Posted By asdfgh I could do with a little advice regarding working at height from our learned colleagues. I am a Health and Safety Manager for a medium sized construction company. I currently have two contracts that require some extra repair work to similar roofs. The work involves a guy going up onto the roof and carrying out short duration, simple fabrication / repair work in both instances. The problem is that, although access to both jobs is to be by 'cherry picker / scissor lift, the arrangements for edge protection would be almost non-existant, because they would have to step outside of the working platform to carry out the minor tasks. They would have harnesses on and clipped to the cherry picker, and I know that they shouldn't be stepping out of the cage, but there is nowhere to clip on to on each of the roofs.....what do I do. Even if there was a cherry picker that had the reach to be able to position over the roof, the operative would still have to get out of the cherry picker to do the task. Any comment / advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Steve (I had trouble at register stage, hence I have a daft user name)

Posted By Ron Hunter You rightly identify that stepping out of the MEWP cage cannot be justified if at the roof edge.(Presumably there is no other means of access to the roof - shame on the building designer!)Are these flat roofs?If the boom arrangement allowed for centering over the roof so that the risk of fall from height is eliminated (you don't say how wide it is), then the operative could set up one of the commercially available temporary anchor systems (such as advertised by 'Safesite' in the October issue of the Safety & Health Practitioner)whilst remaining clipped on to one or other at all times. You will have to avoid any 'pendulum' effect as a result of falls from the edge, and think about means of rescue! Try and urge your client to install edge or fall protection system - at least a centre-line anchor system. Check the SWL of your MEWP for man, anchor system and work materials, etc. Some training on the system will be required.