The Health and Safety Authority is to prosecute a company that removed a crane-driver from a site in Dublin, after he refused to work in gale-force winds.
The incident was raised by SIPTU officials at the launch of the HSA's national plan for 1998 yesterday. The Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Mr Tom Kitt, ordered an immediate report on the incident and the HSA reported to him later that the firm is to be prosecuted.
At the launch yesterday the HSA admitted it was understaffed, after criticism from Mr Des Geraghty, the vice-president of SIPTU, of HSA proposals to reduce the number of inspections it intends to carry out in some high-risk occupations this year.
Mr Geraghty pointed out that the authority plans to conduct 837 fewer inspections this year than it did in 1995, although 75,000 more people are now at work. He said his union was "not a bit happy" at the level of inspections planned for areas like construction and manufacturing.
The number of accidents in manufacturing has risen from 3,300 in 1994 to 4,760 last year, but only eight inspections per 1,000 workers are being planned. In construction there would be 37 inspections per 1,000 workers, he said, but "We do not believe this level of inspections is going to make any inroads into the already unacceptably high level of accidents in the construction sector".
He wondered if the authority was simply diverting inspectors from manufacturing to construction, rather than seeking the extra resources it obviously needed.
In response, the director-general of the HSA, Mr Tom Walsh, said that one of the reasons for the reduction in inspections was that the inspectorate was understaffed. It was hoped to fill nine vacancies within the next two months, bringing the numbers up to the full complement of 54.
He also said the level of inspections and other activities had intensified in recent years. For instance, the number of prosecutions of employers for breaches of safety regulations in the construction industry doubled last year. Every prosecution meant more administrative work for the inspectors involved.
The Minister said that recent high-profile cases in the construction industry, and the comments of Mr Justice Kelly that employers "are not entitled to make profit on the blood and lives of their workers", had sent out an important message to companies "who persist in flouting health and safety law".
The SIPTU construction branch secretary, Mr Eric Fleming, said there were still many building contractors who were not taking safety seriously enough. He cited the case of a crane-driver who was removed from a Dublin building site for refusing to work in galeforce winds before Christmas.
A spokesman for the company concerned said later that the worker was removed because he was unsuitable and refused to shift a load at a time when the wind was not gusting to gale force. He said his company would not ask anyone to work in unsafe conditions. However, he conceded that it was impossible to gauge the wind speed that day as there was no anemometer attached to the crane.
An HSA inspector, Mr Vincent McGauran, said winds of over 56 m.p.h. were being recorded by Met Eireann that day and the accepted safety limit was 38 m.p.h.