have a health and safety test lined up.

It is generally expected that there will be some disruption caused by those who forget their cards or certificates following the weekend break, or people returning from holiday.

The exact costs in extra resources to police the deadline is unknown, although many sites will have hundreds of workers turning up on Monday morning.

“The last time the MCG introduced its CSCS targets, several people were turned away at the door,” said one source.

An MCG spokesman played down the concerns and told CJ that everybody had had “plenty of time” to prepare for the move with communications being filtered down to relevant parties following the deadline announcement in July.

“We have buy-in from all MCG members that they will be sticking to this deadline and we will be keeping a check on progress when the deadline kicks in,” he added. “Each MCG member has introduced its own policy on site and there shouldn’t be any extra costs incurred by this change as the processes should already in place.”

The official was unable to provide any up-to-date figures on how many extra cards or certificates had been processed in time for the new deadline, or whether there had been any panic processing by workers to meet Monday’s target date.

The organisers of CSCS said that there were no immediate uptake figures available as CJ went to press.

The October date will be followed by the MCG’s next milestone date of 1 January, when all workers will have to hold a CSCS card before being allowed on any MCG site.

[Contract Journal, 27 September 2006, p 2]