Flip-Flops on the Job Site

What's up with Filipinos wearing flip-flops or slippers on the job site?  It's just not safe at all.  

These are all mundane everyday examples of disregarding safety on the job site in the Philippines.  But the guy below really takes the cake in terms of stupidity and being unsafe.

So they decided to demolish a building and they have an excavator digging up the rubble and depositing it in a truck.  

On top of the truck is this guy. I guess his job is to make sure all the rubble is evenly sorted so the excavator can deposit the maximum amount. But what is he wearing?  Shorts and a t-shirt. No hard hat.  No pants.  No gloves.  No long-sleeved shirt.  No eye protection.  And......

No boots!  He is wearing slippers! Does he not realise he could step on a sharp rock or piece of metal or some other piece of rubble and puncture his foot?  

How is he even allowed on the site dressed like that?

This guy is a tragedy just waiting to happen.  At any moment the excavator could drop a load and the rubble fall right on top of him rendering instant death or serious injury. This is not like in the above pictures where the worker is in a relatively safe spot.  This is a demolition zone.  If you look carefully at the first picture you will see a "Men At Work" sign acknowledging this is a construction site and you will see a man walking around towards the far right.

Who is he?  The foreman?  He is not dressed right either.  He's not wearing a hardhat and it looks like he's not wearing steel-toe boots.

To be completely honest this is not always how it is.  There are several construction sites around town right now where the workers are dressed appropriately in hard hats, boots, eye protection, and all the rest.  I think the difference is that those sites are high profile projects where the city is making a huge investment and therefore there are a lot of eyes watching.

These workers are wearing the appropriate PPE

But those sites are the exception and not the rule.  The rule is "get it done no matter what." Workers dressed inappropriately for the job is too common a sight. The Philippines needs an office like OSHA to make sure working conditions are safe.

Oh wait, they already have an OSHA office.  

http://www.oshc.dole.gov.ph

The problem, like many problems in the Philippines, is enforcement.  No one enforces the laws.

And that puts everyone at risk.