Victims of Subcontractors
This is a story from the plant site where I served as a full-time safety officer until last year.
One day,Worker Fired from the Job Site After ”Just One Day”An incident occurred.
Background of the Incident
When a sub-contractor supervisor arrives at a new job site, it’s often their first time meeting the workers assigned to the site, and in most cases, they don’t even know their names.
Since we have virtually no prior information about new hires, we can’t determine what each person is capable of until they actually start working.
Isn't it a problem that the first-tier subcontractor has no idea what level of skill the workers—who were gathered from all over—actually possess?This is probably due to poor internal communication within the subcontractor.
I received emails every day from someone at that subcontractor’s office regarding new access authorizations. My interaction with this person was limited to email; I had never met him in person. While he came across as diligent, he was someone who tended to be a bit careless.
Upon reviewing the personal safety documents sent by the person in charge, I found that the personal background check forms contained numerous errors—such as typos and expired medical examination certificates.
It was probably because they would just pass things along from one person to the next without even reviewing what they’d received. I often had to point out their mistakes and ask them to resubmit the documents.
Normally, you’d think that information would have been passed on to the assistant foreman in charge of the site, but it seemed that no such communication had taken place at all; even the assistant foreman on site was asking me for information about the workers.
There must be someone in charge of finding contractors and negotiating with them to decide who to send to the job site, but that person was probably only concerned with the headcount—paying almost no attention to the workers’ ages or backgrounds—and simply finalized the contract with the demand, “Just send people over!”
As a result, some people were let go from the site after just one day.It's truly outrageous—you could even call them victims of subcontracting!
A worker who was let go from the job site after just one day
It all started when I reported to the director about this worker's health and work experience.
After that, the director relayed the message to the sub-contractor’s top executive, and"This person is hopeless—I'm going to ask them to stop!"That's when he started saying that.
It goes without saying, but when that worker first entered the facility, he hadn’t falsified any of his work history or qualifications. Everything was stated honestly.
When I asked him, he said that until now he had been working as a plumbing installer for a general contractor, and his only experience with electrical work was briefly helping out with low-voltage wiring. He also said this was his very first time working at a plant site, that he had never done tasks like installing cables in racks—which he would be doing from now on—and that this was the first time he’d ever worn a full-body harness.
Furthermore, he was 64 years old, had diabetes and heart disease, was taking medication, and had been advised by his doctor to avoid working at heights. His medical examination report stated that he should exercise caution when working at heights, and he had declared this information accordingly.
Normally, if they had that much information, they would refrain from sending workers to this site.
If it’s not going to work, you should tell the person or their company right from the start—it’s clear that the subcontractor doesn’t care one bit about how people feel.
Seriously... that's just rude!!!
Naturally, word of this quickly spread among the other workers. Although no one said anything, they certainly wouldn’t have a favorable impression of the subcontractor that treated them that way.
The subcontractor may have its own side of the story. There must be something I don’t know. But if they’re just going through the motions without any desire to improve, things are never going to get better.
To begin with, if you keep working like this, won’t you end up feeling neither satisfaction nor a sense of accomplishment?
Both employers and subcontractors should reflect on what happened this time and go back to basics.I want the top management at both companies to adopt the mindset of “Let’s improve even just one thing—no matter how small—to address our current shortcomings!”
