Posted By phalda I cannot believe that certain companies are keeping Construction sites open despite the obvious risks to safety... What are there Safety Advisors upto...???? We have slips,trips,falls.. Safe means of access and egress to,from and during work .. This is blatant disregard for the Law in favour of production.. And you wonder why workers dont take H and S seriously.. I despair

Posted By Haggis JM What a shock!!! Snow in winter - unheard of! Surely this is an anticipated event and should not cause any real problems. Why does this country grind to a halt at the first snowflake? Do Switzerland, Austria, Scandinavia close their construction sites in winter? Outdoor work continues here (Aberdeen) without any disruption...

Posted By Neil R Excuse me? what are you talking about here? Do you mean snow? If so, how do you know what activities are being carried out? Is the work undercover? Most construction sites will do light works in snow and heavy rain, for example tidying up. Our sites are open today, but we don't work at height, we don't do groundworks, we don't excavate, we don't do much but we are still open. When bad weather is forecast we heavily grit all areas. The point of Health and Safety is to enable work to go ahead safely not to shut up shop and ban things.

Posted By Ian Futcher We have a Polish Fork Truck Driver who was back home this weekend. He has arrived for work today. He was astonished that the 6cm of snow deposited in South Hampshire has caused such disruption. In Krakow, the 60cm that were deposited caused no real prolems at all. And it's not so much that we don't get it very often; it is a difference in expectations. In Poland, when it snows you still go to work; in GB, one flake halts everything (hyberbole, I know, but hey!) Ian

Posted By phalda Yes and we have a Polish worker who paints top floor windows from a rope ladder coz thats what they do in Poland

Posted By Raymond Rapp I'm in work today but when I got in the office at 08:30 I was the only one here apart from a handful of operatives. I was lucky as I got probably one of the last trains running on the Met Line and no Jubilee running at all. Agreed, we don't make a very good fist of it when snow falls - but it is lovely. Happy days. Ray

Posted By phalda Neil R.... Yes I work in Construction..( 30 years) and the facts are that ( as usual) when it suits management H and S has little importance.. Yes I am s/employed and yes I told my men not to go in because of the risks and it is the site manager himself who is demanding our presence as others are working ( see last post).. The site itself is a refurb ( external works) and to make it safe access wise would mean clearing the whole area as cabins etc are spread everywhere.. Sorry if I left the thread unclear.. With regard to s/employed losing wages .. I think this is missing the point of a SAFE workplace.. So a person should work in unsafe conditions solely for monetary reasons...I THINK NOT

Posted By Haggis JM OK, maybe I should elaborate a bit more... I was not refering specifically to today, as I admit that as yet we have nowhere near as much snow as SE England. What I was getting at was that an outdoor site should be prepared for adverse weather and have plans in place to cope. We have had heavy snow previously and work continues, including work at ~ 2 - 3 metre heights. I also deal with bases in Norway - snow is a way of life there and everyone expects to turn up at work and get on with it.

Posted By Neil R If its not safe then make it safe, if it can't be made safe then consider other options. Shutting site should not be the first option. Because of the Adverse weather plan, we haven't had any problems with the weather, sure we can't do as much as we wanted to however we are doing something, with no hazards caused by the weather at all. Perhaps you should suggest to the site manager that he plans better, after all we knew on thursday last week this was coming.

Posted By Ian Futcher A prevailing work climate in UK is that we look for reasons not to turn up at work, and snow is a perfect excuse... after all isn't the news channel telling us not to travel? ...that it isn't safe? My philosophy is that going 7 or 8 miles to work (or even more if along A roads used by public transport, as the Councils/Highways agency will grit the route) isn't "travel". After all, I bet you anything you like, some (many?) of the "stay-at-homes" will travel some significant distance in their cars today (to the shops, friends or relatives), but are itching for an excuse not to go to work... And I am in South Hampshire. We've had 6 cm snow - not a lot by any standards, but more than has fallen for 10 years in this area, and so everyone is thinking "whoo-hoo: not working today", and also "can't go in: what happens if it snows some more and we get stranded?" Another thing that "grinds my gears" about the small amount of snow we get here is: everyone drives as though either (a) there is no slip hazard at all, and drives too fast/right on your tail, or (b) soooo slow (and in the wrong gear) that any small snow-covered incline becomes insurmountable. Drive sensibly, low-rev higher gears, at a low-moderate speed with gaps between cars. It's not so difficult is it? It's Winter. It's Snow. It's rare, but not unheard of. It's not enough to stop work/travel/safe actions. Get over it. Ian

Posted By Graham Bullough According to the BBC TV news last night the UK is currently experiencing a snow "event"! Judging by the amount of coverage devoted to it, perhaps there weren't enough other topics to fill the news slot. In some ways it reminded me of the misleading and sensationalist coverage given by news people to the Original Mountain Marathon (OMM) event over a very wet weekend late last October in the Lake District. I'm always amused by the fact that some people get in a frazzle at the slightest hint of snow as though they've never experienced it before and/or simply don't plan for it. Despite UK winters tending to be wetter rather than colder nowadays through global warming/climate change, we still get snow - okay, more in some areas than others - and ought to plan for and accommodate it accordingly. I share Ian Futcher's gripes about drivers who either drive like nutters with no heed to snowy conditions or are scared by them and drive too slowly and timorously. If you're not sure about driving on snow and want to develop more confidence, try finding and driving around on a deserted area of car park somewhere. You'll get a better idea of how your vehicle responds on snow at different speeds. I found it useful during a decade of driving considerable distances in Northern Scotland until the late 1980s. On top of Ian's advice, try to avoid sudden acceleration, braking and changes of direction. As you might deduce from the above I'm not fazed by snow. What does make me wary though is when snow melts and freezes again to leave treacherous glass-like surfaces or thin films of ice on untreated roads and pavements, etc. It seems that this aspect of snow tends to get overlooked by people.

Posted By Robert K Lewis If people knew how to drive on snow we would have fewer problems. I often am nearly wiped out on Holme Moss by drivers who are incapable of using high gear and lowest revs possible, avoiding use of brakes. If we had more snow we might get used to driving in it Bob

Posted By Haggis JM not enough snow; no closing early... ...so I can't even get out for a nice run in the hills! :o(

Posted By MickN OK, I don't understand why everyone is confused about the weather stopping everything. The answer is surely clear, nobody is prepared, nobody expected or planned for this and I, for one, am OK with that. Let's face it, weather of this kind only happens on a rare occasion and we don't handle it very well when it does. The good people of countries where it's a common occurrence, and expected seasonally, of course treat it as a mild annoyance and get on with their lives but then that's normal for them. THe point is it's not normal for us, and even less so for those of us in the ROI. I did have a work related experience on this exact issue. The PC refused to make a call to stop all work on site. The contractors refused to make the call to stop their people from working. The reason? It came down to money, whoever made the call would be responsible for paying the contractors while they were sitting it out in the canteen. Phalda, for contractors, work means money which means they can put food on the table. Safety takes a back seat if the pressure is on. Mick

Posted By phalda Mick.. at last a response that states the reality.. Thank you..I obviously failed to state my case properly .. hence some of the ludicrous responses ... It seems Money is the God again.. how little some people have learned .. but yet again it is not Them who suffer the accident..

Posted By phalda Keith money is not everyones God.. there are those of those who have a genuine interest in the well-being of others without money being the chief consideration...I agree that economics take the greater role and I have no wish to dispute that fact... the fact I do dispute is that certain practioners seem to use money as their first consideration ( as most management do) and forget that it is people they are supposed to be protecting NOT the economy of companies... If you treat your job in this profession as purely managerial then you should not be doing the job in the first place... This is not a personal attack on anyone on this site it is a general observation of the H/S management culture ..

Posted By A Campbell Isn't this when Business Continuity Planning kicks in.... how many companies have such things in the event of weather conditions as well as incidents?