Construction and engineering company BAM Nuttall is trailblazing with plans to introduce more women into the construction sector by developing a range of clothing and workwear for women. This project is being carried out alongside the leading supplier of safety equipment and workwear in the UK, Arco. The range will include polo shirts, jackets, waistcoats and trousers that will look professional and will be comfortable and safe for women to wear on a construction site.
The clothing range has been through testing on a number of different construction sites in Leeds Scotland, Newcastle and London. This new range of workwear is vital for health and safety as normally women on a construction site have to wear clothes traditionally manufactured for men. This means that the clothing is baggy, oversized and at worst unsafe. Trousers for example are usually oversized and need rolling up or pulling up in some way to make them anywhere close to a fit for some of the women in a construction site. Rolled up high protection trousers could impede movement on equipment such as ladders and would also cover up the high visibility strips along the bottom of the leg.
The Health & Safety Director at BAM Nuttall, Phil Cullen has said that the clothing will look more professional and be more safe for the female operative on site. The new clothing will also have the Don’t Walk By logo on by BAM Nuttall which has been altered to also have a female silhouette as well as a male one in order to further promote and display their encouragement of diversity on the construction site. The new range will make sure that everyone on site has the best PPE available to them, including correctly fitting workwear. If the clothing range proves to be successful there are plans for expansion with a range of safety equipment such as goggles, helmets, and boots.
