We are talking about the construction industry here, dealing with a known hazardous site.
I started my professional H&S career in 1981. Since then the construction sector has been a priority for the Health and Safety Executive each and every year. I understand that this is courtesy of the continuing number of workers killed and injured each year and – in more recent times – the significantly greater numbers of construction workers dying or suffering ill-health due to their occupation.
Industrial relations: In 2009 42 construction companies were caught red handed financing, supporting and using an illegal blacklist which the industry set up in secret. At the point they were caught, 3,200 construction workers were listed on the illegal database. While being an active trade union member would be deemed reasonable justification, no doubt, by anti-union supporters, it was discovered that many were listed because they had raised health and safety issues.
According to the BBC on the 8th of this month:
‘In a submission to the High Court the firms, which include Balfour Beatty, Carillion and Costain Group, accepted that construction companies had provided much of the information and had used it to vet workers seeking employment.
The companies accepted that the vetting information system “infringed workers’ rights to confidentiality, privacy, reputation and latterly data protection”.’
Apparently the defendants in the case, including the construction companies Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Costain, Keir, Lang O’Rourke, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska and Vinci, offered the victims an “unreserved apology”. Seemingly the apology was for ‘any adverse employment consequences and for the distress and anxiety caused to workers and their families.’ It has taken over 6 years to get this apology, and even then it was only by forcing the companies into the High Court.
Sharon Doherty, HR and Organisational Effectiveness Director for Heathrow covered ‘people management’ during the building of Terminal 5, seen as a model for the construction of the Olympic Park and associated buildings. Included in her book ‘Heathrow’s History in the Making’ she makes the following observation:
‘Disputes were always tense and, curiously, part of the strategy was to have a strike at T5, at a time that was least inconvenient and risky for BAA.’
Apparently provoking a strike by management at the time of T5’s choosing, would show shareholders and trade unions alike who was boss. This ‘provoke a strike’ strategy in a model of how to develop a complex construction project!!
Meanwhile, in the HSE’s Strategy document ‘The Health and Safety of Great Britain\\ Be part of the solution’ it states the following in the section on worker involvement:
‘Workplace research provides evidence to suggest that involving workers has a positive effect on health and safety performance. Equally, there is strong evidence that unionised workplaces and those with health and safety representatives are safer and healthier as a result.’
So it appears that the trade unions involved with the multi-billion pound subcontracted construction activity at Sellafield have finally got the contractors to adopt the most effective mechanism for worker involvement; a recognised plus for positive health and safety cultures and key to improving health and safety performance.
Congratulations are in order - it took some doing!
Cheers.
NigelB