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#1 Posted : 29 June 2006 12:15:00(UTC)
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Posted By Dee
Currently about to deal with an incident to do with the above. Night Shift Manager took it upon himself to hold a BBQ in the site compound of a construction site last night. Have H&S person making their way to the site as we speak.

Any suggestions about how we tackle this from an H&S perspective? I have been through the Joint Code of Practice for Fire Prevention and unsurprisingly there is no mention of BBQs!

Alcohol was possibly involved but that is only hearsay and obviously becomes an HR issue if this found to be true, but until then I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Dee
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#2 Posted : 29 June 2006 12:24:00(UTC)
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Posted By Jim Walker
Amazing what goes on, on nightshifts!

Suggest H&S take a very much backseat role if you can.
Unless you have a ineffectual HR dept, they should have enough to sort this out.

Says something about your company safety culture, I fear.



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#3 Posted : 29 June 2006 12:31:00(UTC)
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Posted By Robert K Lewis
In the same vein as Jim - be careful about getting involved this may have been a team building evening with the client. The mere fact of a barbeque happening does not automatically mean something is or was unsafe in the doing of it.

I would leave it to others to deal with and not be seen to be creating ill-feeling between the line management and safety unless there was definitive unsafe actions or behaviour. The alcohol issue is definitely one for HR to deal with in my book.

Bob
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#4 Posted : 29 June 2006 12:41:00(UTC)
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Posted By Steven
Did the incident involve and accident/injury?

Steve
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#5 Posted : 29 June 2006 12:54:00(UTC)
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Posted By RJT
Was it really a problem that requires someone to be sent to deal with it from a H&S point of view?

Sometimes I think we have a tendency to overreact to things, and can be seen as miserable gits who want to stop everything. It might be better to let local management 'deal' with it.

I had a BBQ at home the other night. The BBQ was situated a couple of feet from the side of the house - surprisingly the house didn't burn down!!
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#6 Posted : 29 June 2006 13:11:00(UTC)
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Posted By Fornhelper
I used to work on construction sites when I lived in Oz and these were regular events at the end of the week or a contract. So long as the guys were in a safe area, no construction traffic moving around and not returning to work afterwards then no problems. In fact they were b***dy brilliant mate ...(and no sheila's to annoy you either !!!) :)

FH
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#7 Posted : 29 June 2006 14:21:00(UTC)
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Posted By Dave Wilson
Where can I get a copy of the Joint Code?
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#8 Posted : 29 June 2006 14:52:00(UTC)
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Posted By Glyn Atkinson
From a non regulatory viewpoint, does the compound welfare facilities include power and water mains? Are naked flames an allowable feature on the site, with suitable controls in place for fire control? Are the staff your own people or contract workers, and in either case, have they read and understood laid down site rules? Would the security staff ordinarily be able to prepare hot food on site with current facilities?

Coming from the far side now,

Should there have been a Hot Work permit in force for the BBQ?

Did anyone check to see if a planned and risk assessed event was actually taking place?

Are you miffed that you didn't get an invite? - Sorry, I know that you are serious, but we are supposed to be human!!

Back to more serious - the beer or alcohol element would be more serious to my mind, as that could alter the sensibility of guards when at work , if proven to be found at the location.

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#9 Posted : 29 June 2006 15:20:00(UTC)
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Posted By Dee
Thanks for those who provided the helpful comments. I was trying to gather information for a colleague who was on the road and I have found in the past thst this forum can be a good place to gather information quickly.

I myself was of the opinion this was an HR issue and some colleagues have confirmed this for me.

I am in means a kill joy and enjoy a BBQ as much as the next person but someone asked me for my help and opinion and I wished to gain others before coming back to him.

There have been a couple of points on the comments posted which were to me out of turn but hey ho, I have a thick skin and don't really take these things to heart.

The fact the Company chose to send an H&S person down there was up to them I merely was doing a friend a favour.

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#10 Posted : 29 June 2006 15:53:00(UTC)
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Posted By RJT
Dee

Your thread did make it sound like it was you who had instigated the response to the incident. It also made it sound like it was considered to be a major incident which required immediate action.

When I read it I got one of those "for goodness sake, does it really matter?" moments.

The point I was trying to make - very crudely I admit - was that BBQs are generally very safe. The Shift Manager, who presumably has some authority over the site, decides to have a BBQ.

If it was done in a safe manner, and there aren't any specific site rules preventing it - then does it really matter?
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#11 Posted : 29 June 2006 19:50:00(UTC)
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Posted By steven bentham
Dee

I wish I was invited to BBQs on site, what a good idea.

Good tip, look for well cooked burgers and a cold coke.

Its a good opportunity to develop your interpersonal skills and get a free feed!!
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#12 Posted : 30 June 2006 06:41:00(UTC)
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Posted By Charley Farley-Trelawney
As a company we have been providing a BBQ on our site twice a week. This is the second week now and it is very popular with the staff, clients, and General Public.

I have attended now on both days for both weeks, and :"we H&S Managers/Officers/Directors must get involved with situations like this. I have, and I can thoroughly recommend the Pimms, and the quality of the food. And further I consider it a great team building exercise, I would add though that I am not promoting the consumption of alcohol if carrying out works that clearly one must have a clear mind for and almost certainly adhere to a works alcohol policy.

My MD was keen to buy the jug of Pimms and we were keen to drink it, food has been brilliant, weather great, what more could you want?

Oh, and yes, gas storage ticked, manual handling ticked, coshh ticked, fire regs ticked (and FRA updated) and all other regs/acts ticked, insurers notified, phew I think that was all I had to do, ahhh, DSE assessments, and ergonomic relationships! nearly forgot, its the eyes after the Pimms you see, no pun intended.

Just thought I would mention how we do it in the South West, and we are a large group of companies, we do not have any work area that a bad example has been set by the consumption of a small glass or two of Pimms, I would not advocate this, there are many very nice soft drinks about and you should not set a bad example by consuming alchohol if your policy is one of ZERO TOLERANCE. Remember folks everything in moderation (ish)

CFT
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#13 Posted : 30 June 2006 08:00:00(UTC)
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Posted By Glyn Atkinson
It would be interesting to get "red" Merv's view on the British BBQ situation, I bet he will be chuckling at some local event to him over a bottle of the wet red stuff and a baguetted burger??

We are discussing the difference between an organised event and someone who could be breaking site rules unofficially.

That has to be established, and if the thread originator would update us on the outcome, I for one would like to know which it was at the site.

It was certainly a different scenario to most put on here, and provoked some differences in opinion.

It showed that no two H&S people would, or should, assess the same situation in a similar manner without pertinent facts to hand.
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#14 Posted : 30 June 2006 09:25:00(UTC)
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Posted By Ali
May sound facetious (spelling ?) , but you could ask them if they had done a Risk assessment on this activity as all "hazardous" activities need to be risk assessed. This will put the ball back in their court !
Ali
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