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Labour Protection Council talked about safety in construction Work safety in construction was the most important topic discussed during the Labour Protection Council’s session held at the seat of Parliament on 16 February 2010. Experiences gained from the National Labour Inspectorate’s inspection and supervisory activities in that sector of economy were presented by Deputy Chief Labour Inspector dr Marian Liwo.
In the assessment of the labour inspectorate, a significant influence on high accident rates in construction can be attributed to: reducing costs of activity, especially through “savings” connected with employment by construction companies of workers with limited knowledge and practical experience, high turnover of staff caused by labour migration of experienced workers, seasonal nature of construction work and generally low level of work safety culture. Some optimism can be connected with a fall in the number of those injured in work accidents last year; this, however, does not change a general picture of poor standards of work safety on construction sites in Poland. In accordance with uniform guidelines, in 2009 labour inspectors conducted 6272 inspection visits to almost 4 thousand construction sites. The visits focused on observance of OSH provisions and hazardous work tasks during which the largest number of accidents occurs each year. These included: work at heights, in excavations, work on construction of roads and bridges. On construction sites, the largest number of serious irregularities were connected with work at heights. Inspectors identified lack of equipment for collective protection against falls from heights, failure to safeguard access routes, passages and technological openings, as well as lack of personal protective equipment against falls from heights. Very often employers did not fulfil the duty to have scaffolding approved by authorised specialists. In most cases it resulted in performing work on incorrectly erected or incomplete scaffolding. There were no guardrails around working platforms or the existing guardrails were inadequate. It was determined during one fifth of inspections that employees either were not equipped with personal protective equipment or did not use it; this referred mainly to equipment for head protection and equipment protecting against falls from heights. During construction work on roads and bridges, the largest number of irregularities were those connected with safeguarding and marking of hazardous zones and places, among others near working specialist machines and equipment for earthworks, road works and construction work. Every fifth inspected employer did not draw up instructions for safe performance of work. It usually resulted in incorrect method of performing work, including also particularly hazardous tasks. Dr Marian Liwo emphasised that identified irregularities were eliminated through actions which followed from legal measures applied by labour inspectors. Yet, in many cases the effects were not sustainable, because thanks to the inspectorate’s interventions, mistakes were eliminated on one construction site, yet similar ones occurred at the same enterprise working on another construction site or even on the same construction site soon after the labour inspector had left it. The Deputy Chief Labour Inspector said that in 2010 the labour inspectorate will also conduct short visits to construction sites with a view to achieving a sustainable improvement of work safety. It means that inspectors will focus their attention on direct hazards to employees’ health or life and use adequate legal measures; such short visits to the same site will be repeated a few times. Participants of the discussion mentioned poor legal provisions on tender procedures as one of the main causes of poor working conditions in construction. The price criterion is dominant in tendering procedures and it is a reason why the contracts are sometimes awarded to unreliable bidders who later seek profits by economising on work safety. The participants also mentioned the need to educate construction workers in OSH and they stressed past achievements of the National Labour Inspectorate and the Central Institute for Labour Protection in developing employers’ awareness to the desired level. There was a suggestion that certificates for construction workers confirming their competence should be introduced. Another idea was to organize 4 or 5 exemplary construction sites in order to educate employers and disseminate good practices among them.
The session, chaired by MP Izabela Katarzyna Mrzygłocka, was attended by the Chief Labour Inspector Tadeusz Jan Zając and his Deputy Anna Tomczyk.
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