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Alan Cork
Member - 6 posts
I am indebted to Alan for his concern and advice.
I have some small maintenance contracts up for review and will see how this particular, well established and successful, company responds to a refusal to renew until RA and MS are provided.
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Alan Cork
Member - 6 posts
A deafening silence from all those FMs that have total confidence in their contractors in managing Working at Height.....
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Alan Cork
Member - 6 posts
It is both sad and a relief that I am not the only one experiencing this. I have been in Facilities for 25 years and would have liked things to have improved in this time, but they haven't.
I always ensure full compliance when at tender stage. The problem is with the small to medium sized jobs that do not justify a tender. Where the supplier is clearly not up to the job of assessing their own risks I will either do the assessment myself or refuse to let the work start, depending on the risk.
It is often disruptive to refuse to let the work start as it conflicts with the business requirement but it appears the only way this will improve is if we force the issue when appointing suppliers.
As David says, our industry is still full of inexperienced "FMs" that allow unsafe practices to continue.
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Alan Cork
Member - 6 posts
I would be interested to hear if anyone has specifically asked their contractors for their risk assessments and method statements for the maintenance of CCTV cameras and light fittings (probably separate companies). My experience in this area has been disappointing, to say the least.
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Alan Cork
Member - 6 posts
The point I was trying to make is that there are surprisingly few maintenance contractors trained in basic health and safety. I have recent experience of trying to employ well established firms whose staff have been with the firm for a few years (migrant or illegal workers is not the issue here) but when you make enquiries about their health and safety practices it soon becomes clear that they are ill-prepared. Try telling a small to medium sized contractor that their staff need training how to use a ladder! It is a continual problem.
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Alan Cork
Member - 6 posts
I am not surprised by the HSE findings.
I have been in Facilities Management for over 25 years and still find it hard to find small to medium sized contractors that have a healthy attitude to health and safety risk assessments.
Construction is a major problem but I believe that there is a huge amount of unnecessary risk taken by contractors undertaking refurbishment and maintenance work. Most of the contractors I have come across do not understand how to carry out a risk assessment let alone put together a practical method statement. Most of them have not had suitable training and think of it as a paperwork exercise with no real value.
Few of these contractors can afford to train their staff and staff turnover is high.
Considering the statistics for falls from height, the lack of knowledge by contractors is remarkable. This can only be put down to the message not getting through. I wonder how many small construction/maintenance company directors subscribe to Workplace Law?
I don't have an instant answer to this. If I stick to only employing contractors with top notch H & S my choices will be very limited.
It is not surprising that most publicity goes to fatalities on construction or refurbishment sites but I see very little about injuries sustained during maintenance work. I am not convinced that injuries are not occurring.
I would welcome other member's views on this.
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