The Number One Reason for Stop Work Orders

Xanthia Coates Safety Leadership, Safety Training, Workplace Safety and Health

What would it cost your worksite to be shut down for a day?.. For a week?..

Did you know that if your company is issued a Stop Work Order, all your workers must still be paid?

 If you are on a job site with other sub-contractors, how would your Stop Work Order impact them and the project as a whole? How would your reputation be affected? Would you be as likely to get work with that General Contractor in the future?

Of the 409 Stop Work Orders issued in 2021, 181 or 44% were fall protection related.

“Only 15% of your companies’ issues are in the control of your employees,
while 85% can be controlled by your management system.”
Peter Drucker: Celebrated by BusinessWeek Magazine as “the man who invented management.”

 

To avoid working at heights issues like Stop Work and Improvement Orders or worse, a serious injury,
It’s important to perform a review of your Working at Heights Management Systems.

Things To Consider:

  1. Have clear standards been set in writing for how work should be performed?
    For example, when is personal fall protection to be worn, how exactly are guardrails to be installed, who performs the daily hazard assessment and who ensures it is communicated to all your workers?
  2. Have workers been trained in your standards by a competent person in a manner that ensures they can provide the training provided? Is the WHY just as important as the what and the how?
  3. Are your standards being consistently coached and enforced?
    Are supervisors trained and responsible to enforce safe work, or do you leave it to the safety officer or even worse the consultant to do?  In the absence of supervisors and foreman enforcing your safety standards, your company is exposed to an un necessary risk that you do not have any insurance for.

Click the link below for a Working at Heights Monitoring Checklist
to help ensure the safety and performance of your worksites!

Does your workplace safety worry you? That can be fixed!
Schedule a complimentary consult with a senior safety professional today.