Posted By Robert Is it just UK and ROI that imposes threats to those that contravene CDM and H&S etc Regs. I've just come back from Mallorca where workers were contructing a three floor building. The basic shell was up and access to each absent "floor" was by a wooden plank,no-one wore any PPE, the perimeter rail was a loose nylon rope attached to a wooden post in each corner.Yet--all the EU mandatory signage and hazard info was evident. The main site was a mess as well.I could go on. Is it a cost driven thing to make safety non-essential over the construction period,I wonder? No, I wasn't on holiday, no anorak for me.

Posted By John Murgatroyd In fact, you'll win neither worker nor employer. I listened to a "discussion" between a plumber and an electrician, both known to me and both currently working onsite, in which both agreed that H&S regulations had cost them dearly in work done and work lost. I passed a building site this morning on which a worker was on the roof (4th floor) securing the roof covering....with no fall arrester or handrail on the scaffold (which was itself one floor lower than the roof) That was not an isolated incident. The steel erectors used by the firm I work for have a record of not using safety equipment. Why are they still being used ? They get the job done. It's the same everywhere. H&S slows things down. Dramatically in many cases. So it gets ignored. In most cases by the very people it's supposed to protect.

Posted By Merv Newman More like a national culture thing. The British safety culture has been evolving over the last 30 years or more. As a child I had free rein over local building sites which were unfenced. Scaffolding was usually rudimentary with no guarding at second or third floor openings and even today we have trouble getting scaffolders to wear a harness. Sympathise with the workers, but don't get too upset. They'll get there one day.