Construction safety management_Construction Management (2180611) (Semester-8), Civil Engineering

Prepared by
Prof. Ashish Makwana
Civil Engineering Dept. - MEFGI
Prof. Ashish Makwana 1

PRESENTATION
OUTLINE…
• Importance of Safety
• Evolution of Safety
• Accident Causation Theories
• Unsafe Conditions
• Unsafe Acts
• Cost of Accidents

PRESENTATION
OUTLINE…
• Role of Safety Personnel
• Causes of Accidents
• Causes of Accidents – Grouped according to
their nature
• Principles of Safety
• Safety and Health Management System
• Safety Indicators

Importance of Safety
• The construction industry, employing the
largest force in the country, has accounted for
about 11 % of all occupational injuries and 20
% of all deaths resulting from occupational
accidents.
• The cost of accidents is expensive.

Reasons for considering safety
Humanitarian Concern
• When the accident happens, the resulting
suffering of the injured workers and their families
is difficult to quantify in economic terms.
• The contractor should never ignore this even if he
has insurance against accidents.
Economic Reasons
• Even if a contractor has insurance, he will find out
that the cost of accidents will come out of his
own pocket through an increase in insurance
premiums.

Laws and Regulations
• As per different acts and laws, the employer
should look after the safety of the employee.
• Violation of these laws will be subject to
punishment.
Organization Image
• A good safety record can produce higher
morale and productivity and stronger
employee loyalty.
• It will also improve the company’s public
image.

Evolution of Safety
• In order to provide some measures of
protection to industrial workers, workman's
compensation laws were drafted first time in
the year 1867.
• This was a significant step towards safety
movement.
• Initially the scope of ‘safety’ was restricted to
accident prevention and to analyze the cause
of accident.

• Organization such as World Health
Organization (WHO) and International Labour
Organization (ILO) promoted occupational
health of industrial workers globally.
• The ILO identified the need for action for
reducing the risks of accidents and adopted a
convention concerning minimum safety
standards in the building industry in 1937.
• With the setting up of National Safety Council
(NSC) in India in 1966, the safety movement
started.

• The NSC organized that safety is the
responsibility of management and in this
endeavor, the active support of workers is
needed.
• In order to generate awareness, March 4 of
every year is celebrated as national safety day.
• Lock sabha passed a construction worker's bill
in August 1996 to regulate the work
conditions on all construction sites.

• The bill is applicable to all employers who
employ 50 or more workers on any day at one
go or in relay.
• In 1988, the central rules on building and
other construction workers also came into
existence and these are applicable to central
establishments.

Accident Causation Theories
• An accident may be defined as an event that is
unplanned, unexpected, undesired and
uncontrolled, and one that may or may not
result in damage to property or injury to
person, or both in the course of employment.
• Important theories – Heinrich theory, Vincoli
theory, Petersen theory, Ferrel’s theory, Hinze
theory

(a) Heinrich theory
• Heinrich propagated the domino theory to
explain the causation of accidents.
• According to Heinrich, accidents are the result
of a chain of sequential events.
• He compared these events with dominoes.
• When one of the dominoes fall, it triggers the
collapse of the next domino, and the next and
so on.

The five dominos are-
• Social environment
• Fault of person
• Unsafe act
• Accident
• Injury
• He suggested that removing a key factor such as
unsafe act would prevent the start of the chain
reaction.
• The easiest domino to control, according to
Heinrich, is the unsafe condition.

• He studied a large number of accident cases
from the insurance records and found that 88
% of accidents were attributable to unsafe act
of persons involved, 10 % were due to unsafe
mechanical / physical condition and the
remaining 2 % were a result of natural
calamities.
• Heinrich believed that people are the
fundamental reason behind any accident.
• He was of the opinion that management is
responsible for prevention of accidents.

• This theory was quite simple and in explaining
accident causation and it was easy to
implement as well.
• Using theory it was possible to pin point the
person responsible for the lapses leading to
accident.
• Over the years the domino theory has been
adapted by many researchers and have
developed models known as management
models.

(b) Vincoli theory
• Vincoli presented an updated model in which
he replaced the original five dominos of
Heinrich the following-
i. Management – loss of control
ii. Origins – Basic causes
iii. Immediate causes – Symptoms
iv. Contract – Incident
v. Loss – people - property

• According to Vincoli, lack of control by
management initiates the process that
eventually results in incidents.
• Vincoli distinguishes between incident and
accident.
• He defines incident as any event that has the
possibility of creating a loss, and a loss event
as and ‘accident’.
• The basic causes belong to personal factors
and job factors.

• Examples of personal factors are lack of
understanding, improper motivation, illness,
mental or personal problems.
• Examples of job factors are inadequate work,
bad design, low quality equipment, normal
wear and tear.
• The unsafe acts and conditions are the
immediate causes.
• Management allowing these factors to
continue unchecked leads to incidents.
• Incident has the possibility of creating a loss,
and a loss event is an accident.

(c) Petersen theory
• According to Petersen the root causes of
accidents often related to the management
system.
• He developed a non-domino based
management model in 1971, known as
multiple causation model.
• He believed that a number of causes and sub-
causes combined together are responsible for
an accident, and it is not possible to attribute
the causation of an accident to a single lane.

• Petersen gave an example of a worker falling
off a defective stepladder.
• The domino theory would attribute the cause
of this accident to unsafe condition.
• The climbing of defective ladder is an unsafe
act, while the presence of a defective ladder
would constitute the unsafe condition.
• The remedial measure would be to remove
the defective ladder.

• Using multiple causation theory, the
investigator would address, issues such as why
the defective ladder was not found in normal
inspections, why the supervisor allowed its
use, whether the injured worker knew that he
should not use the ladder, whether the worker
was properly trained, whether the worker was
reminded that the ladder was defective.
• Once all these causes and sub causes are
analysed, it would lead to an improved
situation.

• In this theory the investigator would
recommend improved inspection procedures,
improved training and pre – job planning by
supervisors.

(d) Ferrel’s theory
• Accident causation was also tried to be
explained using human error theories.
• Notable among them are the behavioural
model and the human factor model.
• Proponents of the behavioural model believe
that accidents are caused mainly due to the
fault of workers.
• Ferrel’s theory is an important accident
causation model under the ‘human factor
model’ category.

• He developed the accident causation model
based on a causal chain of human factors.
• He believed that accidents are caused due to
human errors that result from,
(i) Overload beyond the capacity of a human
being
(ii) Incorrect response by the person due to
incompatibility.
(iii) Performing an improper activity due to
either lack of awareness.

(e) Hinze theory
• Hinze developed the ‘distraction theory’ to
explain accident causation in situations where
there is an existence of (i) recognized safety
hazard or a mental distraction and (ii) a well
defined work task.
• She defined hazard as a physical condition
with an inherent quality that can cause harm.
• The lower the distraction from a known
hazard, the greater is the probability of
completing a task safely.

• According to this theory, under similar
hazardous and well defined situations, the
worker with the more heavy normal mental
baggage has the maximum chance not to
complete the task in a safe manner.

Unsafe Conditions
• An unsafe condition is one in which the
physical layout of the workplace and status of
tools, equipment and material are in violation
of contemporary safety standards.
• Examples of unsafe conditions-
Dress hazards
• Lack of protective equipment
• Improper clothing

Defects of agencies
• Rough, slippery work
• Defective equipment
• Defective ladders
• Overloaded tools
• Overloaded equipments
Placement hazards
• Inadequately guarded, unguarded
• Protruding nails and wire ties
• Unshared trenches

Environmental hazards
• Insufficient work space
• Inadequate aisle space
• Inadequate ventilation
• Improper illumination

Other conditions, according to Toole (2002) are-
• Lack of proper planning
• Deficient enforcement of safety
• Absence of safety equipment
• Unsafe method of working
• Unsafe site conditions
• Broken ladder
• Structurally deficient work platform

Unsafe Acts
• An unsafe act may be an act of doing
something that is unsafe or failing to do
something that should have been done.
• Every unsafe act does not produces an injury
or a loss, but it has the potential for producing
accident.

Examples of unsafe acts are –
• The decision to proceed with work in unsafe
conditions
• Working while intoxicated
• Disregarding standard safety procedures such
as not wearing helmet, safety glasses, gloves
etc.
• Working with insufficient sleep
• Cleaning, oiling or repairing of moving
electrically energized equipment.

• Improper use of equipment, overloading of
equipment
• Improper use of hands or body parts
• Failure to use available personal protective
equipment such as safety helmet, safety belt,
safety net
• Taking unsafe position – under suspended
loads riding on forks of lift trucks etc.
• Unsafe placing, mixing

Methods of eliminating unsafe acts
• Initial job instructions
• Priority to engineering
• Education
• Showing disapproval of unsafe acts
• Stressing the after effects of an accident
• Appeal to the worker’s love for his family

Health and Safety Act and Regulations
Two major legislation governing health and safety
law are-
• Building and other construction workers Act,
1996
• Building and other construction workers central
rules, 1998
• Several other statutory acts –
• Factories Act 1948, Indian Electricity Act 1948,
Indian electricity regulations, 1956, the Delhi
Building and other construction workers rules,
2002, Motor vehicle Act, 1998

Building and other construction workers Act,
1996
• The building and other construction workers
(Regulation of employment and condition of
services) Act 1996, is divided into 11 chapters
and 64 sections.
• Objectives of the safety and health provision
i. To regulate the employment and condition
of service.
ii. To provide for safety, health and welfare
measures.
iii. To extend social security to the workers.

• The provisions of this act are applicable to
even small establishments employing 10
workers in any building and other construction
work, on any day of the year.
• An individual employing workers in relation to
construction of his residence of value not
more than Rs. 10 lakh is not an establishment
according to this act.
• The act puts the governments and the
contractors on the same footing as the
employer.

• Any government department employing
construction workers directly without directly
without any contractor is liable for
consequences of non-observance of law.
• Any building construction work to which
Factories Act, 1948 apply is exempted from
the BOCW provisions.

Building and other construction workers central
rules, 1998
• These rules are divided into five parts and
contains 30 chapters and 12 schedules.
• Chapter 2, rule 5 deals with responsibility and
duties of employers, architects, project
engineers and designers, building workers.
The responsibility of employer are-
• To comply with requirement of rules.
• Not to permit an employee to do anything not
in accordance with the accepted principles.

• Not to allow lifting appliances, lifting gear,
lifting devices, vehicles to be used by the
workers which do not comply with provision
of rules.
• To ensure that emergency action plan is in
place and approved by the director general.
• To maintain the latrines, urinals washing
facilities and canteen in clean and hygienic
condition.
• To ensure that adequate measures are taken
to protect building workers against the
harmful effects of noise and vibration.Prof. Ashish Makwana 41

• To ensure that workers do not lift or carry
weight beyond prescribed limit.
• To ensure that mechanical equipments are
provided with required safety features such as
guarded moving parts.

Cost of Accidents
Two major legislation governing health and
safety law are-
Total cost of accidents
• Direct costs
• Direct cost to workers
• Direct cost to employers
Indirect costs
• Indirect cost to workers
• Indirect cost to employersProf. Ashish Makwana 43

Direct cost for workers
• The loss of income
• Medical treatment cost
Direct cost for employer
• Cost of ambulance
service
• Cost of medical
treatment
• Cost of hospitalization
• Cost of medicine
• Cost of compensation
payment
• Cost of disability benefits
• Cost incurred in legal
proceedings
• Cost of investigation

Indirect cost to workers
• The pain and suffering of
the injury.
• Family sufferings
• Negative impact on
morale of family
members
• The possible loss of job.
Indirect cost to employer
• Cost of lost time of
injured worker
• Cost due to damage to
equipment, tools,
materials.
• Cost due to loss of
productivity of
crewmembers.
• Cost of loss of reputation
and public relations.
• Cost of replacement for
the injured workers.

• Everett (1996) found that the total cost of
accidents amounted to between 7.9 % and 15
% of total costs of construction.
• Some researchers have calculated the ratio of
indirect cost to direct cost, as Heinrich
computed it to be 4:1, Bird computed it to be
10:1, Joseph (1999) in his study on projects
involving steel erection showed that actual
profit can increase by 5 to 10 % for an
investment of 1 % to 3 % in safety.

Role of Safety Personnel
• The contractors are responsible for providing a
safe work place of employment to their
workers.
• If the contractor employs subcontractors, then
he has the additional responsibility of
providing a hazard free workplace to the
workers of subcontractors.
• Delhi Building and other construction workers
Rules 2002, states the requirement of a safety
officer. Prof. Ashish Makwana 47

• It says that appointment of safety officer is a
must for works employing 500 or more
workers.
• For strength up to 1000, one safety officer is
required, while for strength upto 2000
workers, two safety officer are required.
Various duties of a safety officer stipulated in
the law are:
• To advice the building workers for effective
control of injuries.
• To carry out safety inspections of buildings.

• To advice on safety aspects to carry out
detailed safety studies.
• To check and evaluate effectiveness of action.
• To investigate all fatal accidents.
• To advise on purchasing personal protective
equipment.
• To advise on maintenance of records related
to safety.
• To promote the working of the safety
committee.

• To organize campaigns, contests and other
such activities.
• To frame safe rules and safe working practices.
• To supervise safety precautions.
• To design and conduct training programme.

Causes of Accidents
• There are as many possible causes of accidents as
there are occasions.
• Among these are - technical defects in
equipment and method of work, defects in
organization and dangerous acts by workers.
• To these have to be added those causes that
come from the nature of construction operations
themselves, defects in planning and construction,
constant changes in workplace and task, and the
friction often found when workers from different
trades are working in close proximity to each
other. Prof. Ashish Makwana 51

Causes of Accidents – Grouped
according to their nature
Planning, Organisation
• Defects in technical planning
• Fixing unsuitable time-limits
• Assignment of work to incompetent
contractor
• Insufficient supervision of the work
• Lack of co-operation between trades

Execution of work
• Constructional defects
• Use of unsuitable materials
• Defective processing of materials
Equipment
• Lack of equipment
• Unsuitable equipment
• Defects in equipment
• Lack of safety devices

Management and conduct of work
• Inadequate preparation of work
• Inadequate examination of equipment
• Inadequate instructions from supervisor
• Unskilled operatives
• Inadequate supervision
Worker’s Behaviour
• Irresponsible acts
• Unauthorized acts
• carelessness

Causes of accidents in a large construction
company can be categorized as under –
• Unsafe act by victim = 53 %
• Unsafe condition = 25 %
• Unsafe act by coworker = 6 %
• Victim at fault as well as unsafe condition = 9
%
• Unexpected = 7 %

Distribution of construction accidents in USA –
1985 – 1989 is as under -
• Falls from elevation = 33 %
• Electrical shocks = 17 %
• Struck by incidents = 22 %
• Caught in between incidents = 18 %
• Other = 10 %

Principles of Safety
Petersen (1989) gave 10 basic principles of
safety as under –
• An unsafe act, an unsafe condition and an
accident are all symptoms of something wrong
in the management system.
• Safety should be managed like any other
company function. Management should direct
the safety effort by setting achievable goals
and planning, organizing and controlling to
achieve them. Prof. Ashish Makwana 57

• The circumstances that will produce severe
injuries should be identified and controlled.
• For effective safety performance, the
management procedures should fix
accountability.
• The causes of unsafe behaviour can be
identified and classified.
• The function of safety is to locate and define
the operational errors that allow accidents to
occur.

• In building an effective safety system, three major
subsystems must be dealt with. These are –
physical, managerial and behavioural.
• This function can be carried out in two ways –
– By asking why accidents happen – searching
for its root causes
– By asking whether certain known effective
controls are utilized.
• In most cases, unsafe behaviour is normal human
behaviour. Managements job is to change the
environment that leads to unsafe behaviour.

• The safety system should fit the culture of the
organization.
• There is no one right way to achieve safety in an
organization.
• For a system to be effective it must meet the
following criteria -
– Involve middle management
– Force supervisory performance
– Have employee participation
– Be flexible
– Commitment by top management
– Be perceived as positiveProf. Ashish Makwana 60

Safety and Health
Management System
• To manage project schedule, a construction
company plans the manpower and other
resources, plans are monitored and suitable
control measures are applied.
• The key functions of safety management
system are – planning for safety, organizing for
safety directing, coordinating and controlling
for safety.

Planning for safety include –
• Developing a safety and health policy
• Evaluating the policy from time to time
• Setting goals for safety
• Creating budget for safety
Organizing for safety include –
• Development of safety organization structure
• Defining the roles and responsibilities
• Delegating authorities
• Education and training for safety

• Directing includes, developing proper
communication system, standard operating
procedures and safety manual.
• Construction of a safety committee can be
considered as a coordinating function.
• The mechanism for accident reporting,
investigation, record keeping are covered under
controlling function.

The important components of safety management
are –
• Safety policy
• Safety budget
• Safety organization
• Training and education
• Safety plan
• Safety manual
• Safety committee
• Accident reporting, investigation and record
keeping

Safety policy
• Petersen (1989) mentioned that ‘safety should be
managed like any other company function.
• This implies that safety is a line responsibility.
• A safety policy is management’s first step in
implementing the above and principle.
• A safety policy describes the objectives, directives
and distribution of responsibility.
• A safety policy describes the objectives, directives
and distribution of responsibilities.
• It shows management’s commitment to provide a
safe and healthy work environment to all its
employees. Prof. Ashish Makwana 65

• As per rule 39 of the building and other
construction workers central rules, 1998, it is
mandatory to have a written statement of policy
in respect to safety and health of building
workers if the number of employees is more than
50.
The safety policy should contain –
• The intentions and commitment of the company
regarding health, safety and environmental
protection of building workers.
• The responsibility of the principal employer,
contractor, subcontractors, etc.
• The arrangements made to carry out the policy.Prof. Ashish Makwana 66

• The techniques and methods for assessment of
risk to safety, health and environment.
• The arrangement for training of building workers,
supervisors, etc.

Safety Budget
• Construction companies should plan for a
safety budget in order to generate safety
awareness and to provide different safety
gadgets to workers and employees.
• Some organizations have a separate safety
budget for each of the project site.
• It is observed that project mangers of sites
with low margin tend to cut down on their
safety budget.

• In order to safeguard against such practices,
experts suggest that expenditure in safety be
taken under general overhead, and the safety
budget be made at head office.
• The head office should supply the required
safety gadgets to different project sites.

Safety Organization
• The organization of safety on construction site
is determined by the size of worksite, number
of workers, the system of employment, etc.
• In construction projects, the contractors
should provide safe workplace for their
workers.
• If the contractor employ subcontractors, then
he has the additional responsibility of
providing a hazard free workplace to the
workers of subcontractor.

• The contractor and sub contractor should take
appropriate safety measures like the provison
and use of specific safety equipments,
methods of carrying out specific tasks safely,
inspection and appropriate use of tools, etc.
• Training should be conducted at all levels
including managers, supervisors, workers, etc.

Safety and health duties should be specially
assigned to certain persons. Some examples of
duties are –
• Provision, construction and maintenance of
safety facilities such as approach road Pedestrian
route, etc.
• Construction and installation of safety signs.
• Testing of lifting machinery such as cranes, hoists,
etc.
• Inspection and rectification of scaffolding.
• Inspection and cleaning of welfare facilities such
as toilets, clothing, canteen etc.
• Emergency and evacuation plans, etc.Prof. Ashish Makwana 72

Training and Education
• It is very important to expose the workers,
supervisors and line managers to various
training and educational Programmes that
impart sufficient knowledge and help them to
improves their skills in their work.
• Change of job, whether it is to a different
department or to a different employer, means
adjustment for the individual, and he/she
should be provided necessary training.

• Induction Programmes for new recruits focus on
basic safety requirements of the project.
• New recruits are given relevant safety literature,
booklets, etc., that lay emphasis on the
importance of safety at the workplace.
Some of the topics covered in induction training
Programmes are –
• How to avoid accidents?
• How to use personal protective equipments?
• How to keep the workplace injury free?
• Illustration of safe work method, etc.

• Tools box Talks (TBT) are a short meeting of the
individual work groups assigned for a particular
task before its physical commencement.
• The meeting is held each morning is held each
morning very near to the workplace and is
attended by the staff of general contractor and
subcontractor, supervisor, foremen, workers, etc.
• In TBT issues work plan and procedures for the
day identification of possible hazards, safety tools
and equipment to be used are discussed.

Safety plan
• Before the actual commencement of construction
activity, it is necessary to prepare a safety plan.
• It gives the method to be adopted for the
particular construction activity, along with time
available for the activity, the details of hazards,
and allocation of resources for managing safety
aspects.
• The contractor is supposed to prepare the safety
plan and submit it to the owner, who approves it
if it is found appropriate.
• The contractor has to follow the safety plan
approved. Prof. Ashish Makwana 76

Safety manual
• Majority of large construction companies
establish and maintain a comprehensive set of
safety rules and regulations in order to achieve
better safety performance of the projects.
• These rules and regulations are complied in the
safety manual.
The safety manual contains the following details –
• Safe ways to operate and maintain the
construction equipment.
• Safe ways to store and handle construction
materials.

• Cleanliness and housekeeping of workplace.
• Procedures to report hazards, etc.

Safety committee
• In large construction companies, safety
committee is formed for the each project site.
• The aim of the safety committee is to bring
people together with particular responsibility for
safety, so that they can formally address issues
related to safety.
The safety committee is entrusted with the
following responsibilities.
• To ensure that the construction work is being
performed safely and smoothly.
• To conduct safety inspection of the entire site.

• To resolve safety issues submitted by the
subcontractor.
• To coordinate and control hazardous working
conditions of the subcontractor.
• To enforce safety training Programmes.
• To participate and organize safety promotional
activities.
• To promote and maintain housekeeping and
waste disposal.
• To review safety practices laid down by
management, etc.

Accident reporting, Investigation and
Record keeping
• Accident reporting and investigation is an
important part of safety management.
• It should start from the supervisor and line
managers concerned.
• The safety officer should be involved in
investigation of serious and fatal accidents.
• The accidents are reported to the inspector of
factories.
• At the same time the chief executive of the
organization is also kept well informed about the
accident records and their investigation reports.Prof. Ashish Makwana 81

The monthly report sent to the chief executive of
the organization should include –
• Frequency rate of accidents
• Severity rate of accidents
• Cost of accidents
• Total time lost due to accidents
• Actions recommended to avoid reoccurrence.

Safety Indicators
• Frequency rate -
FA =
Number of lost time injury
Man hours worked
x 10,000,00
FB =
Number of lost time injury
Man hours worked
x 10,000,00
FC =
Number of fatal injuries
Man hours worked
x 10,000,00

• Lost time injury is one in which the injury require
only a little bit of medical attention and the
worker return to his work quickly.
• A reportable lost time injury is one that may
result in worker absenteeism for more than 48
hours, and it should be reported to the
appropriate authority.
• FC is also referred to as fatality rate. IS code
suggests that man hours should include
managerial, supervisory, professional, technical,
clerical and workers, including contractor’s
labour.

• Severity rate -
SA =
Man days lost due to lost − time injury
Man hours worked
x 10,000,00
SB =
Man days lost due to reportable lost time injury
Man hours worked
x 10,000,00
• IS: 3786 has characterized the man days lost due
to fatality and different types of disablement.
For example,
• Death of worker = 6000 man days lost
• Loss of one thumb = 1800 man days lost
• Loss of one eye = 2400 man days lost

• Incidence rate -
Loss time injuryincidence rate
=
Number of lost time injuries
Average nuber of persons employed
x 1000
Reportable loss time injury incidence rate
=
Number of reportable lost time injuries
Average number of persons employed
x 1000

THANK YOU

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