Wow,
Where do I start with this one?
The room was nearly full.
There were 4 reps from the CPCS, and people from the CPA, HSE and the Unions.
The rest appeared to be from CPCS training centres and possibly a few people who walked into the wrong room ad were too polite to walk back out again.
I fear I was the only plant operator in the room.
The they began by telling us who’s who and how Pye Tait have done lots of research. (I have never heard of them either)
Then down to the nitty gritty!
We were told about new things to come.
I think the most prevalent was this knew list of questions to test our attitude on site involving imaginary scenarios with a guy called Bob who is put in a situation where his boss tells him to do unsafe things.
The rest of it was the usual tat but the most worrying to me were related to slingers and 360 operators.
The Slinger/Banksmans ticket is to be subdivided into 5 separate categories which I can only see causing all sorts of problems to the guys on site.
Personally I would have just the one ticket and incorporate 5 modules so when you get a Slinger/Banksman you know he can do the lot.
What’s more worrying to myself is that the 360 ticket is to be split yet again so you will now need separate additions to work in demolition and if you use the machine as a crane.
I can just imagine the scenario when a machine driver refuses to lift something because he hasn’t got that on his ticket.
Then my hopes were slightly raised when a guy called Pete Brown started his speech. (He seemed to be a bit more clued up)
He touched on the idea of using something similar to the operators log book with something like mini modules for different types of operation that could be signed off and add towards you NVQ.
He didn’t specify who would sign these off but it seems reasonable to assume it would be someone in management on site.
Then my alarm bells rang.
Wasn’t the prevention of site management deciding who could do what on site the original reason for the CITB and CSkills?
To give us a viable replacement for this practise as it was deemed management could not be trusted?
Then the Chairman stood up and asked for question.
I was quite suprising that out of a room of nearly 50 people there were only 5 of us who had questions.
I’m afraid to say I was my usual self and hogged the show.
Firstly I questioned the Bob scenario’s explaining how most workers are employed through agencies and when Bob say’s “I’m not doing it” and gets sacked what can the CPCS do to help Bob?
He turned white and basically said “We can’t help you there”
I said “Well your telling us to do things that keep getting us sacked”
Same answer.
Then I asked about the 27,000 men I know who were made unemployable because they lied to the Major Contractors Group.
Can you believe he had the front to say “I think were beyond that now”
I continued to give him bloody awkward questions until some numb nuts suggested he gave me his email address so we could continue without wasting other people’s time.
The irony was when he asked “Has anyone else any questions” there was a deadly silence.
I was going to rip him to bits for at least another hour.
The conference ended pretty soon after.
The only thing i can devise from this conference is that they don’t care about plant operators, they are not interested in our well being or respect the fact we have any intelligence at all.
They want to segregate our working limits NOT because we are incompetent at our jobs but because they are incompetent at finding a way to measure us.
This also benefits everyone who was at that conference (Besides myself) because they sustain their income.
This can only head the industry on a downward slope.
They are talking to everyone apart from the people that matter.
The CPCS should be talking to organ grinder and not the monkeys in shirts!
It gets worse dont it.
Martyn
Thats why the construction game is screwed up with ballcocks from those people.
what a waste of time and money its crap like this that is destroying our industry and much of it is down to insurance companies who are the biggest legal crooks we have next to our politicians. 
Part of the problem is down to the following legislations; HASAWA 1974, MHSWR 1999, PUWER, COSHH and LOLER.