The Health and Safety Authority has carried out over 2,500 #COVID19-related workplace inspections in recent months and issued 54 prohibition notices to businesses where inspectors found risks of personal injury to staff.
With workplace clusters also a growing concern, acting Chief Medical Officer, Ronan Glynn has specifically advised ‘all workplaces to review their procedures and protocols.’
It’s vital therefore to comply with the #ReturntoWorkSafelyProtocol to keep your staff safe and to avoid H&S penalties like heavy fines, negative publicity and even criminal prosecution.
Behavioural Insights
There is a particular element of risk (which is controllable) within the construction industry which derives from insights into personal behaviour and attitudes as defined by research by Professor Pete Lunn of the ESRI
The four key insights are:
- Young men (under 40) underestimate the level of risk behind the advice given by authorities including employers.
- Young men are less likely to report symptoms including secondary symptoms meaning they can be highly infectious and asymptomatic onsite.
- Reminders are essential but they need to be varied otherwise they become background noise.
- Young people appear more concerned about giving rather than getting Covid.
The onus from the HSA is for employers to provide a safe place of work but employees and contractors must conduct themselves in a safe manner.
What is the solution?
We believe the only way we will change this aspect of human behaviour and provide safer workplaces is through the use of technology.
This is where SAFE-DISTANCE by Reactec comes to the fore.
Utilising bluetooth technology and near field or proximity detection the HAVwear wrist units advise wearers when proximity limits – time duration or distance are breached – to change their behaviour. The units being allocated to users on a daily basis (in the same way radio communications may be distributed on a project site) monitor the human behaviour and increase the compliance an awareness around the individual site requirements.
From a management perspective workers become somewhat self regulating and the daily reports allow for reporting on unit to unit communication and contact tracing.
If you are a site management or health & safety professional SAFE-DISTANCE duplicates your time in taking care of all the report generation and contact tracing information you need to record during these unprecedented times.
Please do reach out to our team for more information and a demonstration at your location.
Available for teams from 4 upwards.
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Source: Combating Covid-19 in Construction – Construction Industry Federation