No place for complacency when it comes to safety on building sites
COMPLACENCY relating to the safety of employees in their place of work can never be allowed to set in.
That was one of the key messages from EPS Contracts Director John Lynch who, along with his team, attended the Construction Safety Week held in Millstreet.
EPS, which is currently undertaking a €5million upgrade of the Millstreet Wastewater Treatment Plant in partnership with Irish Water, used the site of works for the focussed theme for the week being: ‘Better Safety for Smaller Contractors’.
EPS employs just shy of 500 people between their offices, branches, sites and plants, not only across Ireland but the UK and the Middle East.
Mr Lynch said maintaining the health and safety of the company’s expanding workforce is their “top priority”.
Construction Safety Week has been organised by the Construction Industry Federation, which is urging all large contractors and sub-contractors to evaluate their work practices and to ensure they work in a safe, collaborative manner on site. With a strong economic recovery in the construction sector in recent years, there’s a concern that the increased activity has the possibility in creasing construction fatalities.
Last year, there were five fatalities within the construction sector compared to nine the year previously. The 2017 fatalities involved small contractors or self-employed construction workers.
“Our team is constantly revising and updating our health and safety practices, training our employees and reviewing how we get the message across to those working directly for us and sub-contractors,” Mr Lynch said.
And the message was clear throughout EPS all this week, as there were H&S briefings over breakfast where the teams were brought up to speed on five different health and safety topics over the week. Topics looked at working safely at height, positive mental health, working safely near utilities, and working with hazardous substances and with vehicles.
“We have worked on a series of animations to truly engage without teams in our offices, branches and, of course, on site. Evidence shows that video and animation engages the audience and is extremely effective and memorable way of communicating,” he said.
When the Millstreet plant is completed it will serve as a huge boost to the local community. At present its existing plant serves a population of approximately 1,600. However, the upgraded plant will serve 3,220. It is expected the work will continue for another 12 months.