Dodgy cabling work and ignorance of OHS

Have you come across asbestos in old building risers?

Even see a sign there, not to create dust because of asbestos hazard?

Well that happened to me recently, but nevertheless the supervisor expected ( and the client too ) someone to work in there in a confined space without a confined space ticket and contrary to common sense.

This is negligence also disregarding duty of care from an employer’s supervisor also from the organisation requesting work.

After two days working with these folks I asked if any of them had a cabling licence. I had to do so seeing the way they conducted their work activities. The reply was negative wich I suspected as observing the dodgy work they were doing.

I have seen a lots of dodgy work practices and supervisors making apprentices and tradesman work in unsafe conditions. They usually get away with such, if circumstances of the employees not allow them to complain or find out how, and where to get advice.

I used to do a lot of computer network and telephone cabling work in all sorts of places.

In the beginning, who ever was the most fearless and craziest to work in unhealthy and dangerous places, become the hero of the company. There was no or very basic occupational health and safety concerns from the employer. That was 20 + years ago, I spent about 10 years doing cabling only and gained a lot of experience in building layout and cable entry, also fault troubleshooting and repair.

Working as a subcontractor for a labour hire company, I was surprised to find out from personal experience that those dodgy cabling business operators are regenerate somehow and resurrect themselves in under new business names and personnel.

If you had similar experience add your comment maybe there is a way to clean up this damaging practice.

There is a whirlpool forum thread on home wiring and one on commercial wiring practices.