Health and Safety inspection

[Val_2]

Had a visit to our site today by the dept health and safety inspector who interviewed all us involved and took each artisan to task over safety features. Luckily we are used to safety and only got reminded to have hats and goggles on site and no trainers as OH was in them but he was only there for the usual weekly rendezvous with the architect and council,not actually physically working.These visits only affect public works not private sites and we have to keep our certificates with us at all times in case of other inspectors from URSSAF,de Travail etc unexpectedly turning up.  At least the french are upto speed on public sites, shame some of the domestic sites are not visited more and perhaps there would be less accidents and deaths because some are oblivious to the wellbeing of their workers and the equipment.

[Patf]

I'm surprised to hear that such a person exists [blink] The worst example I saw was when Champion were having renovations done. They never closed, and at one point workers were using soldering equipment above the doors as customers went in and out. Blue sparks everywhere.

[Cerise]

I wish they would be about more.  My husband often works on sites which are positively dangerous.  If he says anything he is mocked for being 'anglais' and a softie.  I had personal row with artisans who wished to go on my roof (4 floors high) without safety equipment.  When I refused to allow it they became very sulky. I don't care if it is at their own risk I don't want them falling off when I'm in residence - death is not an attractive option!

[Ron Avery]

I actually saw a man walking across a roof on my way home from the shops today, no harness, no scaffold, nothing. When I had a builder,  I gave the boss a pair of safety boots and a hard hat when he was demolishing a high wall, after he turned up in trainers for the third day on the trot, and this was a week after one of his men was badly hurt when a scaffolding board broke on another site and he fell 3 metres into a ditch where blocks and rods had been posed, and yes he did land on one of the rods and was impaled, but missed his kidneys by a fraction.

I wonder if they have the same safety requirements over here, the large sites seems well controlled and on a par with the UK, but do they have written risk assessments on site if they employ more than 5 people as they do in the UK?  The problem is that the EU Directives only lay down an overall requirement not the means to achieve it, each country determines its own and the UK is often accused of going to the Nth degree to achive the requirements of EU legislation  Any builder in the UK who had a scaffolding board break (which have to be inspected daily in the UK), causing a serious injury like that would be looking at a prohibition notice for the site and a massive fine, all my guy got, or so he told me, was a ticking off at a Tribunal at Rodez.

[Iceni]

All of the above are excellent reasons for not employing "black" workers.

Personally if legit, insured workers on my house choose to interpret H&S rules in their own manner I leave them to it. It takes long enough to get them here without introducing excuses for them to ****** off.

John

[Val_2]

Problem is that H&S here are only for public works not artisan domestic projects.For public works you cannot be on the black because you have to furnish many documents including proof of payment upto date for pension and URSSAF, your insurances and TVA receipts.

[Cerise]

Can't agree John.  I don't want dead people on the spiked railings in front of my house whether  they are legitimate or black workers.  Neither add anything to the decoration and I think it would put me off living there!!

[Chancer]

And there are those who are not so concerned at the lack of a French H.S.E. [6]

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How do I get the images to show (i.e. rotate 90 degrees) as they do on photobucket?