rrc roundtable report
TRANSCRIPT
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Health and Saety in the
Construction Industryroundtable July 2008
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Our experts 3
Introduction by Gary Fallaize 4
Improving and sustaining the health and safety climate / culture 5
Proposed Health and Safety (Offences) Bill and the implications for the construction sector 7
Is good health and safety training a big component in the cultural shift? 8
Are high accident rates inevitable in construction? 9
Migrant workers and Safety Passport schemes 10
Getting safety messages to one-man band builders 11
Is the Health and Safety Commission under-resourced? 12
Drug and alcohol screening 13
Conclusion 14
Contents
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Terry Casbolt, Safety Director,
John Doyle ConstructionThe company was incorporated in 1966 and now
specialises in Substructure, Superstructure,
Basements and Infrastructure Works. Turnover for
2006 was in excess of 80m.
Kenneth Dodd CFIOSH, MCIPD, Group Health
and Safety Manager, Manchester Airports Group
The Manchester Airports Group (MAG) is the countrys
largest UK-owned airport operator. The four airports
(Manchester, East Midlands, Bournemouth and
Humberside) currently serve a total of more than28 million passengers every year. Latest development
projects include a radical 35m redevelopment of
Manchester Airports Terminal 1, including the
creation of one of the UKs largest airside shopping
facilities. Ken has been a safety practitioner for some
20 years, 15 of these within the Airport industry and a
further ve within a local authority. He is also H+S
Adviser to the Airport Operators Association Ops
and Safety Group.
Gary Fallaize, MD RRC Training
Gary has been Managing Director of RRC Training
since 1995 and has led the transition of RRC to a
specialist health, safety and environmental training
provider, as well as overseeing its international
expansion into the Middle East.
Davie Faulds, Group Health & Safety Director,
P.C. Harrington Contractors Limited
P.C. Harrington was founded by its present Chairman,
Pat Harrington, in 1973. Through his determination to
achieve the highest standards, the company has grown
to become a market leader in the design, safetyimplementation and construction of reinforced
concrete with a reputation for delivering the largest
and most complex projects in the UK. Davie Faulds was
appointed to the main board of the Harrington Group
in January 2004. In both 2006 and 2007, P C
Harrington Contractors Ltd were awarded the Sword of
Honour one of the most prestigious international
health and safety accolades that a company can
receive.
Willie Graham, Safety Manager,
Morris and SpottiswoodMorris & Spottiswood has established a growing list of
blue chip clients in core operations of t-out, housing
and maintenance. The company has a proven track
record of delivering for customers across an array of
industry sectors, including retail, banking, commercial,
public, leisure, health and education. Willie Graham
began his career in construction as a bricklayer
and decided to broaden his horizons and move
to the rail industry, covering civil, mechanical and
electrical, and signal and telecoms. His position within
the rail industry was Health, Safety, Quality andEnvironmental/ Training Manager and he has
accreditation for each subject.
Stephen McCarthy,
Group Safety Manager, Duffy Group
With an annual turnover of 70 million, the
Duffy Group is the original one-stop shop for all
construction requirements, from concrete structures
and trade packages to main contracting and plant
and labour hire.
Brian Ormiston,Head of HSQE, Warings Construction
Warings Construction is a subsidiary of BYCN
(Bouygues Construction). BYCN is part of the
leading French organisation Bouygue Group, with
worldwide sales of 29 billion Euros in 2007.
Bouygue Construction achieved worldwide sales in
2007 of 21.8 billion Euros, with a target of 24.3 billion
Euros in 2008. Bouygues acquired Warings as part of a
strategy to pursue development in the UK. The
acquisition complements the London based subsidiary,
Bouygues UK, which was established in 1997. Duringthe last decade it has developed a strong reputation in
healthcare, education and housing, demonstrating its
ability to undertake large PFI projects, including the
award-winning Home Ofce building. Brian Ormiston
has 30 years of experience in the industry. He joined
Warings in 2002 to implement a challenge of achieving
a sustainable one in a million AFR culture.
Our experts
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RRC Training has been involved in delivering bespoke
health and safety training to the construction sectorfor 10 years, during which weve seen health and safety
grow from being a sideline issue that was not taken too
seriously, to a high prole concern that is centre stage
on the government and media agenda, as well as an
area that board directors of construction companies
ignore at their peril.
At a time when the industry is arguably facing more
changes and challenges than ever before in terms of
health and safety (with stiffer penalties for non-
compliance, an inux of migrant workers and theincreasing need for drug and alcohol testing of
workers), we thought it would be valuable to invite a
number of health and safety managers and directors
from some of the UKs top construction companies to
gather together, face-to-face, to discuss the issues
affecting the industry today.
The debate was lively and informative and we are
glad to be able to share the discussion points and
conclusions with you in this report. Should it prompt
you to re-evaluate your own health and safety culture,
Id be delighted to talk to you about how RRC Training
can help your company improve its record and trainingso please feel free to contact me on 0208 944 3100 or
email [email protected].
Introductionby Gary Fallaize
weve seen health and saetygrow rom being a sidelineissueto a high proleconcern that is centre stageon the governmentagenda.
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What does it take and how committed are
organisations to doing it?
One denition for health and safety culture is a
system of shared values and beliefs about the
importance of health and safety in the workplace,
while a health and safety climate can be dened as the
tangible outputs or indicators of an organisations
health and safety culture as perceived by individuals or
work groups at a point in time.
Safety culture can be positive or negative.
Companies with a poor or negative safety culture
struggle to improve safety or prevent accidents (even
with excellent written procedures/policies and state of
the art safety equipment). A negative safety culture is
due to people - a poor attitude to safety being allowed
to grow and develop.
However, companies with good health and safety
performance tend also to have a positive health and
safety culture. In organisational terms, it has been
recognised that we need the four Cs to support a
positive health and safety culture competence,
control, co-operation and communication (see
Successful Health and Safety Management, HSG65).
Factors that are thought to promote a positive healthand safety culture include: management commitment,
visibility, leading by example and committing the
necessary resources; a high business prole given to
health and safety; provision of information on health
and safety; involvement/participation and consultation;
high quality training; promotion of ownership. In Davie
Faulds opinion it is the promotion of ownership that
won his rm its accolades.
We tried to be preventative, investigating accidents,
learning from them and putting systems in place tostop them happening again. But they did not stop, so
we decided to look at the cultural behaviour of men
and their perceptions, and their perceptions were that I
would look after their safety and they did not need to
worry about it. For the last four years we have been
delivering a cultural behavioural programme, just to
get guys back to thinking for each other. We did a
survey of the workforce rst, from management down,
to nd out what their perceptions were. What is it that
they believe that we are asking from them as
management? When we take on a project and sendthem out to do it under the relevant supervisors, what
do they actually believe are our priorities? When we
rst did the survey there was a general belief that what
mattered above all else was just getting the job done,
bringing it in on time. Safety was mentioned but only
as an after thought. The belief that we started to drive
home, what we tried to change, was to say that we
could have safety as paramount and still bring the job
in on time and on budget. In fact, you could get better
production if you work hand in hand with safety. There
is a tendency to think it can only be one or the other,
and you have to get them to believe that they can have
both. They also need to believe we care about them.They want to feel cared about as people, not just as
tools to get the job done.
Davie Faulds
Improving and sustaining thehealth and saety climate/culture
For the last our years we havebeen delivering a culturalbehavioural programme, justto get guys back to thinkingor each other.
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Is it enough to make a difference?
The Bill amends Section 33 of the Health and Safety at
Work, etc. Act 1974 by raising the maximum penalties
available to the courts in respect of certain health and
safety offences. Specically, it raises the maximum
ne which may be imposed by the lower courts to
20,000 for most offences and makes a prison
sentence an option for most health and safety offences
in lower and higher courts. It also makes certain
offences that can currently only go to trial in lower
courts triable in either the lower or higher courts. The
Bill has already cleared the Commons and is currentlyproceeding through the House of Lords.
However, the consensus amongst the discussion group
seemed to be that these proposed penalties are still
not stiff enough to deter breaches in health and safety
law and will make little difference to health and safety
in the construction industry. The change from the
current standard 5,000 ne to 20,000 does
not represent a high enough hike to change
attitudes and behaviour.
20k as a cost to a project value of 100 million is
pocket change. The additional 15k is a drop in theocean and is not enough to be an effective deterrent.
Willie Graham
The view was that the opportunity for there to
be more custodial sentences under the Bill will
have more impact.
There was little risk of being placed behind bars
before and now the threat of that will certainlymake people think harder about health and safety,
especially if and when there have been a few highly
publicised examples.
Terry Casbolt
It is the same as the Corporate Manslaughter Act. The
deterrent is not the size of the ne, because generally
large or medium size businesses can afford to pay it,
but that the publicity and remedial orders will have an
impact on their share price. That is a subtle penalty,
and is much more effective.Brian Ormiston
But this all alludes to a general feeling that the new Bill
has been drafted without proper understanding or
insight into the problem and that it is superuous,
given that the regulations already exist to impose the
kinds of penalties set out in the new Bill.
The changes they are proposing to make could be
included in other current legislation. All that was
needed was to pull these under the existing legislation
and focus on making that work rather than adding
another layer. It all gets too confusing. With a fewminor changes the Health and Safety at Work Act
would sufce. It already provides for the prosecution
of individuals.
Terry Casbolt
Proposed Health and Safety (Offences) Bill
and the implications for the construction sector
20k as a cost to a project
value o 100 million ispocket changeandis not enough to be aneective deterrent.
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The consensus is that at senior management and
supervisory level, training must reect the issue ofownership. Rather than the emphasis being on learning
about regulations and box-ticking, it must encompass
the ability to interrogate behaviour and interact with
the workforce. The general view was that health and
safety legislation and regulations are a real turn-off for
construction workers, making health and safety sound
inhibiting. Supervisors and managers must therefore
be taught ways to make workers see it as something
that is really going to improve working conditions and
enhance success.
As clients we recognised that construction site
supervisors had all done the normal courses but no one
had taught them how to really assess the work risks,
how to put a man to work safety, and how to convey
safety information to operatives. It sounds simple but it
is one of the most vital ingredients to learn.
Ken Dodd
Today you catch a guy doing something wrong, the
rst thing he will say is, I know, I have done it wrong. It
is no good for a health and safety manager to say,
okay, do not let it happen again. In our company they
are taught how to inquire into that guys mind. Youhave done it wrong, what made you do it wrong.
Davie Faulds
Managers need training to know how to manage the
process, including the people involved. Trainers whojust run courses on legislation will simply not get the
right people that they want in the room e.g. Directors
and senior managers. They will quickly lose interest,
because it does not turn them on. As soon you say you
need to do it because of the legislation, they see HSE
management as a burden with no business value to it.
Brian Ormiston
In line with these views, Gary Fallaize forecasts a sea
change in health and safety training in the future.
Accountants spend twice as long in training as
health and safety professionals, and they are taught
management skills. Health and safety professionals do
not receive that. Their courses do not cover topics like
talking to the guys and understanding what drives their
behaviour. That is what the profession has accepted
until now, whereas accountancy, marketing, company
secretarial and banking all required people to have
management skills as well as technical knowledge. I
think that is becoming increasingly important with
health and safety.
Gary Fallaize
Is good health and saety traininga big component in the cultural shit?
Managers needto knowhow to manage the process,
including the people involved.Trainers who just run courses onlegislation will simply not getthe right peoplein the room.
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Are high accident rates inevitable in
construction and are current targets set by theHSE and BERR (Department for Business
Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) to reduce
incidents 10% year on year achievable?
According to government statistics, construction and
agriculture have the highest rates of fatal injuries,
together accounting for 46% of fatalities in 2006/7 (77
and 34 fatalities, respectively). But given that the
construction industry is clearly making such efforts to
alter its safety culture, can this poor record change? The
Government clearly hopes so. The Strategy forSustainable Construction is a joint industry and
Government initiative intended to promote leadership
and behavioral change, as well as delivering benets
to both the construction industry and the wider
economy. The nal strategy was released on
11th June 2008 and includes a target to reduce the
incidence rate of fatal and major injury accidents
by 10% year on year from 2000 levels, primarily
through an increase in organisations committing
to a planned approach to training.
Brian Ormistons organisation has already reduced rates
to one in a million, which begs the question not ofwhether or not the target reductions are deliverable, but
whether they are sensible?
From our perspective, the 10% accident reduction target
as part of the UK sustainable construction strategy
should be easy. We are down to one or two RIDDOR
a year and we brought that down from 25 in 2002.
We are now trying to get one RIDDOR in two million
and now focus on the over one day injuries and start
driving those down - it takes a positive culture with
strong beliefs.
Brian Ormiston
Others views on the targets are varied.
It was set by people who do not control men. They have
not taken into account the diversity of the constructionindustry. There are aspects of it that are more risky and
dangerous than others. Some can easily do a million man
hours with one incident and others will never get to that
no matter how hard they train and involve the workforce,
because of the type of work they are doing. It is wrong
to lump everything together and say this is the
construction average and this is what it should be.
Davie Faulds
If you are working on a concrete frame, 10 or 15 stories
high, with 500 or 600 men putting very small
components together at a high level, it is very high risk
work. To achieve the same goals as someone that is
doing a t-out is unrealistic. We have both in our
company and they are different animals, so you are
ghting on a different front.
Terry Casbolt
Again, the ownership message comes into the discussion,
a case of having the workforce buying into the targets.
It should not be about accident rates. Everyone does
these stats and says they want to reduce them, but the
problem is how to stop the accidents. We found the bestway was to listen to the guys, start getting them involved
in how they wanted to do it safely, and then implement
and let them see you have listened to them, because that
is an incentive to encourage them to come forward and
report what they see. We are not focusing on gures but
on safety and making improvements naturally.
Davie Faulds
Using the presence of accidents to measure safety
performance is a dangerous game. You might just be
lucky as an employer. Companies are becoming more
sophisticated and using proactive KPIs, such as training/
induction statistics, etc., rather than relying on the
number of accidents. That is the way it has got to go.
Ken Dodd
Are high accident ratesinevitable in construction?
Some can easily do a millionman hours with one incidentand others will never get tothatbecause o the type owork they are doing.
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How can migrant workers be trained to work
safely? Do passport schemes work? Are theyset at the right level?
The HSEs Research Report RR502 looked at the issue
of health and safety risks in relation to migrant
workers. The report looked at whether migrant
workers face increased health and safety risks and
suggests that factors which place them at increased
risk include: short periods of working in the UK; lack of
knowledge of UKs health and safety system;
motivation based on maximising earnings in the time
available and communication/language issues.
The biggest problem we have got on site is their
perception of risk. Polish, Lithuanian, Croatians,
Serbians have different opinions on the law because
their legislation at home is less stringent. They do not
think they are doing anything wrong because what
they are doing is acceptable in their own country.
Willie Graham
Passport schemes are now increasingly common in the
construction industry, designed to ensure that
employees, contractors and anyone else who visits the
site have at least some basic health, safety (and
environment) training. To be issued with a passport,
the recipient has to undergo training and pass an
appropriate test (there are usually several levels/
categories available depending on the likely role on
site). Passports can be used as a means of restricting
access to a site (people need to show the passport to
be allowed on site). One popular scheme is the
Construction Skills Certication Scheme (CSCS).
Passport schemes allegedly help reduce accidents and
ill health and train workers to a common, recognizedand validated standard by helping to promote good
practice in the supply chain between contractors and
companies. But the view of those who took part in the
roundtable discussion was that the system has some
major failings, summed up by Willie Graham.
They have just issued the millionth card, I think,
which devalues the whole system, as does a process
that involves being given a book with all the answers
in to learn from.
Ken Dodd
There is also an issue with different people being best
suited to different formats for learning and testing.
There will inevitably be some managers who are very
good at their job and good at organising a site, but are
not condent with a computer and struggle
with a touch screen test. Yet the industry currently
only offers one delivery method for passport
scheme training and if there is a problem with the
actual capability to do the assessment, there is no
alternative.
Gary Fallaize
Migrant workers andSaety Passport schemes
They do not think theyare doing anything wrongbecause what they are
doing is acceptable in theirown country
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How can safety standards be driven
through to one-man band builders?
It would seem that contractors have a fairly
strong inuence over their supply chain when
it comes to safety.
We use Version 7, which is updated on an annual basis
or when there is a legislation change. It is simple, clear
and concise. Sub contractors with fewer than ve
employees are reviewed by my department and put
through Version 7 training. They still have to ll in their
risk assessments, but we nd this is working.Willie Graham
You have got to meet a certain criteria to work on
any notiable project these days. Where you get a
problem, is a one-man band working for a client on a
non-notiable project, where the HSC does not even
know that is happening.
Davie Faulds
Getting saety messagesto one-man band builders
When you get a problem,is a one-man band workingon a non-notiable project,where the HSC does not evenknow that is happening.
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How is it best handled?
Drug, alcohol and other substance misuse damages
health, causes absenteeism and reduces productivity.
According to HSE research, there is an impact of drug
use on cognitive performance, which varies with the
type of drug or drugs used. This is mirrored by an
association with cognitive failures at work. There is
also an association between drug use and minor
injuries resulting in some employers deciding to adopt
drug and alcohol screening as part of their alcohol and
drug policy. But what can screening achieve and what
can be done with the information it generates?
Drug screening or testing is a sensitive issue because
of the many employment implications involved.
Securing the agreement of the workforce to the
principle of screening is essential (except in cases of
pre-employment testing), partly because of the
practical and legal issues involved. These might
include: How much will a screening system cost? What
type of testing is needed? How will test samples be
collected? How will test samples be kept secure to
ensure they cannot be tampered with? What action will
be taken if a positive result is given? Screening can be
used in various ways, for example: as part of aselection process for job applicants; testing all
or part of the workforce routinely, occasionally or on a
random basis; in specic circumstances, such as after
an accident or incident or as part of an aftercare
rehabilitation programme.
There may be a case for considering the introduction
of screening, particularly in certain critical jobs (e.g.
staff who have responsibility for making safety-critical
decisions) in which impairment due to drugs could
have disastrous effects for the individual, colleagues,
members of the public and the environment. Screening
is only likely to be acceptable if it can be seen to be
part of an organisations occupational health policy
and is clearly designed to prevent risks to the mis-user
and others.
Screening by itself will never be the complete
answer to problems caused by drug or alcohol misuseand its results must always be supplemented by a
professional assessment of the employee. Prevention
is just as important.
Some of those present have been using drug and
alcohol screening in a big way.
I do random testing all the time, and have been for ve
years, on site, every day. Every single person in the
company, from the Chairman down, has signed up to
the drugs and alcohol policy. I then took it to the boardof directors, advised that this was what we should be
doing, and I took it to the unions. They wanted a
conditional line that there should be leniency for a guy
opening up initially, we took it back to solicitors, and
put it in place. It is totally random and we always get
an external person to do it. I am the only person that
personally receives the results of all tests. I then
interview the person, and he has the right to challenge
his sample. There are three taken, one is for backup,
the other one is for him if he wishes to take it to be
analysed at his own cost. In todays society there is a
problem out there and we recognise that as a board.
Davie Faulds
Here we see that something which could be
understood as overtly policing, can also be adopted
by the workforce as part of the best possible outcome
for everybody.
The workforce took it on straight-away and thought it
was brilliant, because the majority do not want people
on drugs working beside them. Guys want to come and
work for you if they know you are actively screening
and they know that they are not going to get hurt at
work by somebody who could be under the inuence.
Working hand-in-hand with the occupational health
screening, it is seen as very favourable. It is about
gaining trust.
Davie Faulds
Drug and alcohol screening
Guys want to come and workor you i they knowthat theyare not going to get hurt atwork by somebody who couldbe under the infuence.
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Conclusion
The over-riding theme that came out of the discussion
was a behavioural one, the idea that ownership in
health and safety practice and policy is the crucial
issue when it comes to establishing a positive health
and safety culture.
Safety starts from the top and if you have not got the
support of the boardroom then nothing is going to
work, but what is just as important is to embrace and
involve the workforce - a companys most important
asset. Method statements can be drafted and given tothe workers, but all those who are expected to adhere
to them must be given the chance to speak out if they
do not think elements of it will work. They have to feel
that their views are respected and will be acted upon.
It is no good listening and then not doing anything.
At an even deeper level, health and safety needs to be
about really changing attitudes, about a shift in
perception that paints health and safety as carrot
rather than stick. Legislation and regulations are very
much seen as sticks, imposed from above, with little
relevance to those doing the job - an unnecessary
hindrance. But the carrot is the benet in terms ofworking conditions and quality of life that good health
and safety can bestow upon everyone. What needs to
be fostered is the notion that it might take half an hour
longer to put scaffolding up rather than teeter on the
end of a ladder, but nobody would argue that it isnt
half an hour very well spent.
It seems the health and safety industry is increasingly
looking for the carrot, to nd ways to motivate anddrive people to do a good job and do it safely, and that
this will impact upon all the issues touched upon in this
discussion on targets, on making conditions safer for
migrant workers, on attitudes to drug and alcohol
screening and on the way in which health and safety
professionals are trained in the future. Indeed training
will be the key, arming health and safety managers
with management skills to help them understand their
workers motivations and behaviour better, and nding
ways to demonstrate the benets of health and safety
to the workforce.Gary Fallaize
Conclusion
health and saety needsto be abouta shit inperception that paints healthand saety as carrot ratherthan stick.
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