ms660isthebest

Me and my lads were on £7.25 for ages! And the mower boys were on £10.85+

 

 

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Is there any jobs going cutting grass:thumbup1:

Loads of landscapers have bought chippers over the years , then some of the lads will do their climbing ticket . I'm sure if they are on the books there will be times they do a bit of everything.

I run a tree surgery business and do grass cutting 2 days a week in the summer. I also pick litter and empty dog bins 3 mornings a week and grit in winter.

my wage is the same all year round.

Tomorrow I am gathering sheep on a farm.

I see your point. But the lad cut grass,bit of leave collecting and winter hedge cutting. Easy stuff compare to climbers who do a skilled job. In which takes years to get experienced and good at. Gets the same hourly rate. If they change roles a climber could do his job where else the ground maintenance couldn't do the climbing. Just my thinking it doesn't add up on the hourly rate.

Are you talking about employees or the self-employed??

 

I'm sure there will be some self-employed guys who make good coin cutting grass through the summer.

 

Not sure why an employer would pay climbers rates to some one who's cutting grass?

It's employees I'm talking about. Well £8 a hour isn't a climbers wage or is it?Because the grass cutting is on the same!

Well a bloke stopping and turning the mower in the right direction. By a mower pusher I mean grass cutter.

Hi everyone. Just wondered if any folks on here work for a company who offers grass cutting and tree work as two separate services. If so are the mower pushers are on the same hourly rate as a climber.

Cheers

Carl

Toyota Hi-lux For Sale in Cork : €4,000 - DoneDeal.co.uk rough but cheap

Too high in mileage for my liking. I want a hilux not for work. It's more a personal motor. I'm sick of driving transits!

youll save money if you look over here, less salt too, got my 02 d4d single cab for 3000 euro, crew cabs make similar or lower money

Where Ireland?

Chris from bang tidy lol selling his hilux

Chris gill

Nice one youth I have send him a message.

I'm after a Toyota hilux between £6000-£8000. Between 02-06 model. With a double cab. If any knows one selling one let us know please.

so you paid him time & a half & made him feel like he was getting well paid

So it double and a half time ain't it?

so you paid him time & a half & made him feel like he was getting well paid

Half a weeks paid in a day for him:thumbup:

The way I will always work! He respects me works hard and get pay what he deserves!

I can see what horatio is saying. But my method to get groundmans working hard is price work! E.g this Saturday just gone I told my groundie there £80 in the job for you in the first job. Then if we can the second one done there a extra £40. We was done by 3 ish. He never stop working hard all day. He earn good money and so did I!

An Accident

Short term and long term affects

 

Date 4th of July 1980, time approximately 12pm that is the time when Alan Smith had a life changing experience. Set off to work on a clear fell site on a local estate in North Yorkshire, the day been no different to any other whilst they had been working on the site. Arrived on site at about 8am with two other contractors, general chat on every day things and previous days work, fuelled saws, picked out there area of work for the day and set off on there way into the wood for a days felling.

The site was predominantly mature ash which was been cleared in some areas and thinned out in others depending on clients needs. It was for the majority of the time on a very steep bank leading to a small stream in the bottom of the woodland, access was from the hill top which in turn was about ¼ of a mile from a farm, the only access at the time was from the farm to the wood across several grassed fields.

The trees on the steepest part of the slope were been felled and left in an uncut state to be winched out at a later time in the week, they had looked at this as been the safest option due to the severity of the slope to the stream and the size of timber. The average age of staff on site was 36 years old and all had a good 10years experience of dealing with these types of sites on a daily basis.

At around 11.30am Alan started to fell some of the larger ash trees on the steep slope ready for extraction later on, whilst carrying what had generally always been a basic practice in felling trees, the tree he was working on Barber Chaired (trunk Split up the centre) this in turn caught him just below the rib cage and launched him upwards for approximately 10ft, on landing his legs became partially folded up his back and his right arm twisted violently out of its socket.

The guy nearest to where he was working witnessed the whole incident and went to his aid, on realising the severity of the situation he then summonsed the other cutter over, now the drama of what had just happened kicked in, they had 18stone of man on a hill side in a critical condition and not the slightest idea how or what they could do. The second man took off across the field to raise the alarm at the farm ¼ of a mile away, on arrival at the farm there was no answer, he then made his way down to some farm workers cottages, and another ½ mile down the road where he finally managed to summons some emergency services.

Ambulance arrived at the farm, and the next problem arises, how to get an LDV ambulance across a wet field. They had no option but to go back in the works truck that the chap had taken when going for assistance and use this to ferry Alan back to the ambulance. All the time this is going on the casualty has now slipped into shock with the injuries and pain and is heading towards, drifting into a coma.

Once the casualty is loaded into the ambulance the nearest A&E is 30 miles away, the rescue crew decide that there only option now, for any chance of survival, is to try and get to the local army hospital in the near by army camp approximately 5miles away, this is instantly agreed by the army on route.

On arrival at hospital Alan has now gone into a coma, two punctured lungs are causing massive problems for the

Airways along with severe internal bruising and multi broken ribs plus the potential of head injuries.

 

At about 3.30pm I was as per usual awaiting a lift from my Father home from school, he was always a bit later than he said, that was one of his traits, so when Peter one of his work staff pulled up that was no surprise, usually meant he was finishing a site some where. Peter told me he was running me and my brother down to the local hospital where my Mother was waiting with my younger sister, he explained Father had a bit of a bump with a tree and they had taken him into hospital.

On arrival we were met by my Fathers Brother who took us of to a small side room on the intensive care ward, several minutes later my Mother arrived with a Doctor. To say she looked white was an understatement, I will never forget that look for the rest of my life, we were all sat down and the doctor explained the injuries and possibilities of my Fathers survival from the injuries incurred from the accident, basically the next 24hrs would be make or brake really and even if that was overcome the survival chances were slim with a strong possibility of severe brain damage and disablement.

He stayed in a coma for another 4 months, on coming out of the coma he then picked up a flu virus due to his immune system been shot to bits, this resulted in him been rushed back to intensive care and having traxomitry carried out on his throat to aid his breathing (A pipe is inserted through the windpipe to aid the breathing due to swelling of the throat). With in twelve months he started to walk with the aid of a stick for short distances, his left arm became fully functional but the right arm which had been torn out of its socket became a lifeless limb that never functioned again. The internal injuries would shorten his life expectancy due to the trauma they had received. Depression then became the next obstacle to overcome, this entailed not sleeping, flashbacks to the accident, dreaming of a fully functioning body and waking to find your right arm is still paralysed. This took hold for over a year and came and went for the rest of his life.

 

When something like this happens, you some how, after a time accept it and carry on, the two guys he worked with left the industry and moved away to different parts of the country, Father started up a small tree company again for which I worked along with my brother, this finished after a couple of years due to his worsening health and he finally passed away in 1998.

 

Been the oldest of the family I had the main role of organising the Funeral along with my brother, I phoned around all his old friends past and present and the two guys who had been with him that day in the wood, and this is when it hits home, how long does an accident affect people involved ?

 

The Bearers were arranged, all from his forestry days, most supporting some sort of old scar from there days in the woods, going from a leg missing down to a thumb missing. Working in forestry in the late sixties through to the late seventies, if you spent an average of 20yrs on the tools on average you would have three major accidents (sourced from the Timber Trades Journal 1979 found when clearing out the old saw shed at my Mothers).

 

The last two people to contact were the two staff on site the day of the accident, after a few phone calls they were traced to Nottingham and Doncaster. I managed to contact the older of the two who informed me that he was still in contact with the other man on a regular basis. He agreed he would get in touch with him and phone back, several hours later and I received a call that brings home the devastation an accident causes not just to the casualty but to all those involved. They sent there condolences, but still could not forget the trauma of that day in 1980, they still felt at fault for the accident and dealing with the incident itself. There was no more they could of done on the day, but as they kept saying did they miss something, should they have left the work and gone about it another way, whose to know but these guys carry that emotional scarring around with them all the time.

 

 

Break down of the accident

 

So what went wrong on site, what was missing on site and what should have been there on site?

 

• No risk assessment ( never heard of, another 20 yrs before they would be common practice in small arb firms)

• No Method statement

• No emergency action plan or site brief on the morning of work ( worked together for years, Complacency)

• No first aid kit, just the usual bottle of water for dust in eyes and a few plasters for file cuts when sharpening saws

• No PPE worn, again small companies did not use it and what was on the market was next to useless to work in.

• No first aider on site

• No work instruction

 

 

 

2012

 

• NPTC, AFAG, HSE, Arboriculture Association and LANTRA are all there now, giving relevant training, guidance and rules to aid us towards a safer work place.

 

 

• No excuse for having no risk assessment or emergency action plan on site, a team brief now should be second nature to a team leader to give out and no team member should start work with out a site brief.

 

 

• PPE in the last ten years far out exceeds anything from the past and only gets better as we move on, it is light comfy and useable in all types of tree work.

 

 

• No site would start work with out having a basic team first aid kit on site and at least one first aider if not multi first aiders on site.

 

 

• The equipment and procedures in place together with modern training in today’s work place should eliminate any potential of accidents on site.

 

 

And finally does an accident affect you forever, whether the injured party or not?

 

YES

 

• Daughter married in 1999, no father to give her away.

 

• First grandchild 2001, minus one Grandfather.

 

• Mothers 60th, celebrated as a widow.

 

• Still haunted by that hospital side room 4th July 1980.

 

 

• Married my wife in 2001, spare place at the top table.

 

• Grow up fast and learn to chuck a good right hander, end of the day your dads a Cripple.

 

 

 

Your mistake on site doesn’t just affect you on site, it affects your team, your family your friends if it all goes wrong!

 

Not sure or unsure of your task

Then leave it and ask

 

This is given out on all my Training courses.

A risk assessment is a legal document regardless of size of outfit.

A site specific risk assesment should have an emerancy action plan.

Sorry if the above shocks some people but I am the 11yr old above.

Sorry to hear that.

Well this is up to you. Are you the climber?

 

If you want to keep your job then I would get on with it. If the HSE guy turns up then you could be in trouble but ultimalty he would only stop the work and then your boss is ultimatly in trouble.

 

You need to decide if your job and your safety is worth the risk. Whatever the "laws" maybe, there is a vast number of companies out there who do not fulfill their duty of care. This will always be the case, but if you are on a big enough contract that an HSE has paid attention (was it actuall HSE or just a site safety supervisor) then IMO it would best if you (the company you are working for) get thrown off site, and they get someone better in.

 

Of course that just means you (again, I mean the company you work for) just go and work elsewhere and the problem is not necessarily solved.

Yes it was a site safety supervisor. New boy so he was on it:001_smile:. I think you have hit the nail on the head with vast number of companies who don t fulfill their duty of care. Its all about profit! Sadly! What would happen to the boss?

Thats up to you.

 

On your RA you are going to struggle to provide suitable mitigation for the risks the climber is facing without a AR climber.

If i had a bad accident is it my fault because i shudnt have done the work and the AR climber could of reduced how serious the accident. or the company who have AR climbers but put them on a different site

just had a recent experience with them calling us about 7 times- not taking no for an answer

Truth is there must be some out there who collude with them and force all our premiums up

And then we complain that our premiums are too high

Vicious circle

Bad makes bad

Im losted:confused1:

You must do a RA, but if their are less than 5 of you on site it does not need to be a written RA, a verbal one is fine. Although if things go wrong how do you prove you did a verbal one????

 

An employer has a "duty of care" to his staff, this includes a means of rescue for a climber.

So if there no AR man for climbing do i write this down on a risk assessment and refuse the work?

Yes Rupe im asking as a employee. But a health and safety guy turn up asking for a site specific assessment we didnt have one. (he wasn t happy) But the work was at ground level. But its for a big contract. What im trying to say if he turn up while im climbing with no AR man im i in trouble or is it by law that you have to have a AR man there?

do you have to do a site specific risk assessment by law? (for contracting work and Miss jones back garden job)

If so you havent done one who is to blame if a accident occur?

If the work carried out was work postioning and i was the only one who could climb. There was no rescue climber. Do i write it down and work. Then will i be liable for any accident to myself. Or refuse to climb as there is no rescue climber.

Any comments or advice would a grateful

Try Richard Hughes on 07889114611

Its Conternal landscapes. Sorry about my spelling:001_smile: I have lefted them but they are looking for a climber. As far as i know.

Let me know how you get on.

bummer if it makes you or the groundy feel better i just cut through my 45m brand new tachyon rope after 5min in a hedge!!!

not the most profitable day.

carl

Damm! not good. But make me feel better.

He'll learn quicker if he has to buy you a new rope

True:001_smile: But the next spruce i do im going to do it as fast as i can then watch him sweat pulling the branches because it like a birds nest:thumbup:

I should do! but hes learning so hopefully he won t do it again.

I just brought the art ropeguide but a groundsman has cut my rope near the splice eye. I wondered if i can make a small hole in the rope to feed the the retiveal ball string in. I use the loose end as a bowline knot to connect to the harness. So the hole would not be under load. If this make sense or should i buy a new rope?