Rigger boots banned?

[BAJR]

In relation to the Rigger... I personally don't wear em... but surely the PPE should be fit for purpose...
So as an archaeological site will have a risk assessment about what you do... then appropriate footwear should fit the task... Rigger can be worn quite safely on an archaeological site... in most cases...
To me it seems that the next step will be to wear full scaffolders harness, if there is scaffolding on-site.... rather than if you go up the scaffolding. Perhaps we should ban cars from roads as well.

[Jack]

Don't joke BAJR! That is exactly the mentality on large construction projects. I have heard of archaeologist being made to wear waders in ankle-deep water, goggles in the rain, spark-proof overalls in the height of summer (and made to keep them zipped up). Of course what followed in that case was some of them had to be rushed to hospital with heat exhaustion. There seemed to be no reason for wearing them except 'they are mandatory PPE, everyone has to.

I have heard so-called safety officers claiming that you can't wear shorts and must have sleeves or you'll get skin cancer. Also being made to fence off any feature deeper than 30cms on a job where a 37km long pipeline was unfenced without warning signs or any protection for the public from the 2m high running spoil-heap. Another tried to lock up our saline eye-washes in the coshh cupboard (several miles from where we were working), made digger drivers wear hard hats and goggles inside their cabins...etc etc the list of idiocy is endless.

This kind of thinking is clearly idiotic and actually contrary to HSE guidelines. Its the way everyone involved accepts this (due to a fear of losing their job) that breaks everyones duties according to the Health and Safety Law.

Interestingly enough (Dinosaur) given the paper trail that exists within these companies proving that they are enforcing inappropriate PPE (often as site rules without a risk-assessment) they are making themselves wide open for a lawsuit if the PPE causes an accident.

Hence in the above case all the paperwork mysteriously vanished after the heat-exhaustion, and on a recent job, the client claimed that a crop-spraying incident wasn't an accident, just a near miss; the near-miss paperwork being entirely under their control, whereas the accident book was our document. I may be being paranoid.....but funnily enough, the near-miss card didn't show up in the monthly near-miss competition.
Luckily we had already filled-in and sent away the accident book.

[Sith]

Ah, my old favourite: safety.

I have heard so-called safety officers claiming that you can't wear shorts and must have sleeves or you'll get skin cancer.

Having seen the state that a lot of construction site workers get into every summer, this is understandable because it is easier to enforce covering up than sun screen.

Also being made to fence off any feature deeper than 30cms on a job where a 37km long pipeline was unfenced without warning signs or any protection for the public from the 2m high running spoil-heap.

Don't joke: I worked on a purely archaeological site in the dim and distant past where an attempt was made to sue us by someone who fell down a shallow but un-fenced hole. At least fencing should keep you safe from that.

[kevin wooldridge]

I have lots of sympathy for Jack's view. I have said here before (and on site on countless projects) that the whole grain of modern UK construction safety (particularly CSCS cards and uniform PPE enforcement) goes against both the spirit and the letter of the HS Acts where each workplace action should be assessed for it's own specific risk and not as part of some generic 'construction' coverall.

One day we will be shown to be right, but I suspect only after a serious accident or worse.....

[Windbag]

There's little or no legal basis to any of these rules, the HSE certainly hasn't heard of them, it's merely that construction companies like to cover their arses in the event of litigation - what's neede is more people sueing them for all those accidents caused by PPE, of which I personally have seen far more than accidents avoided by PPE. Am not aware, for instance, of any legal requirement to wear hard-hats around plant, indeed most small construction firms I've dealt with pretty much never wear the accursed things....

I'm acquainted with two archaeologists whose lives have been saved because they wore their hardhats. I've been very fortunate to know of not a single archaeologist who has lost their life through their work, excepting road traffic incidents.

[BAJR]

This kind of thinking is clearly idiotic and actually contrary to HSE guidelines

Absolutely... actually talking to sensible HSE people.. they despair at some of the more extreme interpretations!

[vulpes]

I wear my riggers with pride :face-approve:

[gwyl]

I wear mine with cold feet.

[PeterM]

"The office lurkers, coffee junkies and facebook scanners clearly have different anatomical systems to the rest of us."

Of course we do - broad behinds for comfort on these hard office chairs, evolved hunched shoulders from tapping on keyboards all day, spindly legs with lightweight muscles from sitting all day (using the lift all the time prevents unnecessary development of these) pale skin to absorb as much sunlight as possible on the infrequent occasions we DO get out of the office (helps to prevent rickets, weakening our atrophied legs still further), strong fingers on the right hand for picking up coffeemugs, and a high tolerance of caffeine - damnation man we are almost a seperate species let alone having minor anatomical changes.............

[troll]

Superb sir. Sounds as though you wrote that as the job description! Perhaps these should be added;
An extraordinarily developed tolerance muscle (the result of endless unrealistic demands from higher echelons), a robust hyoid (from infinite yawning sessions), long-sightedness (from romantically peering out through the window barrier), over-developed biro fingers (signing seemingly endless birthday cards), over developed mandible attachments (well-exercised parody laughing during bouts of expected sycophancy), eburnation of knee joints (repeated begging when told to complete a ten-year excavation in one week), a blind eye (a handy tool when the temptation to AK47 everyone in the room becomes unbearable) and most importantly of all-a well formed praise and worship muscle (when bigging-up the boss who is challenged but holds your mortgage in his little hands).:face-approve: