Commission targets building site safety

Health and Safety Commission (HSC) chair, Bill Callaghan, has outlined the steps being taken to improve safety in the construction industry and address the annual toll of over 100 deaths and 5,000 serious injuries. "The construction industry has a reputation for being confrontational, risk tolerant and reluctant to change. And it has an appalling health and safety record", he told the conference of construction union UCATT. He said that enforcing the law remained a key to the HSC's approach and congratulated UCATT on its occupational health strategy initiative. Callaghan also said that the HSE would be looking at the role of subcontracting and agency labour, an issue high on the union's safety agenda.