Scaffolding Manager Weighs Own Safety Class (1 Viewer)

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A UAE scaffolding company is considering launching its own safety training programme to compete with existing schemes and prosper in the lucrative but safety-intensive oil and gas industries.

Neil Taylor, contracts manager at the Al Futtaim Engineering’s Scaffolding & Formwork Division, has highlighted the prospect of a training school internally on the back of a dearth in good scaffolding training schemes in the region and an expected tightening to regulation.

“I’ve floated the idea to management so we’ll see what happens. It is a sellable service – if regulation comes in then companies will have to train their scaffolders better,” he told CW.

Taylor says that despite existing safety standards for scaffolding in Dubai – the company’s home market – there is little enforcement through fines. Without such pressure, he says, some companies do not enforce standards internally.

“There is no government authority regulating this. Abu Dhabi is pushing on with HSE and training up inspectors who will go on site and fine contractors. The regulation is there, Reg 8, 24, but they are not enforced in the street.”

Taylor is also critical of some of the existing programmes that claim to be CITB accredited, a general industry standard, that do not train participants to the required levels.

But this has presented to him an opportunity, particularly in light of the company’s strides to improve its safety accreditation as it seeks to win projects in oil and gas – two industrial areas that demand high safety standards from all contractors and have been shining examples of thorough training.

“The majority of our work is with outside contractors and we’re looking to move into oil and gas industries, because scaffolding is a big market in these markets,” he said.

“The approach to safety is different. In the town [urban-based projects such as those residential and commercial] the safety standards can be pretty grim, though in oil and gas the standards are pretty paramount and you have to comply with British or European standards.

Source: Construction Week Online
 
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