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Authors: Fernando Durán-Palma, Linda Clarke, Rolf Gehring, Jakub Kus, Christopher Winch, Maria Christina Georgiadou
From a dangerous job, scaffolding has been transformed in the post-war era to become a recognised occupation in most European countries, with substantial training requirements, especially focussed on occupational safety and health.
This book, the result of SCAFFOLD, a research project coordinated by the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers and funded by the European Commission, traces this development and details employment and working conditions and vocational education and training programmes for scaffolding in six countries: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands and Poland. It shows how scaffolding has become an often highly complex labour process and sector, impacted by technological innovations, including hoists, lifts, and more recently digitalisation, with robotisation under consideration. Different scaffolding systems are predominantly used across Europe, though tube and fittings, ‘the mother of all scaffolding’, continues to be deployed, particularly in UK.
The aims of the project have been to contribute to the improvement of scaffolding and the quality of vocational education and training programmes for scaffolders; highlight possible changes in work organisation related to technology implementation; consider how equality can be better achieved, particularly the inclusion of women; and prepare policy recommendations for improved social dialogue.
The findings and recommendations are presented here, alongside illustrations and descriptions of visits and meetings, and accounts from a range of stakeholders, including scaffolders (male and female), unions, training organisations, employers, and experts. We gain a comprehensive picture of this important sector, so essential to the safety of all construction workers.