Contractor safety rules

[rcdallas]

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[tolex42]

This is for anyone working for a utility:

Do any of you have any language that says contractor's must abide by the safety rules of the utility that a contracting is working on?

We don't have any language and the company safety rules that apply to contractors are no where near what we must follow. We share one common rule, no horseplay.

I don't have a problem following a safety rule, but I do have a problem when a contractor can come in and basically get away with anything.

I'm looking to resolve this. Anyone that has any insight, PLEASE speak!

I do not work for a utility but I can comment with some knowledge on the points that you raise. The collective bargaining agreement between the utility company and their employees usually does not address safety concerns regarding contractors or vendors. The utility company will often claim that contractor safety is not a legitimate issue of bargaining between them and their own employees.

Often utility companies want to distance themselves from the safety practices of contractors in the hope that they can be excused as a codefendant if the contractor has an accident.

Most, if not all Outside Locals in the IBEW have language in their contracts with the contractors that require that work be performed under the safety standards of the Local Union or the Utility company, which ever is higher.

[Pootnaigle]

Ours said that any contractor had to abide by the more stringent of Our rules or Their rules. That basically made em work by ours. In the event of an uh oh the saftey books were broken out and the 2 compared.Bleve it or not I had at least one contract crew during hurricane restoration that had a more stringent program than ours. If there was even one energized secondary on a stick they had to wear rubber gloves ground to ground.

[Daddyof2]

I can only speak for union contractors but every local I have worked out of required the contractors to use customer{utility, co-op, whoever} safety rules as a minimum standard. Any rules the contractor had above their rules still had to be followed.

[bumpah]

I work for a union contractor whose safty rules are very stringent, as well as the utilty in the area. It's common practice to go by the most stringent rules. with one acception. Our company, as well as local rules, and the utility, require contractors to where gloves and sleves ground to ground, energized or not. We even have to where them when we are sticking. Utility lineman are allowed to remove their sleeves while working secondaries. Please don't bring up safty records, I would put our safty record up against theirs any day.

[lewy]

Our contractors have to follow the same rules as us, if there rules go beyond ours it is up to them to enforce it.
bumpah when you are working on grounded lines do you work on more than 1 conductor at a time? Do you ever let the conductor touch a part of your body without rubber on? Do you work on voltages that exceed your gloves or that can be gloved from the pole?

[bones]

Grounded or not, we have our rubbers on. About as lax as we get is we don't wear sleeves on the ground when dealing with grounded wire. Setting poles in hot primary it is gloves, sleeves, full FR and supposed booties. Supposedly we get reprimanded if we are seen without booties on however they don't provide them. Actually now that I think about it, it is immediate dismissal for failure to utilize a lot of safety equipment we are required to use but are never given A contractor's life...

How about some examples of how the safety rules differ?

[bumpah]

No, we never work on more than one conductor at a time. grounded or not. we glove 4800 from the pole. we are supposed to where are sleeves on the ground when setting poles, although that is one rule that i see broken constantly. when we do ground we are supposed to use equipotential grounding,which i beleive is a pain in the ass, so i prefer to work the as if it were hot, since we have to wear gloves and sleeves anyway.

[lewy]

We only have 2 choices either we work it live or it is grounded, we can not work on isolated lines. We use to be aloud, but I have never seen anyone myself included that worked an isolated line, but treated it as alive work it the same way as if it were really alive. I personally find EPG easier than bracket grounding. I have seen guys who wear rubber gloves on a grounded line then will have there body touching a phase or working a voltage above the rating of there gloves which all defeat the purpose of the gloves, I think it just gives them a false sense of security.

[MI-Lineman]

R.C.,

This is an excellent question you have asked! We are not the same Union as our local contractors (in fact some aren't even Union!) and all we ever here from the co is "we can not police them" but in the next breath they throw it in our face if they can do somethin faster! This I believe was part of the demise of the tree department here as the company guys could NEVER wear hooks EVEN IN A REMOVAL! I once was drivin in one morning when it was still dark and a non-Union contractor we hired to bore in some 750 in a business area pulled their UNLIGHTED and UNMARKED boring machine right out in front of me on a 45mph road? No cones or signs or any traffic control for that matter? We would be put under investigation for that in a heart beat and all I heard was "we can't police our contractors!' BULL SH!T!!!!

You will never be able to compete with a contractor time wise if they don't follow or have safety rules! Get it in your contract if ya can! That could be the start of somethin good for the rest of us!

GOOD LUCK!!!