Russian roulette on building sites
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``We are tired of the minister's nauseating rhetoric and the employer's apathy''
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BY ROBBIE MacGABHANN
``You get fined more for dropping litter than you would for killing someone on a building site,'' said Andrew McGuinness, chairperson of the Dublin Alliance of General Construction Operatives (DAGCO). He was speaking at a march in Dublin this week to protest at regular breaches in safety conditions on the city's building sites.
Five people have died in building site accidents over the past five weeks. The fifth building worker, Gavin Brady, died on a site in Cavan on the very day the 1,000-plus construction workers were making their protest in Dublin. McGuinness called on the government and employers to ``end this game of Russian roulette with our lives''.
The building workers delivered a letter outlining their concerns to Tom Kitt, the minister responsible for the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), which is supposed to ensure safety standards are met in the workplace.
The letter contained a proposal to create 100 safety auditors who would be drafted from the building industry and would work independently of the building companies and their employees.
SIPTU's Dermot O'Loughlin estimates the cost of the safety auditors at £1.1 million annually, a small fraction of the £11 billion spent in the building industry in the 26 Counties this year. A similar system is used successfully in Sweden.
The building workers want fines increased for those who are found to have breached safety standards and more resources for the HSA. Currently the HSA has 132 staff and makes 4,500 site visits a year. With over 12,000 building sites in the 26 Counties, it would take them three years to visit all the sites in the state.
McGuinness summed up the workers' position: ``Let us send out our message loud and clear, that we are tired of the minister's nauseating rhetoric and the employers' apathy. Nothing less than the immediate introduction of meaningful measures to eradicate fatalities in the construction industry will be accepted by us.''
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