2. CONTENTS
Safety Culture - Safe Workers - Safety and First
Line Supervisors - Safety and Middle Managers -
Top Management Practices, Company Activities
and Safety - Safety Personnel - Sub-contractual
Obligation - Project Coordination and Safety
Procedures -Workers Compensation.
3. TOP MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
• Action item 1: Communicate your
commitment to a safety and health program
• Action item 2: Define program goals
• Action item 3: Allocate resources
• Action item 4: Expect performance
4. COMPANY ACTIVITIES IN SAFETY
• Awareness
• Training
• Communication
• Documentation
• Proper Equipment
• Supervision
• Innovation
• Transparency
5. SAFETY PERSONNEL DUTIES
1. Set up, develop and administer the Safety Program.
2. Establish safe practices.
3. Study accident causes.
4. Investigate accidents.
5. Train supervisors.
6. Initiate corrective action.
7. Inspect.
8. Develop safety rules.
9. Study accidents trends and keep accident records.
10. Initiate safety meetings.
11. Arrange safety meetings.
6. SUB CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION
• report on entries
• Trade Register extract or a document with comparable
content,
• report on tax payment status,
• certificate of pension insurance
• report on the collective agreement or principal terms
and conditions of employment applying to the work in
question,
• report on how occupational health care is provided,
and
• certificate stating that statutory accident insurance
7. WORKERS COMPENSATION
• Workers' compensation is a type of insurance
program that insures employees for illnesses
and injuries that arise out of the job. ...
Injured employees receive a certain portion of
their wages while they are off work for the
treatment of such injury or illness, depending
on state rules.
10. PROJECT CO-ORDINATION
• Strong management commitment
• Close contact and interaction among workers,
supervisors, and management
• A high level of housekeeping, orderly workplace
conditions, and effective environmental quality
control.
• ·Well-developed selection
• Training practices
• · Added features or variations
• · Effective disciplinary plan
11. SAFETY PROCEDURES
• Safety Orientation
• Contractor responsibilities
• Emergency management
• Fire prevention
• Confined spaces
• Gas cylinders
• Drilling and blasting
• Excavations
• Crane Operations
• Housekeeping
• Hazard communication system
• Electrical safety
• Barricades…
• Safety manual
Editor's Notes
8 Best Practices to Improve Construction Site Safety
Posted on October 25, 2016 by Tyler Riddell
IMPROVE CONSTRUCTION SITE SAFETY
In most workplaces, accidents are a nuisance for the worker and a headache for HR. However, at construction sites, accidents have the potential to be life threatening. With every new story about environmental disasters, earth-shattering explosions, and trapped laborers, construction sites become less and less appealing — even as the population grows and demands new, updated structures increases.
Regarded as one of the most dangerous professions, construction work on the job site can be considered anything but entirely safe. Obviously, the employers do need to mitigate safety hazards to construction workers, but the workers need to keep in mind a lot of precautions themselves when working in such hazardous conditions.
Thus, construction industry leaders must strive to safeguard their employees — if not for the ethical reasons, then for the economic ones. Here are eight ways construction businesses can reduce workplace accidents.
1. Awareness
Before any worker — no matter his or her role or experience level — can set foot on a construction site, he or she must be fully cognizant of the possible hazards. Ignorant workers are perhaps the biggest dangers in any industry, as their unknowing mistakes put everyone else at risk. Understanding of perils at hand and sustaining a perpetual state of alertness is perhaps the number-one best way to prevent accidents. See OSHA Safety Check Lists.
2. Training
Though most of a construction worker’s skills can be gained on the job, safety is one skill set that is best learned before works enter the construction site. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and other organizations publish some resources to help businesses train their new laborers on standard safety and security practices, including pamphlets, worksheets, training videos, and even on-site training opportunities. Experienced workers should be expected to refresh their knowledge of standard safety by attending regular training sessions throughout the year.
3. Communication
Accidents are more likely to occur when workers are unsure what to expect. Direct communication regarding the day’s goals and activities will cut down on surprises that could cause bodily harm. Construction firms would be wise to equip workers with devices, like smartphones or headsets, which allow fast and efficient communication among team members.
4. Documentation
There are some legal hoops most construction companies must jump through to begin building, and it is essential that all proper registrations and licenses are earned before work begins. Supervisors and contractors who will be charged with particularly difficult tasks, like blasting, certainly should provide evidence of their certification well in advance of their employment on the job site. Not only does this prevent accidents due to improper training, but it protects the construction firm from legal action and public scrutiny. Also, documenting all work in the field using cloud and mobile technologyis making it easier than ever before to mitigate future lawsuits.
5. Proper Equipment
Construction workers equipped with improper gear are bound to make fatal errors. Not only should each piece of equipment on the job site be ideally suited to the task at hand, but construction firms must make certain that all machinery and material are well maintained.
Construction companies must also consider equipment that doesn’t directly contribute to the construction project. Workers should have plenty of water on-site as well as a shady place to prevent dehydration and exposure-related illnesses. Longer construction projects may even benefit from fabric structures to store equipment and cover incomplete sites.
6. Supervision
Ideally, construction workers would fully understand the ramifications of inadequate safety precautions and thus act in a manner to ensure site-wide well-being — but this is not a perfect world. Every site must have a strong supervisor who is willing and capable of enforcing safety standards with no exceptions. This foreman must keep tabs on all employees throughout the day and correct those who fail to commit to proper safety procedures.
7. Innovation
The accident rate would be even higher than it is today if it were not for construction firms willing to devote extra resources to keep their employees safe. The development of new practices that will enhance security should always be encouraged, and companies should avoid speaking against legislation aimed at improving safety protocols. Perhaps with enough innovation, all construction sites can be 100 percent accident-free.
8. Transparency
The worst thing any construction firm can do for its reputation is attempting a cover-up. Hiding accidents from the press and the public not only lowers the opinion of a single endeavor — it paints the building industry as a whole in a negative light. Ultimately, people understand that accidents happen, and as long as contractors are doing their best to foster a safe environment for their workers, any accidents that do occur will only contribute to the growing need to augment modern safety techniques. Transparency, along with the other seven practices on this list, will help construction as a whole become a safer industry in which to work.
Safety personnel and their duties
SAFETY PERSONNEL & THEIR DUTIES
The personnel to be recommended for selection of the safety functions should be as for any other job and must qualify for a number of minimum requirements if they are expected to do this work successfully. This work is not easy. The safety man has to inspect, teach, propose changes and guide investigations. In short he has to do a lot of things which by their very nature are apt to provoke resentment in others as he is poking his nose into their business. And this is valid for the whole range of safety personnel from Department Head to Junior Safety Supervisor.
We can thus conclude that the man must have personality which combines perseverance with the gift to compromise when this is not to the detriment of safety. He must have ideas, enthusiasm and an ability to “sell� safety, but, also, he must be responsible and ready to give advice so that he will avoid being considered “The Secret Police.�
With regard to his education and background, it is generally appreciated that he should have a technical upbringing and experience in factories. Better and faster results are expected by giving specialized safety training to an experienced man of the right personality out of the same company than trying to add experience to a total outsider who has not lived with the company.
The safety man of the future should at least be an engineering graduate with sufficient knowledge, both spoken and written, of the local language. He must be able to preside over meetings or act as secretary to meetings. Besides that, knowledge of English would be very welcome. Finally do not choose a man who has no ability to write a comprehensive report or keep records.
The special training that should be given to the candidate for safety work comprises, in the first instance, of the basic techniques to promote safety and prevent accidents. There are several books and courses available by now to achieve this, some treating general aspects, others going into great detail of specialized applications.
Equally important, with the training, with the training techniques, however, is the use of visual aids and how to prepare them, the use of statistics and the factories’ Act as well as various Safety Codes.
Duties of Safety personnel
The foregoing discussion of the safety program brings us, in logical sequence, to the duties of the safety personnel.
Theirs is a staff responsibility. They advice and assist the entire operations, but do not operate themselves. A survey done in America indicated that in some 300 industrial enterprises, the Safety Supervisor functions in an advisory capacity in 90% of the cases. There is however, a recent trend in large enterprises of an intricate structure whereby safety becomes both a staff and a line function; a person co-ordinates the program enterprise-wise (a “Safety Director� or “Safety Manager�) with specialists (Safety Supervisors, Safety Engineers) allocated to the actual operating force.
Very much in line with what we have seen as typical safety functions for the works supervisor, we can define the duties of the Safety Personnel as:
1. Set up, develop and administer the Safety Program. 2. Establish safe practices. 3. Study accident causes. 4. Investigate accidents. 5. Train supervisors. 6. Initiate corrective action. 7. Inspect. 8. Develop safety rules. 9. Study accidents trends and keep accident records. 10. Initiate safety meetings. 11. Arrange safety meetings.
As already indicated before, many of these duties require the assistance or even guidance from experts whose combined experiences and knowledge cannot possibly be expected to be found in any one Safety officer.
The study of accident causes and the investigation will, in particular cases, ask for much specialized knowledge. Likewise, the development of safety rules and the establishment of safe practices require intimate contact with people who are fully conversant with every angle of the operation under consideration.
The training of Supervisors is high on the list of duties of Safety personnel and it is through the Supervisors that safety has to be spread.
Safety procedures
EVIEW CONTRACTOR'S PROCEDURES TO IMPROVE SAFETY AND EFFICIENCY.
ASSIST CONTRACTORS IN SCHEDULING OF COST EFFECTIVE PROJECTS AND LOGISTICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR THE CLIENT.
REVIEW CONTRACTOR SUPPLIED EQUIPMENT AND MATERIALS FOR COMPLIANCE.
ENSURE "STOP WORK AUTHORITY" IS INSTITUTED.
INVESTIGATE AND REPORT ACTIVITIES THAT MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO PEOPLE, ASSETS, EQUIPMENT OR PROPERTY, OR ACTIONS NOT IN THE CLIENT’S BEST INTEREST.
MAINTAIN EMERGENCY CONTACT LIST IN THE EVENT OF ACCIDENTS, RELEASES OR DAMAGE.
KEEP CONCISE AND ACCURATE RECORDS INCLUDING ACCOUNTING AND MAN HOURS AS REQUIRED.
REVIEW CONTRACTOR SUPPLIED "AS-BUILT", SURVEY AND INFORMATIONAL DRAWINGS FOR THE CLIENT AND ENSURE THE INFORMATION MEETS CLIENT SPECIFICATIONS.
DOCUMENT ALL EXECUTED WORK AND LESSONS LEARNED, AND OFFER DETAILED RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVEMENTS.
CONDUCT POST-PROJECT EVALUATIONS, INCLUDING RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE PROJECTS.
