Health and Safety gone Mad

[Dean Lofthouse]

Yesterday i went subbing for someone in Leeds City centre on a construction site.

 

We turned up armed to the teeth with Mewp, climbing gear, saws, trucks.

 

We obviously had to go through the usual signing in, induction and safety talks.

 

We were then asked if we had CIS cards, we said no.

 

He then went on to tell us that we had to wear full PPE, including chainsaw ballistic tops and gloves and wait for it....................................

 

We weren't allowed to use chainsaws on site because they had open moving blades which weren't guarded.

 

So to sum up, we had all the chainsaw gear on but no chainsaws.

 

We put them right by explaining we did not have to wear tops or gloves while climbing.

 

If they had had a sense of humour, we would of been rolling about on the floor laughing. In the end we had to do all the pruning work with silkys including removing the odd stubs.

 

This is why if I get asked to price jobs on a construction site, I stipulate that the work must be carried out BEFORE any portacabins arrive on site, that way you are not bound by ridiculous construction industry rules

[Chris Harris]

Utter crazyness! H&s at its best me not thinks:alberteinstein:

[vduben]

did you not need cscs cards mate??? cis is not needed but cscs is!!!

there all a bunch of idiots in flash jackets imo

[bill]

a cis card is for self employed tax payment, he probably asked for the cscs card.

[treejumper]

Ptools - you should have said if we are going to have to use silkies the price is going up!

[Dean Lofthouse]

did you not need cscs cards mate??? cis is not needed but cscs is!!!

there all a bunch of idiots in flash jackets imo

 

Yes they did ask for the CSCS card, but they were happy for photo copies of all our tickets, we had CS units on our NPTC cards, just had to get wife to fax Mewp ticket to them.

 

After seeing the construction worker D1cks on the building site, it doesn't surprise me the construction industry is targetted more than others.

 

This foul mouthed scaffolder, who thought he was ten men. Shouted abuse at us for walking under where they were working and not keeping to one side. The walkway was well used and couldn't be cordened off. The were using scaffold spanners with no lanyard attched to them.

 

A. If they cannot corden the walkway off they should work round the public not the public work round them.

 

B. they should have had a man on the ground, directing the public, not everyone walks around looking up at the sky.

 

c. They should have had warning signage.

 

D. They should have been using spanners attached to lanyards

 

Complete d1cks

[b101uk]

Why didn’t you just tell him he was wrong and didn’t know what he was on about & that unlike most people you have been trained/tested in the use of chainsaw with respect to aspects of H&S legislation and that even if he was the person on site responsible for H&S compliance his remit doesn’t extend to yourself as he probably has no training or knowledge in arboriculture practices or specific H&S regulation governing it witch is plainly obvious by his demands.

[madmatt]

we often work on CDM sites as part of our work, As daft as it is you wouldn't even have been allowed through the gates of one of those sites without having taken a CITB touch screen test in the last 2 years!

[Dean Lofthouse]

Why didn’t you just tell him he was wrong and didn’t know what he was on about & that unlike most people you have been trained/tested in the use of chainsaw with respect to aspects of H&S legislation and that even if he was the person on site responsible for H&S compliance his remit doesn’t extend to yourself as he probably has no training or knowledge in arboriculture practices or specific H&S regulation governing it witch is plainly obvious by his demands.

 

Tried all that B101 and you could tell he was hugely embarrassed by the situation. They eventually accepted that we did need to use the saw for the odd peg and allowed us to start the saw 2 or 3 times

[Amelanchier]

I had a similar situation on a large site in the centre of Norwich.

 

We turned up to clear some windblow that had fallen into the site in question. I went round to the site office to request access to complete the job. Met a chap that knew everything.

 

Told me that the law required everyone who works at height needed a first aid certificate.

 

"What law's that then mate?"

 

"Its in the health and safety at height law son"

 

"Do you mean the health and saftey at work act 1974 or the work at height regulations 2005?"

 

"...errr"

 

"Neither of which require people working at heigt to ave a first aid certificate. Do you employers know that you don't know what you're talking about?"

 

"...ummm"

 

"I'm going to go and cut a tree up now, you carry on running the health and safety of hundreds of people. Bye."

 

 

Very gratifying.

 

Builders in my experience see themselves as socially/mentally superior to tree people. Most of them ain't!!