Are Concrete crews at too much risk 3/2/2009

2 March, 2009 | By Richard Stirling

Concrete pump hirers are hitting out at gaps in safety training

When site workers are injured while using concrete pumping machinery, it is up to the hirer to prove they have carried out a risk assessment and their operative has warned them of potential dangers. But concrete pump hirers feel that a lack of training among concrete gangs is causing workers to take unnecessary risks.

Pochin Concrete Pumping was recently fined after a worker died and another was injured.

The incident happened as a hose kicked when an operator restarted a truck-mounted concrete pump. The company pleaded guilty to failing to provide its operator with a risk assessment and paid £85,000 in fines and court costs.

But hirers warn that employers are putting site workers at risk with poor training. Concrete pump firms give their operatives full training in the safe use of machinery, but they say that workers in concrete placing gangs may have little prior knowledge of the specific dangers associated with the plant.

Reilly Concrete Pumping general manager Steve Houldsworth says: “We’re increasingly finding on sites that labourers don’t tend to have any initial training at all - certainly not to the extent that we have to train our lads.”

Although the onus is on operatives to instruct site workers on the risks associated with working near concrete pumping machinery, Mr. Houldsworth says that site workers

can often prove difficult and unreceptive. “They might have been doing things the same way for years, and they get aggressive when told what to do,” he says. “A lot of the problem is sheer ignorance about what they’re dealing with.”

Inexperienced labour Mr. Houldsworth says that site workers are often prone to taking risks to get the job done quickly. “The pump is always there before anyone else and is always the last away,” he says.

“The other lads want to be on and off as quickly as possible and, if you’re putting rules in front of them, they think you’re holding them up.”

Shayler Concrete Pumping managing director Mark Shayler says contractors often cut costs by using inexperienced labour. Although the firm will supply a second operative, or linesman, with larger pumps, contractors often insist on providing their own employees.

“We’re caught between the devil and the deep blue sea,” he says. “Site labour is never going to be as good as ours and they don’t have the same training. A customer is quite happy to ask for a boom operator’s certificate, but when their own guy’s involved, they don’t care.”

Site workers face risks such as injuries from moving ground pipes, whiplash from placing hoses and concrete splashing into their eyes. “When air comes out of the other end of the pipe, it’s like a mini-cannon going off,” says Mr. Houldsworth.

Reilly gives new operatives a week of classroom training, and will spend a month with them before they are allowed to go out by themselves. Some operatives may take eight or nine weeks before their employers are happy with their level of expertise.

Operatives learn the basics such as PPE and COSHH as well as their personal responsibilities, carrying out risk assessments, method statements, daily and weekly checks and how the maintenance regime works.

Understand the risks Mr. Houldsworth says site workers need specific training on the use of concrete pumps to fully understand the risks during pours. “These are not things trainees can learn in one day,” he says. “They might take three to four days just to go through the potential hazards.”

Although the placement gang, hose man, banksman and mixer driver have CSCS cards, Mr. Houldsworth says this is not the same for concrete gangs.

“Most concrete gangs have never received any type of training to work with this type of machine or seen a risk assessment or method statement,” he says.

The Construction Plant Hire Association’s Concrete Pumping Interest Group has provided guidance for hirers and operators on the safe use of their machinery, but it looks like there is still room to train site workers on how to work around them.

“Everyone has the same induction when the pump goes on ite,” says Mr. Houldsworth, “but it’s not for the actual product or what they’re doing with it.”

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