It's all about reducing risk and reducing accidents and in the work place, if using ladders is the cheap option at the expense of safety, then that company is in breach of the rules but only if other options other than a ladder are a viable option.
i.e. 10 minutes with two staff with a ladder as opposed to a whole day and thousands in costs with a platform. Business still has to run and be viable.
This is a good way of putting it Ross. The regs actually say that if the alternative to work at height that is "reasonably practicable" it should be used.
I doubt, for example, that anyone would say that it was practical to use a cherry picker to clean house windows. (and this is still working at height anyway)
The real question is whether its "reasonably practical" to use a pole system instead of ladders for most window cleaning tasks. The answer to this is not yes or no, because it depends on the individual circumstances. E.g. yes you might be able to use a pole system for building X. Y and Z, but for building A, B and C you can't. Its fine to use ladders then for A,B and C
if you can justify it.
In truth, most commercial buildings are already being done, or can be done, using poles and the company's own H&S policy may well stipulate you can't clean windows from ladders. It doesn't matter a jot what the regs say in this case, if the building owner says "NO" then there's no choice! The building owner themself will probably enforce H&S on their own without the need for HSE involvement.
For residential work, its trickier. Its my opinion that this is where the regs will really bite for window cleaning. Is it possible to justify ladder use on residential? Is it "reasonably practicable" to clean residential windows with a pole system?
Again, it depends on the individual job. However, I have met some window cleaners who have the attitude that because they only do residential, they can continue to use ladders (with devices). In my opinion, this is not correct, and if they were asked to justify that to a HSE officer, they would not be able to.
I have read a number of articles about whether ladders could be justified on residential work, and some of the reasons that have been given just do not stand up to scrutiny. Things like WFP cant be used because it would be difficult to get hoses round to backs of houses, or that customers might object to the hoses trailing on the garden.
Anyone who has actually used WFP for domestics will know that these things are very rarely a problem. The fact is that window cleaners DO use WFP on domestic houses every day. How could they do so if it were impracticable? The HSE knows this, and I believe you'd have to come up with better reasons than "hoses on the garden" to justify working at height.
At the end of the day, each situation is different, and there will certainly be houses where ladders are the most practical method. We just have to be careful not to use blanket assumptions, like they're okay for ALL residential work
Sorry to write that but I do think some WFP's are over pushing what the WAHD is about
That's true, I have seen systems for sale with literature about how you need it because of the impending "Ladder Ban" and this is misleading. Remeber that ebay one?
http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=6730.0-Philip
