A while ago a friend of mine landed a major and lucrative contract to construct a series of towers for government communications operations across the country. While he was thrilled at the prospect of the financial and business benefits attendant on this contract he had one immediate and pressing concern: none of his workers had received the necessary accredited scaffolding training and he needed to make sure that they all received this scaffolding training as a matter of some urgency. He could have looked for staff who had received the required scaffolding training but he had a loyal and trusted workforce and he wanted them to enjoy the benefits of his first major contract as well, but obviously without in any way placing them at risk. Knowing that I was taking a brief sabbatical from other training work at the time, my friend asked me to please help him to identify institutions in South Africa that provided top notch scaffolding training that would give him the peace of mind that both his workers and his business would be protected.
Despite legislation that compels construction companies and others that make any use of scaffolding in the running of their daily operations to provide the correct scaffolding training for their workers, there seems to be a plethora of companies that do not take scaffolding training seriously. At the same time there is a rather worrying shortage of companies in South Africa that provide fully accredited and appropriate scaffolding training, making it difficult for companies that want to both comply and look after their workers to do the right thing. Scaffolding is dangerous work and the moral and ethical imperative for training your workers is clear and indisputable. Besides this, companies can face serious penalties and losses if they do not comply with the legislation, particularly in the tragic event of a worker fatality, and therefore, despite the shortage of scaffolding training facilities, there is no excuse for not ensuring that workers are fully trained and protected.
After much searching I found a few companies that specialized in scaffolding training and identified a few courses that I thought would be useful and appropriate. One training course in general scaffolding work seemed to me be essential for anyone that would be working on a construction on which any scaffolding was being used. It included the following elements: the identification of scaffolding components and their different uses; the safe working loads of the different components; how to identify non-conforming material; the identification, inspection and correct issue of personal protective equipment; learning about the correct ways to handle material and the various methods of stacking, maintaining and storing it; studying the different methods that can used to lift scaffolding equipment; and training in the preparation of scaffolding foundations.
Given the risks involved in scaffolding work a scaffolding training course such as this seems like a small investment to make in the interests of workers and employers. It will protect not only the safety of the workers but the reputation of the company.
View the original article here
No comments:
Post a Comment