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Safety is paramount in the construction sector; without strict safety controls, construction companies leave themselves open to the risk of serious injury or worse on site.

The ramifications of a serious accident on site are severe. A serious accident can result in the site being shut down. It can result in large and expensive legal cases and it can devastate the families of those involved in an accident.

So what’s new in site safety and how can small businesses ensure they are aware of and also meet their occupational health and safety obligations?

Key areas of concern

Steve Keenan is a former safety officer of the Construction Mining Forestry and Engineering Union. According to Keenan, there are two key areas of concern in the area of site safety at the moment: falls from heights and unrealistic deadlines.

“Falls from heights are increasing at the moment. My advice to small businesses operating on sites that have the potential for a large number of falls is to immediately start issuing regular warnings about how to protect site staff from a fall,” he says.

Whether a business has a high incidence of falls from heights is generally a cultural thing, says Keenan. As a small business it’s essential to deeply entrench a culture of safety first in the business and on all site projects. If there is a maverick, safety does not matter culture, the business leaves itself open to the risk of serious injuries to its employees and even fatalities.

Deadline dilemmas

Another key contributor to site fatalities, says Keenan, is an undue focus on meeting construction deadlines at the expense of safety.

“There is such a lot of pressure on businesses to finish projects on time, stemming from the stiff competition among contractors for construction projects. Time – or lack of time – is one of the biggest killers on a building site,” he says.

To address this, at the start of a project, project managers have to try to build in enough time for projects to be completed in a sensible fashion. When there are time constraints, processes have to be built in to ensure safety is not compromised to get the job done.

This might mean formally delegating responsibility for site safety to a senior employee, and giving this person the tools to enforce safety procedures, for example suspension from the site if someone is found to be seriously in breach of safety procedures.

It might also mean extending the site’s operating hours to get the job done on time, but without compromising safety standards.

Other common safety issues

Each year the ACT Office of Regulatory Services releases a list of safety issues found in small construction firms. According to its most recent report, the most common safety issues facing small construction sites include “people working from incomplete scaffold decks without access and egress, scaffolding without handrails, toeboards and brick guards, unclean decks and overloading.”

Inspectors also found “issues which had the potential for a fall from heights, including unprotected edges of buildings and balconies, unprotected voids, floors and internal stairways, modified scaffolding, and workers positioned at inappropriate locations.”

According to the report, “there was also the danger of unauthorised persons gaining access to building sites, because of a lack of appropriate fencing. Unauthorised access could result in untrained people being exposed to hazards like building debris, exposed steel reinforcing, trenching and excavations. Other issues include housekeeping, involving the removal of rubble, and a lack of amenities.”

It’s essential small construction firms make themselves aware of these hazards and put in place systems to ensure they don’t compromise safety standards on site. These systems might include embedding safety inspections into the construction process.

For example, safety officers might inspect key site areas on a daily basis and be required to make a safety report even when no safety incidences have occurred. Or it might mean safety inspections and reports are mandatory when sections of the project are both commenced and completed.  

Consequences of poor safety

A recent national review of occupational health and safety (OH&S) laws has recommended fines be imposed on companies found to be in serious breach of OH&S laws. The report also made 75 other recommendations that are likely to result in a full overhaul of OH&S laws nationally.

This means small construction firms must have their eye on safety practices and be prepared to change their safety procedures to meet these new requirements. Some of the OH&S regulations that are likely to change include on-site OH&S training and induction processes, reporting of OH&S incidents and site inspection processes.

These new regulations also mean there must be a renewed focus on safety in small construction firms, or firms risk exposing themselves to serious consequences. Penalties of up to $3 million can be incurred by companies that have broken OH&S laws. Executives in companies found to be in breach of OH&S laws could face criminal charges, with up to five years in jail for individuals convicted of breaking OH&S laws.

These sorts of penalties would apply in situations where there have been fatalities resulting from a breach of OH&S practices, or in cases in which criminal negligence has been found.

These new, criminal penalties means there are now serious consequences for small construction firms that breach OH&S requirements. Small construction firms that are found to have flaunted these rules will find it hard to survive, given the high amount of the new fines and the costs involved in defending any legal actions as a result of safety breaches.

 Government figures show that between 2005 and 2006, 236 Australians died from a traumatic workplace injury or disease and 139,630 Australians were compensated for a serious workplace injury or illness.