Are You Ignoring an Insurance Minefield – Part 3?

Welcome to the final part of this newsletter where we will look further at both the obvious and hidden risks of working with contractors.

I have been working with many types of contractors over the last 40 years mostly excellent, some bad. This newsletter is not about quality of workmanship rather it is about knowing who your contractors are and controlling their access to your site / organisation. Just think about the cost in legal claims and insurance as well as damage to reputation if an unidentified / uninsured / unskilled / untrained contractor is given access and has a serious accident or worse dies while working within your organisation.?

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Part 1 covered contractor identification

Part 2 covered Documentation, Skills, Qualifications & Certifications

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As this newsletter has readers from many countries, I recognise that laws and regulations may be different where you live. No matter how well you know the person, there are still many reasons to deny them access. Let’s continue…?

PPE (Personal Protective Equipment)?

Where does one start when it comes to contractors and employees not being PPE compliant? There are a group of individuals who believe they have superhuman powers and are invincible when it comes to being harmed through industrial accidents. For a while, I was associated with an emergency department in a major trauma hospital and there wasn’t a day that went passed that people arrived following avoidable accidents. Some of their ‘justification’ for the accident happening to the triage nurses was to be honest sad but laughable –?

·???????It was too hot to wear the boots or hard hat

·???????It didn’t really hurt the last time

·???????It was only a couple of seconds with the grinder, so I didn’t need the glasses

·???????I’ve been doing it that way for years and never got hurt

·???????And so on…

Over the years working in facilities, I have seen or been made aware of too many accidents that would have been avoided had the correct PPE been worn, too many resulted in life changing injuries. I will not go into the gruesome details but will illustrate brief details of stupidity –?

·???????A person changed from steel toe capped boots to sandals because it was too hot when installing a heavy plate glass shopfront window

·???????A man cutting down trees with a chainsaw wearing shorts

·???????Not wearing a safety harness while climbing a steep smooth roof

·???????Not wearing a welding helmet while working underneath a beam he was welding

·???????Not wearing safety googles or gloves while cutting steel

·???????Not wearing breathing equipment in a hazardous gas environment

·???????Not wearing a hard hat while lifting items up a scaffold

·???????And so on…

From a facilities department viewpoint I know that even if you check PPE on arrival of contractors, once out of view, you do not have much control. However, if an accident happens then not only is it negative publicity for you organisation but unnecessary administration, insurance claims and possibly legalities. This you do not need.?

If you can carry out random checks on contractors and your own staff when they are working and impose severe penalties for being non-PPE compliant, then this would be of benefit not only on your organisation but also the overworked health services.

Accidents waiting to happen – Contractors / Employees

We have all seen the pictures of contractors and employees behaving as it they were starring in a Laurel & Hardy movie with zero regard for their own lives or their work colleagues. There are hundreds of pictures across social media. I could share many stories of acts of sheer madness I have witnessed over the years and for a few their ‘luck’ has since run out permanently.?

But why are they behaving this way?

Money

From my experience, this is the main reason, and it is not always the contractor’s fault. Certainly, there are some prepared to take stupid risks to improve their profit margins but sometimes they are ‘forced’ to take risks either to retain a contract against competitors or budgets have been cut.?

Money isn’t everything and for a contractor or employee, how do you expect to provide for yourself or your family if an accident results in life changing or fatal injuries?

As an employer or a company who has awarded a contract with conditions or margins so tight that you are putting other people’s lives at risk, THERE IS NO JUSTIFIABLE EXCUSE. Find another way to save money.

Time

Using time as an excuse to take risks, it just ridiculous. Again, many times have I seen or heard of risks taken, often because?

·???????the person(s) did not want to return the following day for a couple of hours to complete the work.

·???????There was a match, a birthday party or similar starting, they didn’t want to miss

·???????They wanted to avoid rush hour traffic

·???????Told to finish by a certain time by employer / client.

Everyone is aware of the dangers with speeding and driving. The same applies to rushing to finish a job, you are not only posing a risk to yourself, your work colleagues but potentially a future accident involving others.?

One example I saw on CCTV was an electrician who decided to carry out re-lamping in the middle of the night because he was going on holidays the following day. The lights were over a 5* hotel swimming pool which should have been drained down for safety and of course the work carried out in daylight. Instead, the electrician arrived in the middle of the night with a very tall aluminum A frame ladder which he placed in the pool. He then proceeded to strip down to his boxers and all night long he pushed and climbed soaking wet the ladder as he changed live fittings. Somehow, he survived, however his employment didn’t. I hope he enjoyed his holiday!

Lack of preparation???

Also covers money and time when either a job wasn’t costed or timed correctly. The more complex the job, the more preparation required. I will cover more of this topic in the Risk Assessment section below. Sometimes even simple jobs can become complex, preparation means planning for all possible eventualities. Just hoping everything will be alright on the day is asking for trouble.

Bravado

This vanishes very fast when a person is being loaded into the back of an ambulance. There is nothing more stupid, then when a person places themselves at risk for fear of lessening their image in front of others. This often involves the not wearing of PPE,??or even doing something to get ‘likes’ on some social media platform.

Remember ANY accident, especially one that could have been prevented WILL have a negative impact and consequences.

Accidents waiting to happen – Building Owners

Over the years, I have visited 100’s of sites and while they looked perfect in public areas, behind the scenes in areas serviced by either their own staff or contractors, they were virtually death traps. The total lack of care or concern by some senior management / owners was just staggering. Here are some examples I have seen.

1. Retail store. Public area looked fine but dated. However in corridors, store rooms etc,, the electrical wiring was linen covered and switches bakelite dating back to WWII. In fact, one switch with a copper toggle had a sign next to it saying, “use broom handle to flip switch or you will be electrocuted”. There was no emergency lighting or fire escape. Staff were expected to jump from a 2nd?floor window onto the roof of a van to escape. When I questioned the owner, his actual words were “If something happens, I will be in my villa in … where they cannot touch me”.

2. Luxury Hotel. Dead rats in the kitchen, locked fire escape doors, contractors expected to take high risk routes to access plant as a MEWP would spoil the image of the hotel. When I spoke to the CFO, he said “so what if there is an accident, that’s what I pay my insurance for”.

3. Cinema. The rooftop plant installation gave no consideration for future maintenance by contractors. AHU’s were at the far end of a high walled ‘corridor’. It was impossible to reach them due to tightly packed other plant and pipework etc., in front of them. Contractors were expected to carry boxes of filters along a narrow parapet with a 20m (70ft) drop on one side and safety harness system.

4.Public Building. Asbestos panels behind dozens of radiators. They were painted over but many exposed areas. They were not removed as it would “cause concern” among the staff.

5. Shopping Centre. A commercial boiler connected to a public gas main with a 2” copper pipe and no slam shut valve. It was at 80% corrosion. How this was ever installed in the first place, commissioned, and serviced over the years I do not understand. At peak times there would have been over 1,000 people within 50m of that boiler.

If you are a staff member or a contractor and you are unhappy about the safety of your work environment, notify management. If there is not a resolution, notify your national health and safety authority. Ignoring it because it might impact on your job or contract is minimal against potential injury or loss of life. Examples such as those above should never be tolerated.

Building owners / management, if for a reason you are not being made aware of situations such as above, make it as easy as possible for communication to take place. Otherwise, you may be involved in far more than an insurance minefield.

Risk Assessments

Any contractor with a new contract should conduct their own risk assessment of areas where they may conduct future activity. This should include not only any areas of risk working on particular plant but also in gaining access to the plant location. I would also ask the client for a copy of their own risk assessment, but often this will not exist.

I have had many arguments regarding this over the years. Here in Ireland, the train of thought is that the contractor is responsible for providing a risk assessment when deemed necessary. This is very fine, until there is an incident which involves the courts.

In a civil case, the prosecuting barrister is no way as constrained as in a criminal case and can pretty well ask any question they wish. Below is an actual example where using FacilityManager from CompassAFM saved a client from a 6-figure compensation claim.

A serious accident occurred, and the injured party sued both the company he worked for and the client where the accident took place. In court, the clients, facility manager was on the stand and questioned by the barrister –

Barrister – “Were you aware that it was dangerous for Mr. X to be working within that area?”

Facility Manager – “Yes, I was”

Barrister – “And did you inform Mr. X of those hazards?”

Facility Manager – “Prior to the work commencing, I emailed the job description as well as our own risk assessment document detailing the identified hazards and the means to mitigate them to the company where Mr. X was employed.”

Barrister – “Can you prove this?”

Facility Manager – produces email.

The case against my client was dropped and Mr. X successfully sued the company he worked for as they had not passed on the information supplied by my client.

Now imagine the consequences if my client had been unaware of those hazards and had not informed the company.

Risk assessments are needed for about 5 – 10% of plant and locations within an organisation and ideally should be carried out by both client and contractor.

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If you would like to get more information on proven methods and procedures to remedy the various actual scenarios above, or in our other newsletters - contact CompassAFM at:

Email:[email protected]

WhatsApp:????????00353 87 6076565

Phone / Text:????00353 87 6076565

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CompassAFM

Killarney Road, Macroom,

Co. Cork.

Ireland

www.compassafm.com