Construction leaders pledge to cut death toll

News | HSW
15.10.2007

Mandatory protective glasses and gloves and compulsory safety passports for construction workers are two of the ideas to be considered by a construction industry task group, following the one-off construction forum chaired by work and pensions secretary Peter Hain.

Hain convened the forum in a central London hotel on 17 September to try to tackle the rise in fatalities in construction, particularly in the home refurbishment and new-build sectors. "We need to reverse it very urgently," said Hain of last year's upturn, which saw deaths rise to 71 in the building sector, half of them on domestic construction sites.

The forum was made up of more than 20 heads of unions and industry bodies, training organisations and private firms as well as HSE and Health and Safety Commission (HSC) representatives.

The issues raised included the common lack of supervision and training for workers on smaller domestic sites, the difficulty in getting information to small firms and the transience of workers who often work outside the tax system in the informal or "grey" economy.

"The vision of people outside is it's still a cowboy industry and we don't care about workers on the ground," said Tony O'Brien, secretary of the Construction Safety Campaign, who was asked by Hain to speak, though he was not formally attending the meeting.

Delegates including HSC member John Spanswick, executive chair of the Homebuilder's Federation Stewart Baseley and construction union UCATT's general secretary Alan Ritchie all spoke in favour of making carrying a Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) card mandatory for all site workers. "We are totally supportive of it," said Ritchie.

Some forum members argued in favour of making safety glasses and gloves compulsory. "For basic PPE not to be mandatory on all construction sites seems pretty crazy to me," said Peter Redfern, chief executive of Taylor Wimpey. "We have it on our sites but it's difficult to enforce when people can go across the road and they don't enforce it there. It's 10 times harder for us doing it individually when the whole industry isn't doing it."

Several speakers highlighted the role of workplace safety representatives in raising standards. "They make an enormous contribution," argued Bob Blackman, national construction secretary of the Unite union. "They're streetwise and they understand site risks." Hain said the task group could look at ways of  better recognising safety reps' work. "I don't know if any have been recommended for honours," he said.

Imtiaz Farookhi, chief executive of the National House-Building Council, said better analysis of the accident data could help focus initiatives.

Evidence of low levels of safety in the domestic sector came only days before the meeting in the results of an HSE "blitz" on refurbishment sites in June and July this year. The blitz resulted in inspectors issuing enforcement notices at around a quarter of sites (426 of 1,586) - including immediate Prohibition Notices to stop work at 244 of them.

At the meeting, the forum adopted a "framework for action", which commits the existing Strategic Forum for Construction's Health and Safety Task Group to consider a variety of ways to improve standards, including greater roles for safety reps, ensuring all site workers receive induction training and reducing the proportion of builders in the grey economy, as well as the extension of the CSCS scheme.

The group will report back to the secretary of state before the end of this year. John Spanswick, who chairs the task group, noted that the housebuilders made little or no contribution to the work of the Strategic Forum. "We will have to work on that," he said.

Alan Ritchie warned that the forum had to lead to action. "What we need to make sure is that anything following this is not just a talking shop," he said.