Engaging with safety

However, engagement and enforcement are not mutually exclusive and, when unpacked, it can be suggested that through these two different voices of safety, different realities are developed and again incoherence and inconsistency of safety can be found sometimes rules are made to be broken, punishment is a necessary evil, whilst engagement can prove problematic in its impact, raising far more complex issues of the ownership and responsibility for safety on sites. 

Engagement of the workforce is actually set out in the safety legislation of the UK. As Clause 2(6) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 states  

Cl 2 (6) It shall be the duty of every employer to consult any such representatives. .. to cooperate effectively in promoting and developing 

Principal contractor s duties to consult and engage with workers 14. The principal contractor must— 

safety here is the outcome of an active process, with engagement positioned as the cooperation needed for aspects of its creation. Safety engagement has therefore become part of the management process to ensure safety within the workforce. But whilst engagement is a very easy term to use, safety committees can be readily established, often enhanced with the lure of chocolate biscuits and tea to encourage attendance, the actual creation and enactment of engagement out on the site as part of an everyday reality can be much more complex. 

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In such cases where should management draw their line of safety, beyond which violations will not be tolerated, when it often depends on a split second, and needs someone there to witness it This closely links to both the enforcement of safety rules and also worker engagement with safety. This is explored in more detail in Chapter 7, and of course begins to explain why safety violations also form such an accepted aspect of site life. 

This nature is used as justification for their behaviour within the site environment and poor engagement with safety practices. Yet despite the subcontractor often being seen as a different animal to the rest of the site team and to any directly employed main contractor s operatives, this is not without understanding, and subcontractors are often considered sympathetically. The site reality is one where some are under more production pressures than others, and this is understood, and even becomes accepted - this hierarchical nature of safety in explored further in Chapter 7. That the participation of subcontractors in safety in practice is inherently bound up with money, or rather the traditional payment structures and processes within the site context, often positions the work itself as the dominant challenge to safety. 

Safety propaganda often seeks to engage with safety, even when espousing site rules, for example this corporate safety programme sign asks that its audience ... 

Flame retardants in printed circuit boards partnership. Circuit boards are commonly used in electronics in consumer and industrial products, including computers and cell phones. In order to ensure fire safety, manufacturers commonly produce circuit boards with flame-retardant chemicals. While serving an important performance function, some flame-retardant chemicals can be harmful if released into the environment. To better understand the issues and the full range of options for flame-retarding circuit boards, DfE is engaging with the electronics industry and other stakeholders in a partnership. 

Even though materials are ordered according to chemical structure, a great variety of individual materials belonging to the same polymer type are discussed as well. In particular, the properties and safety data given should be considered as indicative. The reader who is actively engaged with the materials presented here should consult the technical data sheets and the material safety data sheets provided by the individual manufacturers. 

The key factor in the success of nuclear power in liberalized markets will be the ability of the power industry to engage with regulatory and safety authorities, plant vendors and consumers to allocate risks to parties that are best able to manage them. By shifting part of the pre-construction, construction, operating, and market risks to other parties (regulators, plant vendors, creditworthy consumers, and so on), electricity producers are in a better position to attract potential investors (lenders, and so on). 

Employee s engagement with new employee to facilitate their adaption into the job and their safety decreases... 

The general hterature on teams, and their reaction to, and acceptance of new employees, suggests a complex situation which might have safety implications. This hterature suggests that the degree to which team members engage with a new employee is partially determined by a concept labelled team receptivity (Rink et al. 

Co-workers should realize that new employees are a safety risk, and pose a danger both to themselves and to other workers. A safety advantage may be gained by workers responding in a positive (safety conscious way) when a new employee joins a workplace. Furthermore, new employees may be expecting that co-workers will actively engage with them to ensure their (and others) safety. 

What I found instead was an inconsistent, incomplete and often incoherent safety a safety that often didn t make sense, contradicted itself and was ever changing depending on time, space and place. But actually, this worked for me. As someone who has spent a long time on site, and for whom a key part of everyday was involved with enforcing the site safety rules whilst also attempting to engage with people and convince them why safety was important, these mixed up and messy ideas of what safety was really spoke to me. They explained why things were as they were, why safety was as it was, and were able to fit really well with how my world on site worked. 

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