Job Safety in Wellington
Wellington has a more difficult sites due to topography and a lot of buildings are multi-story as opposed to the Hutt Valley where we can often drive right to the back door of single story house.
Where does Safety Start
There is a risk when a person stands on the first rung of a ladder or hops into their vehicle to drive to work. How ever realistically entering some properties can be risky for example a slippery pavement or rotten steps are common.
We are required to perform a safety assessment before entering properties. The work starts before we open the front gate.
Setting Realistic Expectations
Service personnel are often asked to perform high risk work to save few dollars for example it is common for us to be asked to go up a ladder on three story building and get on a roof with a 45 degree pitch and carry roofing materials with us in the dark while it is raining in winter as the roof has a rust hole in it and damage is being done inside the roof and the customer does not want to put a bucket under it or they just want a free assessment.
Minimizing or Eliminating the Risk
We are required after making a list of hazards to minimise them or preferably eliminate them.
In the plumbing Gasfitting and Roofing professions there are a number of risks but the highest is working at heights.
Reason for this Page
The working at heights issue is one where there is significant expense in eliminating or minimising the risk and customers often expect us to work without implementing any safety or they are unaware of the extent to which the law has changed or what this means for contractors.
It is no longer ok for us to simply not have an accident we have to implement processes and procedures before we start to even look at the roof. This is contrary to customer perception where customer believe work is done by doing something. Where we are required to under take before work before entering the site and work after leaving it for example finding out how to access the roof safely. Which may involve getting experts involved in order to comply with the law.
Some jobs are complex and building are being built in more risky and high wind places.