Declan Bannon

Declan Bannon, Group H&S Manager for Acro Group (4 scaffold businesses, ~450 people, ~16 locations across NZ), delivers an unfiltered assessment of health and safety in NZ construction. Irish-born with experience in both Ireland and NZ, Declan argues that scaffolding, the control for every other trade, is consistently forgotten in construction programmes and expected to deliver in the most unsafe manner. He provides a sharp critique of Site Safe/Construct Safe as tick-box exercises that deliver no real value, calls out COVID for destroying the industry's safety trajectory, and advocates for pre-job briefings over daily pre-starts and qualitative over purely quantitative leading indicators.

Key Topics Discussed

• Scaffolding always forgotten. No construction programme ever includes scaffolding despite it being the control measure for every other trade. Scaffolders are expected to deliver in the most unsafe manner while enabling safe work for everyone else.
• COVID impact on safety. COVID blew budgets and compressed timelines, destroying the safety trajectory the industry had been building. The attitude became "throw that shit up", speed over safety. The lasting damage to safety culture has been severe.
• Safety in design at pre-construction. Safety needs to be designed in during pre-construction, not bolted on during delivery. Temporary works including scaffolding must be part of the design conversation from the start.
• Pre-job briefings vs daily pre-starts. Advocates 5-minute task-specific briefings before each job rather than 20-minute morning pre-starts at 7am that nobody remembers by 11am. The current pre-start model is ineffective.
• Site Safe / Construct Safe critique. Describes them as tick-box exercises that bring no real value to the industry. Will not deliver training in non-English languages for Filipino workers and other migrant groups who make up a significant portion of the scaffolding workforce.
• Quantitative to qualitative leading indicators. Industry needs to move beyond counting hazards reported and toolbox talks held toward measuring the quality and effectiveness of safety interventions.
• Risk tolerance outside main cities. Standards drop significantly outside Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. "Out of sight, out of mind", regional projects face less scrutiny and higher risk tolerance.

Notable Quotes

• Declan: "COVID has completely fucked the construction industry."
• Declan: "Site Safe, what value do they bring to the industry?"
• Declan: Scaffolding is "the control for every other trade but expected to deliver in the most unsafe manner."
• Declan: "No program ever for scaffolding."

Guest Background

Declan Bannon is Irish, with construction experience in both Ireland and New Zealand. He is the Group Health & Safety Manager for Acro Group, which operates 4 scaffold businesses with approximately 450 people across ~16 locations in NZ. His role gives him a frontline view of safety culture across the country and the systemic challenges facing temporary works trades.