Sir, - Eric Fleming, branch secretary of the construction and allied trades branch of SIPTU (October 7th), takes issue with all but the last paragraph of my recent letter on construction safety. My reaction on reading his contribution is that he has responded only to selected points, and by so doing, conveniently manages to ignore the main trust of my argument, that employees as well as the employers must do their part to reduce workplace accidents.
I believe that for the most part, Mr Fleming and I are singing from the same hymn-sheet, but where we differ is that while Mr Fleming seeks to attach blame to everyone but his own constituency, I feel that the 25 per cent (Mr Fleming's figure) of accidents causes attributed to employees is in fact (to quote from my original letter) "a significant minority".
Nowhere in my letter did I attempt to shift blame from anyone. I merely pointed out that in my experience, my single greatest problem was gaining employee support for the necessary measures from a "significant minority". It is not good enough for union leaders to wash their hands of all responsibility in this area with a statement to the effect that persons not conforming to best practice should be subject to "rigorous disciplines". He misses the point that there are no sanctions available to the employer with which to mildly discipline an employee, let alone to do so rigorously. Can he assure employers that his union will support them in the event of their attempting to discipline one of his members for a serious or constant infringement of the site safety regulations?
Unlike Mr Fleming, who states that "many of the so-called good employers are not great at all!", I did not attempt to vilify a whole section of the public. I never stated that employee indifference was at the core of the problem, but surely it is a significant part of it.
I agree with Mr Fleming that part of the problem is a lack of education on the part of employees, but surely he is not suggesting that the employer is principally at fault here.
While I would not be so arrogant as to suggest to Mr Fleming how he would do better, may I point out that in writing my original letter I did so from a conviction formed through personal observation of construction sites. My job is to try to prevent accidents, however caused, and in so doing to keep workers safe. It is not my job to keep workers happy. But then emotional rhetoric usually gains more attention than the simple, unglamorous facts. - Yours, etc.,
Jack Butler, Rutland Street, Limerick.