The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has launched a two-week quarry safety inspection campaign focussing on the management of contractors.
It will concentrate on key safety areas of concern including management and supervision of contractors while on site, employer cooperation and coordination when sharing a place of work, ensuring safe equipment is in use and relevant personnel have appropriate qualifications when using machinery.
In the ten-year period 2014-2023, quarrying, mining and the associated manufacturing activities in the industry accounted for seven work-related fatalities in Ireland.
Two out of three of the latest work related fatalities in quarries have involved contractors.
“Quarries are potentially hazardous workplaces and often utilise contractors to carry out day to day work duties,” said Hilary Byrne, Senior Inspector, HSA.
“Employers have a duty when sharing a place of work to ensure they cooperate and coordinate their actions relating to health and safety on site and to inform each other of any risks to employees arising from their work activity,” Ms Byrne said.
Gerry Farrell, the chief executive of the Irish Concrete Federation (ICF), welcomed the launch of the safety campaign.
“This is the first quarry safety campaign that has focused exclusively on the safety of contractors in quarries and therefore ICF is actively encouraging our members to undertake initiatives in their own companies to support the campaign,” Mr Farrell said.
