On safety in construction during a meeting with journalists

– I address my words to construction employers and entrepreneurs and all persons performing work in construction and ask them to rigorously observe rules and regulations of work safety! – appealed Bożena Borys-Szopa, Chief Labour Inspector during a press conference at the Chief Labour Inspectorate in Warsaw on 9 July 2008. Already in the first quarter of this year twice as many persons died on construction sites as compared to the same period last year.

The head of labour inspection remarked that the scale of tragedy would have been much larger had it not been for a categorical and immediate reaction of the National Labour Inspectorate to every instance when OSH regulations were infringed upon. In the current year labour inspectors had to issue already almost 2800 decisions ordering to stop construction works due to immediate risks to employees’ life and health and decisions to transfer, to other tasks, 3500 employees and other persons engaged contrary to legal provisions in hazardous, forbidden and harmful tasks.

Bożena Borys-Szopa announced that this autumn National Labour Inspectorate will conduct mass inspections and re-inspections on construction sites throughout the country. NLI will check: level of compliance with provisions and rules of work safety and legality of employment.

This summer labour inspectors will continue current, routine actions on construction sites, resulting from the work programme and received complaints. They will pay special attention to information and preventative initiatives, which were presented to journalists in more detail by Anna Tomczyk, Deputy Chief Labour Inspector responsible for prevention. Inspectors will provide technical and legal advice, conduct training, preventative and promotional actions and programmes. In January 2009 NLI will begin a large, three-year campaign devoted to work safety on construction sites with a view to preventing accidents caused by falls from heights, slips or trips. The campaign subject results from the fact that every tenth fatal accident on construction sites is caused by such incidents.

The level of work safety in construction was discussed by Deputy Chief Labour Inspector responsible for supervision, Roman Giedrojć. He expressed the inspectorate’s concern with data of the Central Statistical Office which shows that the number of accident victims in construction in the first quarter of 2008 increased by 21% as compared to the same period a year ago. 24 individuals died in accidents. Their most frequent circumstances were trips and falls, especially from heights, and hitting of victims by objects falling from heights. More than half of persons injured in accidents have work experience shorter than 1 year.

In the first half of 2008 labour inspectors conducted 6132 inspections in more than 5 thousand construction enterprises all over the country. The most frequently identified irregularities in the area of OSH included: incorrectly erected scaffolding, lack of collective protective measures against falls from heights, incorrect safeguarding of excavations, failure to secure openings in ceilings and external walls, employees’ failure to use the required personal protective equipment. As a result, NLI’s inspectors issued, among others, 33722 orders, imposed 2458 fines to the total amount of over 3 million zlotys, and submitted 459 motions for penalty to magistrate courts.

Roman Giedrojć also talked of the results of inspections in construction in connection with Poland’s preparations for EURO 2012. Labour inspectors identified and eliminated irregularities during excavation work conducted on the site of a future stadium “Arena Bałtycka” in Gdańsk, on the construction site of the National Stadium in Warsaw and at modernisation of “Lech Poznań” stadium in Poznań. On the other hand, inspectors have not noticed any irregularities during development of the investment in Cracow.

NLI’s preventative initiatives on construction sites related to organization of EURO were presented during the meeting with journalists by adviser to the Chief Labour Inspector Dariusz Smoliński, while Director of Legality of Employment Department at Chief Labour Inspectorate, Jarosław Leśniewski talked of the results of inspections focused on legality of employment conducted in the construction sector in the first half of this year. He emphasised, among others, that in the current year National Labour Inspectorate adopted a rule that legality of employment is checked on every inspected site. Therefore, in comparison with the 2nd half of 2007, the number of such inspections increased by 55 percent. Irregularities related to legality of employment and observance of provisions of the Act on promotion of employment and labour market institutions, were revealed during as many as every second inspection!

On the same day, conferences similar to the one organized at the Chief Labour Inspectorate were held at all NLI’s district and subdistrict offices.