When looking for work in the construction industry it’s important to have the right skills. When I started work on a site for the first time I found myself working for a company who didn’t really care for training. I had no experience and no skills to speak of yet within a couple of days I was left to work strip a roof of a house while my employer went off to get some lunch. Call me naive but I had no idea that I was working illegally, so when health and safety inspectors turned up a few weeks later I thought it was just a run of the mill kind of thing.
Concerned Citizens Reported the Lack of Safety on Site
As it turned out the clients whose house we were working on had reported my boss, and the inspectors were coming to inspect the site. They weren’t happy with what they found out, and they were really concerned about the risks that I had been exposed to. My old boss was prosecuted as he had broken the health and safety laws, quite a few of them, and as a result he went out of business.
When I began looking for more work I learnt just how risky my first job in the industry had been. I managed to get a job pretty quickly thanks to a mate, and my new employer made a massive deal about health and safety on the site. I was given the opportunity to train through the company and gain some skills and knowledge which would keep me, and those around me safe. I found out it was important to be tidy and to assess the risks if I spotted any. My new boss was constantly going on about risk assessments and wouldn’t let me do anything without showing me the safe methods of work, talking about what the risks were and making sure I was wearing the right equipment, especially hard hats, he was a real stickler for that.
I was Lucky Not to Have Been Killed on my First Job
Since going on a few health and safety courses I am now fully aware of how my actions on site can affect everyone else, and the public. I also know that my employer and supervisor have a responsibility to help keep me and my work mates’ safe on site. So far we haven’t had any major incidents and that goes to show how effective the right training can be. One of the guys managed to pull his back when carrying some bricks and that was bad enough.
If you read the papers you will probably have seem loads of reports about serious accidents on sites up and down the country. Just a couple of weeks back I read about two guys who fell off a platform, they were both seriously injured. The construction industry has the most work related deaths too, which can be a little disconcerting if you think about it too long. I am so grateful to my boss for helping me to be aware of the dangers and working hard to make sure all the hazards are kept to a minimum while we work.
Take Health and Safety Seriously
If you are working in the construction industry you must make sure the people you are working for take health and safety seriously. It’s your right and your duty to bring up any concerns you have about the safety of your site with your supervisor and manager. You may have to take your concerns further if nothing is done. At the end of the day you’re working in an extremely dangerous industry where serious life changing injuries happen all the time, and people even lose their lives.
Taking CSCS tests will provide you with basic health and safety training and skills which can make the difference between life and death.
Is Your Site Safe?
Occupational health and safety specialists or known as construction-site safety managers, design and put into practice safety regulations in an effort to reduce accidental injuries and mishaps. These construction site safety managers may perform day-to-day safety audits and assessments to make sure compliance with government rules.