Dear readers,
As a crane driver and dogman in the construction industry I cannot speak for the carpenter I work beside, the steel-fixer who labours with spine bent and hands torn, the sparky who does mysterious things with wiring, or the humble peggy who cleans our amenities.
I can, however, offer you an insight into an industry where safety is mentioned at every turn, (although health takes a convenient back seat). Where documents and brochures are produced about it until I can hear the Amazon scream "no more" but where, in reality, safety remains “more honoured in the breach than the observance”. Yes, these words are borrowed but I could think of none more fitting.
Health and safety: a fine idea, remembered only when the god of production is appeased, or when WorkSafe is dragged into the light by someone with the courage to ring them, or when a good OH&S rep or delegate or individual (with the backing of their union and mates) is courageous enough to take to task an employer who sees health and safety as an impediment.
Although I don’t wish to do good men an injustice by suggesting all jobs are letting down their employees by failing to have good risk assessment and control measures in place, I can comfortably claim that those places that aren’t are so rare in this new world, they remain etched in our memories. After 30 years, they can be counted on one hand. They are thought of fondly, as you might think about your children or a great work of art. Even if only to be drawn upon as a reminder that all hope is not lost; that efficiency and safety can go hand in hand if the work culture allows for the marrying of skill and need.
So common is the erosion of standards and consequent de-skilling in our industry that the topic of discussion amongst any crane crew will be this. It may not be the only thing we talk about but it will be the topic we talk about with the most passion and sometimes for too damn long. Keeping this in mind I will appraise you of some of the more astounding or flagrant breaches I have seen. Many of them occurring on big jobs run by the biggest contractors and builders in the country.
While we rail against the bosses who treat us poorly, we too at times are complicit in the lowering of standards. It’s not just because we look the other way if a mate is at risk or a machine is faulty, it’s why we look the other way that is significant.
We do it because we want to keep our jobs. Our jobs do more than provide an income; they give us purpose and meaning – a sense of worth. They give us the opportunity to use our knowledge and resourcefulness and be proud of the outcome. Consequently the threat of losing your job is a very big stick indeed.
The other weapons are debt and insecurity. There are many who are in debt and who have young families; men and women alike, loathe to stand up on issues of safety for fear of reprisals. Then there are those without secure employment or who work for a subcontractor and are in no position to demand decent standards on a site where the client can tell the subcontractor not to bring them again. The casualisation of our workforce and the use of sub-contractors is a disgrace. Gone are the days when the principle contractor hired the bulk of the blue collar workers.
Now to outline some more tangible ways safety is eroded. The examples that follow are real.
More often than not junior engineers with little experience and low salaries are writing out JSAs (job safety analysis documents) and expecting the people doing the work to sign them without time to read their contents. For those wondering, JSAs are supposed to be the cornerstone of our work method – our guide to the elimination or reduction of risk.
It is often impossible to write this document without knowing the crane to be used, the location, the gear available, what is to be lifted and how we, as the experienced workers, are going to do the task. But they are often written without our input, are nearly always grossly inaccurate and seldom reviewed as circumstances change. Another box is ticked by the employer, another tree falls.
Another box to be ticked is the morning toolbox talk where the day’s activities are discussed. Often minutes are not taken, so there is no documented evidence even if an issue is raised! When I have challenged this practice I’m met with a shoulder shrug. Bosses remain present at these meetings to discourage frank and open dialogue and to take note of those who are brave enough to speak out. There may be no OH&S rep on a job. If there is a representative, bosses may forget to introduce them.
Some of these tactics were used on a job near Wonthaggi. You may remember it. It was in the papers. Another tactic used by the same mob was to ignore all of the issues raised by workers regardless of merit. I assure you it is true, certainly within our work group. It is easy to ignore issues raised because nothing is ever written down.
On this job by the sea at Wonthaggi there was an all terrain forklift that had badly worn tyres. It was alarming really, as the tyre pressure was the only thing to stabilise the machine. It had, by our foreman's own admission, eight flat tyres in a fortnight – yes eight. Well I told my mate who drove it and who had a young family to support that I would stand up over the issue. A row ensued. Luckily someone told the union and it placed an out of service tag on the machine. It was then that my mate admitted that he had nearly rolled the machine twice because of the deflating tyres. I became a target in the eyes of the company and was sacked a couple of weeks later.
In another incident on the same job, 13 steel tubes were speared through the roof of a building. How? An inexperienced dogman slung a load and it slipped. Why was he working on his own? People are supposed to be trained and competent. What steps were taken to assess him and his level of expertise? It was common on this job for young riggers, with no experience, to work together instead of with an older worker. Maybe they don’t want older, educated workers teaching the young ones? Men my age may tell them about their rights and the obligations of their employer.
Back in Melbourne, working on a job with 35 other people in 32 degree heat, we were told that we would each have to go individually and get water if we wanted it: 35 separate trips. The nearest tap was 500 metres away. I complained about the absurdity and was told, “Bring your own water then.” Should I bring my own air as well, I wondered?
On the same job we were expected to work at night, without lighting. We could use torches, they said. A torch doing a crane lift? Meanwhile live traffic was coming through our job. No barriers were erected and no exclusion zone established. There was no traffic control of any kind – just don’t get hit by a car or truck. Two engineers (bosses) stood there looking confused as I went and got some barriers. “So what the hell do you talk about at the toolbox meeting at the start of the shift", I asked. I received no answer.
Also on this job I witnessed a crane driver, for no reason, hold a load over the heads of workers and then commit the cardinal sin of exiting the cabin of the crane with load still aloft. I was stunned. Not a word was said.
One night I was asked to take over driving a crane for one lift as the driver was ill. Upon climbing into the cabin, I heard the CB radio and thought, why is this on? Well it was the radio they were using to communicate between the crane driver and the dogman. Not a dedicated channel, it was one on which Fred the truckie was talking about last night’s dinner.
Riveting stuff, l admit, but does the dogman who is directing the crane wait for Fred to finish before he talks to the crane driver? What if we begin the lift and Fred (remember Fred the truckie) comes over the radio because he forgot to tell his mate about dessert? I hope you are incredulous as you read this because I certainly was.
At another site I was expected to lift concrete panels that had no paperwork (panels are engineered to certain specifications set out in their accompanying paperwork). The truck that delivered them was on a road and too close to the power lines. We had no spotter (required for lifts near power lines), no traffic control, no protection for the public and there was no safe way to hook the panels to the crane. Our refusal caused an uproar and complaints to our boss. We got no support from any quarter. Had we lifted these panels we would have broken half a dozen rules all at once. No strategy or guidelines had been put in place. What the hell are these bosses thinking about? Certainly not work.
I recently witnessed men applying polyurethane without gloves or masks and they had no idea they were at risk. They were covered in it. On the same job there was asbestos in big chunks, I was told. When I asked about the risk of exposure I was told it was ok because they were “big bits”. This was a response from a shop steward I am ashamed to say. I hope someone told the edges not to fray when an excavator came along and ran over it a few hours later.
Fatigue management is non-existent, particularly if you drive a mobile crane. There are 14-hour days to be had, work to be done, bosses and bankers to satisfy; they are doing it tough in the property boom. Don’t worry that you cancelled dinner again, that your children are asleep when you get home or that you’re exhausted.
Standards have slipped so much that these days our crib rooms often contain tools and dusty clothes because there’s no change room. In a crib room on a site in Mentone, the bosses have installed video surveillance. Years ago, older, braver men would have smashed that camera, seeing it as the intrusion it is. Are the bosses curious about what’s in the middle of my sandwich, or do they think I was smuggling toilet rolls out in my shorts?
A year ago, almost to the day, I was on a job in Sunshine. I was in the crane, and we were down one radio. It was known that two men didn’t have the tickets to do the lifts we were about to do. The rope on the crane’s winch drum was banging (potentially doing damage), and the crane was slightly out of radius to do the lifts.
The day before had been too windy. Management had complained because we wouldn’t lift concrete panels in winds of 50 kph! The steward knew about the issues, but no minutes were taken during the morning meeting, and l got no support. I went to management on my own because the steward wouldn’t come with me. I told them about these issues and was told to keep working.
Later that day, the wind picked up again. It was unsafe, but the pressure to do the last few lifts was enormous. We were lucky – as we unhooked from the last lift, the huge wind that brought down the wall on the Grocon site in Swanston Street came through our job. Three lives were lost under that wall in Swanston Street. Had that wind hit us minutes earlier, we too could have lost people.
Are there workers at Grocon who looked at that wall and thought that it would not stand in a big wind? I bet there were. Those poor buggers have to live with the fact that they could have said something. If only the culture was different, if only they were supported.
So what do you do when the builder places pressure on you, your own boss throws up his hands and the delegate or OH&S rep is not strong? Why is the situation so grim? What do you do when you arrive at a job with your mobile crane and the labour they supply is not competent? Why is the ticketing system and assessment and training of workers failing? Because it has been taken out of the hands of government inspectors and left to bosses to oversee.
More importantly, people are afraid. Who can blame them. Since the introduction of WorkChoices and the ABCC (which we accepted with a whimper) workers more often than not say nothing. We aren’t secure in our jobs and the public need to be aware that we are all at risk. Every corner cut by bosses is a dollar saved. Each time a worker says nothing, power shifts ever so slightly to those bankers and developers and the risk to real people increases.
Power has also shifted because unions have been under attack from governments both Labor and Liberal. They are mentioned in hushed tones, meetings are not held on site unless behind the shelter shed with the smokers. There is an anti-union barrage from a plethora of right wing think tanks and the mainstream media. They bemoan decent wages and standards of safety.
It’s not enough that a high rise building goes up twice as fast as it did twenty years ago? No, it is not enough, because when bosses are greedy enough is never enough. If every worker brought up one issue each week it would be enough to change the tide of declining standards. One issue a day would be better.
We would feel better about ourselves and everyone would be safer. Have courage and good luck.
