Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

I am trying to complete the mountain of paperwork required to get permission for a sub-contractor to start on site.  One of the checks is to ensure that the workers have valid medical certificates to operate safety-critical plant equipment.  Anyway these medicals are valid for 3 years but some Health and Safety ‘ninjas’ on my project have stipulated that all medicals must have been completed within three months of starting on site.  the subbies I am working with all have certificates that will be 3.5 months old upon starting.

So quite rightly the sub-contractor has challenged this requirement since if this was the case on all sites, then companies would have to have their workers examined up to fours times a year – 8 times more often than an airline pilot!  This would also incur additional, unnecessary cost that will inevitably be passed onto the Client.

So I challenged this rule and asked whether it is based on any form of science i.e has research shown that those with a recent certificate have less sick days.  The answer was no – the decision was made during a meeting and the figure of 3-months was plucked out of thin air and agreed upon.

You may be able to tell that I am finding this kind of ‘golden plating’ frustrating and so try to challenge it wherever possible.

Anyway, after challenging this with the health and safety team, I have secured approval for the subbies to start on site.

Has anyone else come across similar examples of the H&S Team unnecessarily gold plating the H&S regulations without any fact or logical reasoning behind it?