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The Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba has announced it's cutting rates for construction firms that encourage a safe workplace. The Incentive Plan in Construction will cut WCB rates by five percent for firms that earn safety association accreditation through the Manitoba Heavy Construction Association, or the Consttruction Safety Association of Manitoba. The plan starts January 1st, and is open to over 5,500 construction firms. It will be funded by the construction firms through a small surcharge increase, which doesn't apply to other industries. CJOB's Brett Megarry reporting.
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So much to build and not enough builders. Governor Haley Barbour says rebuilding here is suffering because of a tremendous shortage of qualified construction workers. That's why on Monday the governor threw his support behind an initiative called "I'm GREAT." GREAT is an acronym for Gulf Rebuild: Education, Advancement and Training. The goal is to train 20,000 Gulf Coast residents from Texas to Mississippi in basic construction over the next three years. Once they get the skills, the students in a heating and air conditioning class at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College believe they'll have little trouble landing jobs. "I thought it would be a good opportunity," said William Tune. "The classes are free so you just come in get a good education that's real quick.
The death of a landscape contractor in Bermuda struck by a large branch that fell from a tree he was helping to lop has brought renewed calls for stricter controls on the training and certification of workers involved in potentially dangerous jobs. The owners of two of the largest landscaping companies in Bermuda, along with a qualified tree care professional and trainer, say there needs to be proper regulation of the industry as happens in many other countries. The circumstances surrounding the death of the 34-year-old Portuguese man, believed to be a father-of-one with another child on the way, are still being investigated. He was killed while working on a casuarina tree in a garden. The tree was the last in a row that was being cut back by a team from Island Construction and Landscaping Services.
A CONTRACTOR has been found guilty of a catalogue of health and safety errors after a worker fell to his death. Warrington Crown Court heard David Moran, aged 31, had no demolition or construction qualifications for the cash-in hand job at Chesford Grange, Woolston, where he was killed in September 2002. He died after falling eight feet through a fragile roof he had been instructed to work on. .
Federal Ministry of Water Resources is now to give clearance for the construction of dams in all parts of the country. Minister of Water Resources Mukhtari Shagari stated this in an interview with the newsmen in Abuja. Shagari said the directive had become necessary to ensure adherence to the existing rules and guidelines on dam construction. “It will also check the abuse of maintenance standards by states and private organisations as well as prevent floods and collapse of dams in the country," he said. The minister said experts in the ministry had attributed the prevailing cases of floods in the country to negligence and bad design by the state or private firms that handled dam construction. He cited the Birnin Ruwa dam in Zamfara State which, he noted, was among the oldest state-owned dams that suffered neglect by the government, resulting in its collapse.
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