PSSA Newsletter - June 2014

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News Issue 4 June 2014
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Care has been taken to ensure that the contents of this publication are accurate, but PSSA and its subsidiaries do not accept responsibility or liability for errors
or information that is found to be misleading
SUDOKU
SUDOKU
PSSA Contact
Details:
Secretary to the Council
Rob Oliver
Executive Administrator
Claire Kelly
PSSA’s website
PSSA General Email
.
Tel No: +44 (0) 20 8253 4509
Fax No: +44 (0) 20 8253 4510
Skills Cards
To all those working on
Construction Sites or
completing PQQs to be
considered for work:-
The issues around CSCS Cards, &
more recently SMSTS or SSSTS Cer-
tification, & the NVQs you will need
to get cards, if you let them lapse
regardless of your qualification &
experience is getting much more difficult. Likewise if you want to operate
plant the CPCS Cards that many big contractors insist upon, but you are
multi skilled, so not solely operating say an excavator is nigh on impossible
to keep up honestly. Also did you know that CSCS is not acceptable in court
as proof of competence, you will need other systems in place to cover you
for this? If things do go wrong so the skills cards are not much use except
as an access to work on these particular sites, or as someone said as ice
scrapers or packers.
Some of the many serious questions being asked recently:-
1 - Why do experienced workers have to renew the card except for the up-
dates on Health & Safety?
2 - Why NEBSH and SMSTS etc which more stringent are NOT recognized by
CSCS?
3 - Why DWP give grants to foreigners to gain the card as a means of ID not
for skills?
4 - Why have a competency skill/trade on the card when it’s never been
enforced? Landscapers & Groundworkers are often installing Fencing for
example.
5- Is “No Card - No Work” actually legal? Surely if you are properly competent
to do your job & safe that should be enough?
Some more points of concern:-
They are excluding the experienced guys from the system & trying to force
them to go through NVQs to renew their cards if they lapse, when they have
records on the system even though there is a gap. For multi tasking guys
who operate plant why, for example, do our guys have to operate the plant
for a minimum of 40 minutes per working day to keep their CPCS card?
“In November I paid Construction Helpline for 2 CSCS tests and cards for 2
of my employees. Now in May I have still only received 1 despite dozens of
phone calls. They tell me that CSCS has sent out originals and replacements
yet not one has arrived in the mail.”
“Why do they force Professionals (eg Senior Planners, etc.) to do unnec-
essary NVQ’s. For me, there is no NVQ that is directly applicable to project
planning, but CSCS stated I could do one in Project Controls or Project
Management, which wouldn’t prove I was a competent planner at all.”
“I am a Senior QS with 50 years experience on construction sites. I needed to
renew my platinum CSCS card recently but exceeded the 6 months renewal
period as I had a job in the office. Therefore I had to apply for a new CSCS
card. To my amazement the CITB would not let me apply for a professional/
black card as I had not paid my RICS annual subscriptions for 15 years.
They forced me to apply for an operative/visitor card which is surely nonsense?”
Then there is the cost of the cards, the courses, the time off, the expenses which also mount up too. You can easily
spend £1,000 per person to get the necessary paperwork in place for each person, when they already have
qualifications & a track record which should be more than good enough for them to prove their skills & competence
including legally in a court of law. We wonder how many of these issues our members & readers have encountered with Skills
Cards because to more & more people the system is not fit for purpose? The Cards work for college leavers & people coming
into Britain from elsewhere but not for those who have worked in the industry for years. It is also encouraging our skills base
to haemorrhage to other countries & early retirement. Let us know your thoughts! Feedback via Claire Kelly at PSSA offices.