The Construction Centre
The Construction Centre indicated that changing established cultures was at the heart of reaching a zero accident record. For too long it said, managers and site workers have been at odds over the reasons for health and safety procedures with miscommunication preventing reform. With Laing O’Rourke taking proactive strides towards ensuring all its employees and subcontractors embrace the same protocols much of the industry is likely to follow suit.
Changing opinion and existing mind sets was at the core of The Construction Centre’s statement and suggested the retraining of each and every worker to believe health and safety is not about companies protecting against court claims but about protecting everyone involved in construction from injury or harm.
John Green the recently appointed Health and Safety Director at Laing O’Rouke, said “To continue with the belief that zero accidents is the impossible dream is actually to say to one of your employees ‘We think it is acceptable for you to have an accident at some point during your working life’ and that is unacceptable.”
The Construction Centre applauded Laing O’Rourke for its tough line but also recognised other companies in the industry striving to innovate and educate its employees about health and safety. It also recognised the difficult and vast task which the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) must undertake in order to continue to educate, publicise and monitor the building industry.
Richard Simmons, Managing Director at The Construction Centre and a property developer for over 30 years said “For too long site workers have assumed Health and Safety is about their employer protecting himself against a law suit, in reality it has never been about this. Life and limbs have a higher value and it is about changing this attitude which will see a reduction in on site accidents. The refurbishment sector has the highest accident record and this is partly down to dealing with older structures but it is also down to timescales and workers “doing what they have always done”. It is time to change this mind set and get serious about zero accident records.”
The Construction Centre was clear that in order to enforce health and safety procedures the HSE would need further investment from the government but that companies within the industry could do so much more to educate its workforce to automatically work within health and safety guidelines.
For more information visit: www.theconstructioncentre.co.uk
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