Working at Heights the worst excuse "But other companies use this access all the time!"

I was called to site by one of my technicians to review his access to the roof of a building. He communicated to me that he is not happy getting on to the roof, the roof protrudes and it is on a balcony.

The building has an access hatch to the roof but it is not available for use because it is "broken".

The picture above shows a 12 foot ladder propped up on the side. The recommendation is that we wear a safety harness when going up the ladder. And connect the safety harness to what?

There is no lifeline or inertia-reel.

So the suggestion of a safety harness is completely a moot one. When the technician was going up, the security person was adamant about the harness but after I came to site to confirm the Technician's issue the security man's attitude changed to "Me I don't know. I just get told that they must have a harness."

So If we look at the picture above, the wall is built leaning outwards at the top. I could get a taller ladder but the moment you get on to the ladder and go up 3 steps, your entire body is above the railing.

Should you fall from the ladder to the balcony it will result in a lot of damage, so it can range from injury to fatality. Should they fall towards the railing this means that they could fall another 2 levels down to a hard surface or perhaps another level down into the canal.

In the above picture we can see that there are two balconies. We were standing at the topmost balcony.

Then I get told the following line: "Other companies go on the roof that way all the time."

This again is a poor excuse. Illegal is illegal. Wrong is wrong. No matter how many people do it. If there WERE an incident and there was a serious injury or a fatality, the way the law works is that regardless of what the persons did on site, the owner of the building and by proxy, their managing Agent would be the first entity that is inspected.

They will find all discrepancies to the OHS Act and Construction Regulations and fine the company appropriately. Then they will turn to the employer of the contractor on site. IE: Our company itself and apply the same logic.

Only then will they investigate the actual accident and we would not have a leg to stand on and neither would the property manager/our customer.

So. I put a stop work order in on that job. Met with the site supervisor and gave him this free advice, not in an unkind way. The "other companies do it" was batted aside with the concept that these companies and individuals do not understand what they are risking and that it is only a matter of time until there really is an incident. The risk is too great.

It turns out that the hatch to the roof was not "broken" after all. The reality is that the hatch is in the store room of a tenant and last time a few companies used this access they damaged things in the room as well as the ceiling. None of the companies that had used the access took responsibility for the damage and thus they no longer wanted contractors to make use of that hatch.

I negotiated that they could spare a security guard for that brief time of access to ensure the items in the store are safe. And we would take pictures before and after of the ceiling and take responsibility for damages should they occur.

Access was arranged for us on these terms for the next day.

I feel that we turned this encounter into a positive one and that the site manager comes away with valuable knowledge about the Safety Act and Construction Regs.

My staff remain safe!

How about yourself? Have you ever needed to work or seen other work in unsafe working at height situation such as the above?

Thank you for reading this post!

Cheers!
@zakludick

Hive South Africa