Posted By Uday
In the following episode the principal actors are as follows :
Owner / client is A.
Main Contractor is B.
Main Sub Contractor is C.
Sub Cont'or to sub cont'r is D.
Sub cont'r to sub cont'r is E.

On a particular project site radiography work was carried out by sub cont'r E with proper work permit etc obtained directly from A, instead of routing the requests thru D,C & B.What has happened in this case is MC B was not informed about this radiography by MSubC C to B all problems started.The simple problem was that the Main Contractor B was NOT informed and the work was carried out by the last sub contractor with work permit etc has ruffled Main contractor's feathers and rocked the boat. Therefore Main Sub contractor's Project Manager has issued a WARNING/Show cause letter to the Safety Officer asking him to explain the lapse in writing.
The question now is The sub contractors who were hired were hired by the Proj.Manager. Instructions to carry out the radiography was also given by the Proj.Manager.The Safety officer is in no way responsible and that there was NO safety violation at all....coz a valid work permit was available. Inspite of this the safety was blamed because things went wrong ( NOT informing ) the Main Contractor about the intention of the work.Instead of looking for the failure in the system and amend things from there they chose to issue a letter to Safety Officer. Is it wrong or right.Comments appreciated please.

Posted By Ken Taylor
An important question to ask is 'Who was in control of the site at the time?'. If, as I suspect, it was a principal contractor (probably under CDM) then they should certainly have been involved in the issue on work permits - and anything else permitted to take place for that matter. It is important to sort out the issues of control, consultations, lines of command, etc prior to work commencing. As to whether there is any blame to be attached to a safety officer, this will depend upon the answer to a number of questions to which we do not have the answer - such as: 'Who is s/he employed by?; What role did s/he have in the contract?; Is s/he the client's appointed representative?; Did s/he know what was happening?; If so, what did s/he do about it?, etc, etc.

Posted By Allan St.John Holt
You ought to say where this project is located! However, the CDM principles that have been outlined in earlier responses are also general good practice globally.

What you describe is not uncommon, and results entirely from a failure of the client (and the client's advisers) to anticipate likely work requirements alongside the contract and project and to set up proper control systems. In many cases this failure is compounded by general contractors who don't want to rock the boat by suggesting the client is incompetent, and by other contractors in the chain who are keen to be friends with everyone in the interests of more work! Also, project managers often have only a very hazy idea of how to manage anything at all, let alone safety. They often don't realise that safety can and has to be managed just like anything else. So when things go wrong, a scapegoat is the first thing looked for.

Depressing, isn't it?

Allan