“One service strike is ONE too many.”
Introduction
Nobody wants a service strike: especially personnel doing the work. However, companies will always be at risk of damaging buried services while carrying out work around them.
Anything you can do? What about positioning a manager or supervisor full-time at the worksite doing nothing else but watching the work? Feasible? Probably not: but you do need a presence through the day to check things are going well.
What else could you do? Place a Video Workplace Monitor at the worksite to record the activities being carried out. The monitor will be in attendance like a full-time supervisor. It may not speak or give instructions, but it will watch and record work activities.
The Video Workplace Monitor is a portable yet robust, 12v powered mobile video and sound recording system, capable of recording, without recharging, for many days.
The recording equipment is housed within a lockable box, mounted on a Hi Visibility wheeled frame.
The Video Workplace Monitor provides the opportunity for a permanent view of the team carrying out the task, allowing checks to be made
remotely that the correct procedures are being followed. The presence of
the Video Workplace Monitor reminds personnel they could be viewed at
any time throughout the day. Any witnessed non- conformance would be
addressed by the manager, who could also use the footage as the basis of
a Toolbox Talk to improve compliance and personal attitude. This will
affect personnel in that they will begin to think about what they are
doing. In fact, they will begin to think about what they are about to
do. A positive change in personal attitude is possible, nay, highly
likely. Peer pressure will also play a key element as workmates could
also be brought into disrepute. These improvements could drastically
reduce the number of service strikes, improving quality and cost
control, i.e. profit.
Were an incident to occur, video footage is easily retrieved from the
internal SD card and can allow determination of the exact cause.
Evidence that would either incriminate or exonerate individuals and the
company.
In simple terms the footage could prove the correct procedures were followed or not.
The equipment may not prevent unsafe work practices, BUT it can prove
what was being carried out, when, and how. This could save someone’s
neck or “hang them”. It could also save the company in the event of an
incident being investigated by HSE or an EL insurance claim as it can be
proven the correct procedures were being complied
with and the incident was outside of the company’s control. Where the
correct procedure was not being followed, the remaining elements can
still be evidenced, i.e. a completed RAMS and its signed briefing
register, AND you will also have the monitor footage confirming it was
an individual who did not comply.
