SCAFFOLDING ACT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 136, 10 June 1943, Page 3

SCAFFOLDING ACT

PROTECTION OF WORKERS

In a reserved judgment in a scaffolding case Mr. A. M. Goulding, S.M., emphasised the necessity of full compliance with the requirements of the Scaffolding Act. The case concerned one of a number of buildings covered by a single contract. The Magistrate said it had been urged that it had been the practice in the past, where a contract covering a number of separate buildings was undertaken, to give one notice only under the Act of intention to erect scaffolding. That, it had been contended, was sufficient, but he did not agree.

The Act was designed for the protection of those who worked upon scaffolding on .particular buildings, the Magistrate continued. The definition in the Act clearly indicated work on separate, individual buildings, and the definition of scaffolding confirmed that view. Concerning the requirement to give notice, the Magistrate expressed the opinion that the only meaning to be drawn from it was that a duty was cast on the person about to begin work on any building of notifying the Inspector of Scaffolding, before he began, of his intention so to do. The duty then passed to the inspector of seeing that the requirements were met. "No real protection of those about to work upon a building can be secured unless the Act is interpreted in the way I have indicated;" concluded the Magistrate.