‘Safe Pass’ - safety before profit.

by Resources for Unemployed Fri Oct 22, 2004 20:20

Under health & safety laws, people are required to have a ‘Safe Pass’ in order to work on a construction site.
The Safe Pass programme is part of a
health & safety training ‘market’
estimated to be worth many millions of euro.

“FAS may grant aid this training programme…
http://www.fas.ie/environmental_training_unit/safepass.html
‘Building in Safety’: European Safety Week
http://osha.eu.int/ew2004/index_en.htm

by Resources for Unemployed Fri Oct 22, 2004 20:22 newsforthedeaf at yahoo dot com

Typically, a one-day Safe Pass course costs around 100 euro.
If you are unemployed, you are entitled to a Safe Pass, free of charge.
If FAS refuse you grant aid
Print out the above article information
And present to the staff, as evidence of your entitlement.

For example
An unemployed person who had received an offer of work in construction
applied to FAS for grant aid in order to cover the cost of the Safe Pass course.
She was refused
(as has happened to other people that she has talked to)
on the grounds that “FAS funding for training was temporarily all used up.”

After a bit of research, she returned to FAS with the information
provided in the article above.

A few days later she received a letter,
“A place has been reserved for you on a Safe Pass Training programme…
“Please call to the FAS office… to sign the application form for the Customised Training Fund.”

by construction worker Tue Oct 26, 2004 15:32

These courses usually cost 120 each if you are in a group of three or more. Otherwise they can be up to 150 euro each.

More or less it is a money making racket. The guy who did my training started by telling all present that they whole safe pass thing was a scam. At least he was honest about it - numerous times he made reference to the amount of money he was making giving these courses.

Other messed up aspect of these is the fact that they are usually given through English. Many people starting to work on sites around the country do not have English as their first language. Previously, FAS allowed translators to attend any safe pass course to help even if there was just one person attending who needed them. Now that is changed and only translators are allowed if the entire group (usually 20) need the same translations. This makes it very difficult for individuals who do not yet have a job. ... of course there are many safe pass trainers out there I'm sure who will turn a blind eye to the fact that someone doesn't understand a word of the training as long as they pay up.

by Resources for Unemployed Tue Dec 14, 2004 00:13

Feedback from people who have used the information in this article suggests that to sucessfully get your safepass paid for
you should first
arrange a "career guidance interview" with FÁS.

'Systems' can brush you off at the reception desk.
Not so easily if you get your 'foot in the door' with a pre-arranged interview.

At the interview tell them about the construction job you have lined up and ask for a safe-pass course to be subsidised for you.

If then
you're refused.
It might be time to start waving around the above article,
information as power!

by Godfrey Tue Dec 14, 2004 02:14

maybe a contact with a mediator in a Local employment service first might be a better move (if one is available in your area) than going straight to a Fas office. sadly IME Fas are often best bypassed if at all possible.

by newsforthedeaf Mon Dec 20, 2004 21:59

One of the reasons that this article has been published on indymedia is the fact that my local “centre for the unemployed” wouldn’t distribute the information.
I offered to write a leaflet outlining how unemployed people could obtain their entitlement to a free Safe Pass.
But I was told,
“You must be joking, I’ve got a board of directors to answer to…”


Godfrey, you say “Fás are often best bypassed”
Would this have anything to do with the opinion/analysis that

"When the government relents and accepts the birth of a public program, big business demands the right (behind closed doors) to shape the program. If it’s a public program they want to ensure its run badly, because they don’t want people thinking that public schools, public transit, public housing, is better than their privately run counterparts. Their approach is to ensure that the programs are run badly and that they are able to loot the lucrative contracts from those programs.
http://laborsmilitantvoice.com/sec8history.htm


Or Godfrey, are you a prospective buddy of Charlie McCreevy
who is now set up with the European Commissions, Internal Market Portfolio

Brussels Proposes to Liberalise Internal Market in Services.
Financial Times
By Daniel Dombey

"what may be the biggest shake-up in the
EU’s internal market
since the first phase of the project was completed in 1993.
The European Commision… will present proposals intended to liberalise about 50 per cent of the EU’s economy by freeing up
the market for cross-border services.
The service industry,
rather than traditional sectors such as manufacturing, now accounts for most EU economic activity,
but much European liberalisation to date has focused on traded goods and breaking up monopolies over utilities.

The proposal is aimed at diverse sub-sectors such as leisure and IT services, medicine and legal and fiscal advice
and EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES
and construction.


Hopefully, Godfrey your motives for commenting are none of the above
but that at this moment you are putting the finishing touches to an indymedia article outlining
"How to Make Contact With Your Local Employment Service"

by xenon Tue Dec 21, 2004 00:17

Don’t know about anyone else but I’d agree that FAS (staff) suffer with a major attitude problem. I know many people who hate to deal with them directly and would prefer to avoid them. I had quite a few disagreeable experiences with them over the years. ‘Local Employment Services’, L.E.S on the whole are generally more agreeable (and if I satisfies your ideological bent are equally as statist) .
On liberalisation I’ve already witnessed it, or at least a form of it overseas, and I thought it worked well there. Surely the If people who need to use the service are happy it must count for something.

by newsforthedeaf Tue Dec 21, 2004 19:29

This article does not condone FáS
nor the Local Employment Service.

This article does not condone the construction industry
nor the Safe Pass scam.

This article does not condone the welfare state
nor neo-liberalism.

This is a crude tool.

If need be
Use it.

This is a test run.

If it works
Pass it on.