I have recently been having a conversation within my personal networks regarding the advice of government that construction can continue, it seem that most have been sidetracked by the is it or is it not "essential" debate, my view on this is that it is ultimately irrelevant until a number of pre qualifying questions have been answered.
1, have the welfare facilities been adapted as necessary to accommodate social distancing guidance?
2, are all of the periodic safety checks able to be carried out by a competent person? (scaffold tagging, machine safety checks, security, etc.) and i am sure that there are many others.
3, have the risk assessments been amended to include the changing situation and has this been done competently?
4, has the site management ensured that the first aider ratio has been maintained?
Having worked in an industrial setting for the majority of my career i can honestly say that most of the time achieving a yes to all of the above (and those that you think of) would have been difficult in normal circumstances, however in the current climate i feel it is more or less impossible.
Corona virus has posed a question about what we consider to be essential work, but the reality is that perhaps the greater threat lies in the inevitable compromise of health and safety standards in a workplace that is so dependant on its component parts as to make the essential or not essential debate redundant.
Comentários