Good, but not good enough

If you compare number of fatalities to GDP, the UK has the safest construction industry of the top six EU economies. Lined up from safest down, the list would be like this: UK, Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy and Spain (on 2002 figures supplied by Eurostat).

So that’s something to be proud of, and here’s something else: Since 2001 the fatal injury rate has fallen 40%, the major injury rate for employees has fallen 12% and the employee over-three-day accident rate has fallen 18%.

We’ve come some distance but, on the other hand, 64 people have died since April 2004, so the journey hasn’t even really begun yet.

At the end of last month the industry held a summit to take stock of progress since the last one in 2001. Delegates listened to 11 speakers over three-and-a-half hours. As an opportunity to shift gear, to hear fresh ideas, it was disappointing. Strip away all the pieties and we’re left, pretty much, with more of the same.

There was even a backward step or two. Take the MCG’s decision to stop focusing on annual 10% reduction targets. “Such targets imply that it is still okay to injure or kill people each year,” said health and safety group chair and Bovis chief John Spanswick. Instead, the MCG will push for “Zero Tolerance”. It’s hard to see how anything other than annual performance measurements will guide the way to zero tolerance.

The problem is that there is currently no single string one can pull to make the industry act in unison. There could be, though, in the form of tougher legislation that makes directors responsible for health and safety breaches. That’s why one of the more positive things last month was the Construction Confederation’s change of heart on the subject of the Health and Safety (Directors Duties) Bill (See page 14). If unions and employers can lobby together for effective laws, we may find the string we’re looking for.