Hi All I'm looking at implementing the above card system across all our sites from 2010 for non compliance by trades. does anyone have a suitable template i could adapt please. Many thanks in advance to any helpers. Tony

I'm assuming this is to augment existing health and safety systems which promotes saftey improvement in a culture which encourages involvent across the board and actually facilitates safe and healthy working? If not: Yeah, blame the trades for non-compliance. Pressure the individual workers who are already under pressure form their employers to take safety short cuts, instead of taking a top down approach. In my experience of working under it, being placed at risk by employers it falls short. It's another mechanism for penalising the workers for the main contractors' and employers' failings in their duty of care to their employees and contractors. I think many other organisations have copied other organisations' templates without actually putting any thought into providing safe systems of work or ensuring contractor companies provide their people with safe systems of work. Excuse the typos, I can spell, I had an eye injury yesterday so things are bit blurred due to a red and yellow card system operator providing insufficient general and task lighting on the worksite, not providing suitable PPE, having the site open with no water supply (shouldn't this be a requirement for welfare and first aid), having no first aiders on site, locking the site office with the first aid box inside (I didn't take all of my first response kit, there are inadequate security facilities), locking the loo block, (no mirror in there anyway but I'm sure the football types would only see provision of a mirror as vain). i.e working in near-darkness with a jigsaw, only specs used, swarf in eye and My presentation to A&E was delayed by the red/yellow card operator providing insuficient site access lighting, not limiting the speed of vehicular traffic, not providing a barrier between a pitch black access road and the drainage ditch downstream from farm (the stream conveying God know what pathogens from the rear end of livestock. i.e. jumped out the way of a car with full beams on, landed in drainage ditch with a distinct smell of bull. My presentation to A&E was made more necessary by the red/yellow card operator not taking reasonable care to provide safe pathways between contractors' storage containers locked welfare facilities, site offices (i.e while looking for fitst aid box foot stuck between the gap between paving slabs and fell on my good elbow) They say things come in threes, eh? Fortunately my ankle is only sprained (though the hour walk to work today in the snow was grim), my elbow isn't fractured, the scrath on my cornea will probably heal in a few weeks and I've not contracted any disease yet from E. Coli, C. Tetani, Crypto, V. Cholerae .... I'm sure if the site manager had been there and ventured out his warm office, still blinkered to the hazards he is not managing he would have red carded me. What good would penalising me do?, It's his and his company's responsibility to ensure the provisions of appropriate equipment, fisrt aid, welfare facilities safe access and egress etc. Needless to sy nothing was said about it, the hazards still remain despite them being pointed out before the incident and another wido with a cscs card will probably get a fat bonus for all his safety effots while rushing the job forward. There are other more successful commercial off the shelf safety systems e.g. STOP

I am not, and never have been, in favour of these type of systems. Before entering the Occupational Health and Safety profession, I was trained and worked as a lift engineer, and experienced first hand the sometimes extreme difficult conditions and pressures which trades personnel have to work under. Quite frankly, if I had one of those cards thrust in my face I would most likely tell the individual what they can go and do with it.

I've never actually used this particular type of system, but I fully understand the reasons why some correspondents here are against such systems. There is a place for disciplinary measures in the H&S armoury however; let's face it we all surely know that occassionally we come up against individuals that simply refuse to comply, and sometimes in these circumstances we have to fall back on disciplinary measures. I think the "3 strikes and you're out" approach is rather better then a red card system because it provides a staged approach which broadly follows HR/legal methods. Yes - change he culture, Yes- provide training and support, Yes- lead by example, but I suggest we keep "3 strikes" as a final back-up.

I think site managers would be reluctant to take on a 180degree safety programme like DuPont's STOP programme due to the number and severity of stop cards they would receive.

addendum to my previous post should read eliminate NO respect not eliminate more respect

A very good selection of posts for this topic. My view with the original post refering to "construction sites". I think you need both - enforcement and culture. At an established site with an established workforce cultural improvement should be your drive - but you will also have the "gross misconduct" route through HR if needed. On a construction site, where contracotrs can turn up for the morning induction, do a days work and never be seen again - they bring their "culture" with them. You do not have the time to motivate, coax, modify their behaviours in the short time they are on site - even though you may have a very good safety culture in place. In these cases a "card" system may be appropriate, and I have and do use such systems. BUT - it must be applied across the board, no discrimination - have a right of appeal - applied fairly and with common sense and a real understanding of the hazards, risks and consequences - learn from the card system- analyse it - audit it - act and respond accordingly

I am with the group that doesn't like these red & yellow card systems. Had them down at the Olympics when we were constructing the Stadium. Cards flying around like confetti including a yellow for yours truly (using a mobile phone without standing still) - then with only a year to go before the opening ceremony they did some additional behaviour training & went for zero tolerance, e.g. one transgression & your off site - this change was adopted primarily because other big construction jobs, e.g. T5, Canary Wharf etc. had seen the vast majority of the majors in the last months of the project..... you know the drill, people taking their eye off the ball & light at the end of the tunnel business. Well ironically no one was 'kicked off site' when we went to zero tolerance. Which begged the question from many, including tradesman, why did we bother with the cards in the first place?