registration for site work

[murdock]

i have to work on a site which has been registered as a construction site.

what do i need to do...who do i have to be registered with and what precaution do i need to take?

lets say i plan on employing some new staff...temp staff and subbies.

what are the requirements

a letter of appointement indicating...

position held
length of contract
wage negotiated
hours of work
anything else


paye?

bargaining council registration?

workmans compensation (this is proving to be the biggest challenge) and seems to be the most important reqirement from the main contractor...have been trying to get a letter of good standing is proving to be a mission...i have just found out that apparently i owe them money back dating 6 years...till present for a staff member who left 6 years ago....seems to be another organisation lacking skilled staff.

UIF?

anything else?

[AndyD]

I'm not understanding what you're asking. All the issues you outlined are general labour/business issues and not specifically related to working on a construction site.

How many new employees are you thinking about taking on? On what basis are you going to employ them ie permanent, casual, sub-contractors...

Are you a sub-contractor on this job or are you down as a main or independent contractor? How long is the contract likely to run? Have they requested you produce tax/UIF clearence certs?

[murdock]

i would be a sub contractor.

i was hoping someone would do a blog or a thread on site requirements for sub contractors...

what is required

clearance certificates
safety requirements
medical
KBC health and safety training
supervisor appointments

i know what i need i hoping someone would put it in a nice clear format for people who dont know...someone like andy who knows his stuff and has a good way of presenting threads.

[AndyD]

Thanks for the compliment but this really isn't my area of expertise and I'm far from being qualified. Requirements are never consistant, some sites require things that others don't. My best advice would be if you're a sub-contractor try and palm as many of the requirements off onto the company you're subbying for, they're probably more set up to deal with them than you are.

I have several systems set up that alleviate the stress of starting new contracts, thing slike I have several staff that are level3 medical qualified and they do the yearly refresher, all staff have the CPR course and basic first aid cert. I have police clearance certificates for all employees which I renew every year. All our test equipment carries current calibration certification, all access equipment carries safety certs, all safety equipment is also independently certified every 6 months, all vehicles have an up to date stock inventory....the list is endless.

It all depends on your customers but if you contract to corporates unfortunately it's a must. The problem is that the requirements are getting more stringent and the margins are getting progressively smaller on this type of work. A few years ago it was a good market to be in but at the moment I'm slowly but surely weaning my business away from this route and moving away from these type of clients. The downside to this change is that I'm now effectively running two separate businesses which has increased my work load but the way it's going this won't be for long (hence my regular posts here long after the witching hour). I have two full time teams on other work now and it will soon be three. Hopefully a year from now I'll be back on the golf course on Fridays

[bergie]

its getting stricter by the day . i got chased off site last week because my staff didnt have medical certificates for working above 2 metres(must be from an occupational practitioner.)

[Just Gone]

Perhaps the site manager will have a set of guidelines for you for what a subbie should abide to ! ?

[Dave A]

Requirements are never consistant, some sites require things that others don't. My best advice would be if you're a sub-contractor try and palm as many of the requirements off onto the company you're subbying for, they're probably more set up to deal with them than you are.

It all depends on your customers but if you contract to corporates unfortunately it's a must.

That's kinda my experience too - and as bergie says, it's steadily getting worse stricter. Small businesses are steadily getting strangled by red tape.

Used to be all you needed was a letter of good standing from Workmans Compensation and any skills relevant registrations (such as registration with ECB). The last tender we shot for with Transnet, the compliance related supporting documents that went with the tender totalled about 90 pages.

[murdock]

thats why i started this thread...just been thru the 6 day odeal to prepare for a project...from medicals to tool talks in the morning...to inductions...etc etc...just for me to get thru all the requirements cost over R12000.

it would be great if someone who presents threads in an neat format to post all the standard requirements.

[bergie]

i had never even heard of a health and safety file. now i have been asked for it by 3 different companies in 2 months.