final-report-of-the-advisory-committee-on-falsework-bragg-report - Flipbook - Page 82
regulations, perhaps illustrated with practical examples. This concept has been fostered _b y the wording
of the statute dealing with safety supervision. This
statute applies to every contractor and employer of
more than twenty men in civil engineering and building
construction work. Under the Construction (General
Provisions) Regulations 1961, regulation 5, which
deals with the appointment of a safety supervisor,
defines his duties as:
"(a) advising the contractor, and every employer as
to the observance of the requirements for the safety
or protection of persons employed by, or under,
the Factories Acts 1937 to 1959, or the Lead Paint
(Protection against Poisoning) Act 1926, and as to
other safety matters; and
(b) exercising a general supervision of the observance of the aforesaid requirements and of promoting the safe conduct of the work generally".
The emphasis is clearly laid upon compliance with
the requirements of the relevant statutes. These
include four detailed and substantial Codes of Regulations, made under the Factories Acts and continued
in force under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act
1974, as well as regulations of more general application. We accept that such an emphasis contributes
to overall site safety and believe that there are many
ite safety supervisors who do a first-class job within
the terms of their appointments. There are several
excellent training courses for safety supervisors,
although others are of lower standard. Our only
omments are that such courses are insufficiently
patronised and that the industry could benefit if the
intake included some of those who were technically
qualified and some who were in positions of authority.
afety training should not, however, be confined to
regulations. We agree with the Committee on Safety
and Health at Work under the chairmanship of Lord
Robens when it reported thus:
"People are heavily conditioned to think of safety
and health at work as, in the first and most important instance, a matter of detailed rules imposed
by external agencies. We have· encountered this
instinctive reaction many times during the course
of our Inquiry. It was reflected, for example, in the
attitude of those who argued that standards would
improved if work-places were visited much
more frequently by inspectors. Given the hundreds
of thousands of work-places in the country, this
approach is manifestly impracticable. The matter
... oes deeper.
e suggested at the outset that apathy is the
greatest single contributing factor to accidents at
work. This attitude will· not be cured so long as
people are encouraged to think that safety and
health at work can be ensured by an ever-expanding
body of legal regulations enforced by an everincreasing army of inspectors. The primary responsibility for doing something about the present levels
of occupational accidents and disease lies with those
who create the risks and those who Work with them.
The point is quite crucial. Our present system encourages rather too much reliance on state regulations, and rather too little on personal responsibility and voluntary, self-generating effort".
The Robens Committee concluded that there was a
role for regulatory law and a role for government
action but that these roles should be predominantly
concerned with influencing the attitude of those in
industry so that a better safety and health organisation
was created. Our own terms of reference are confined
to one sector of one industry but the conclusions
still apply.
Courses for skilled operatives
Any criticism of existing attempts to provide instruction on the safety aspects of falsework technology
is secondary to our criticism of the almost total
absence of training in falsework technology itself.
While a number of courses involving formwork are
available, courses specifically devoted to falsework as
such are rare and usually of a 'one-off' kind. The great
need is for a short intensive course catering for the
needs of experienced operatives who have not had the
benefit of specialised technical training.
One particular course of this type would be suitable
for scaffolders and could be developed from a course
such as is already running at Bircham Newton. A
course of the order of one week is desirable.
It is equally important to devise courses for those
who already have some experience in falsework but
little training in safety. Such a course would be
similar to that devised for newcomers and would be
of the same standard but with less emphasis upon the
practice with which the experienced candidate will
already be familiar. However it may well be necessary
to correct malpractices and to explain the risks run in
adopting short cut procedures which, in the long run
waste time, materials, money and lives.
•
Apprentices
The problem of training of apprentices is part of a
more general problem of encouraging the annual total
of some half a million school leavers to undergo
further vocational training. It is estimated that some
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