Health and Safety Standards?

In my previous life I worked for an oil company whose obsession with health and safety consumed many hours of our time and millions of dollars; but lives were certainly saved. No compromises were made for working in Thailand; our Thai staff were properly trained, appropriately equipped and had no problem operating to international standards.

Sadly this is not the case in most operations in Thailand. See if you can spot the safety helmets and boots on a construction site in Pattaya. There may be a sign saying “Safety First” at the entrance to the site, but there should be some additional lettering underneath that says “But only if it doesn’t cost us any money or time.”

Today I passed a crew on Pattaya Tai who were attempting to do something with a large concrete pole. The pole appeared to have become entangled in the (no doubt live) electricity cables.

The pole was attached to the crane wire by what appeared to be a simple sling. And of course the pole was tapering, so there did not seem to be much stopping it from sliding out and heading for the ground.

So, what to do in this potentially highly dangerous situation? Simple, place four dispensable workers directly underneath the pole and get them to pull some ropes to try and dislodge the pole (preferably sideways, but gravitationally, more likely to be down).

Of course, if the worst happened, the police would blame the crane driver and stick him in prison and the manager concerned would walk free to kill again.

Comments 🔗

2008-08-14 | The Ghost says

Actaully. for once, the power was off. No electric anywhere from Wat Chai through my condo block (walk down 10 stories, thank you) through Soi Buakhao. I passed the same crew about 11 this morning and one guy was banging away on some concrete or steel plate with said rod while 2 guys admired his work.

The story behind the story? A transformer blew (big time) about a week ago and a second one blew about 10 minutes after that. Power has been off and on throughout the eeek and this work was to install a new one / fix old one to ease the stress on the system.

Power back on at 5 today. So I was spared walking UP 10 floots.

2008-08-14 | Spike says

Good to know that they were not in any danger from electrocution; just a minor risk of a concrete post on the head!