"Never turn your back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!"
--Winston Churchill
A wise old sage once said that there are three areas of knowledge: Things you know that you know, things you know that you don't know, and things you don't know that you don't know. Sometimes ignorance is truly bliss, but when the implications surround the health and safety of workers, action must be taken to ensure that one does not fall into the above-mentioned third category.
Construction workers are the real "movers and shakers" of our economy. The construction industry, as well as the typical construction site, is a whirlwind of activity. There are work crews buzzing around at a frantic pace, the incessant cackle of portable two-way radios, loud beeping cranes, mobile equipment and other machinery weaving through piles of material and mud holes. Hazards are created and abated, sometimes almost simultaneously. Workers hammering, sawing, welding, pounding, and molding the material in hand that becomes our power plants, chemical plants, factories, offices, and most everything that is built in this nation.
Protecting this vital human resource is a big job, and it takes skill, insight, knowledge, and sometimes a little luck (apologies to my safety colleagues) to make it happen. This paper will give the reader a clearer understanding of one area that is important with regard to safety and health in the construction industry, that is, the definition, role, and qualities of the construction competent person. By being fully informed, constructors can help reduce losses and have more profitable projects.
What is a competent person? That's the safety guy/gal, right? Well, if not them, then it must be the project manager or the foreman. This type of presumptuous thinking is prevalent today. When one considers that 90% of construction companies have 20 or less employees and that a disproportionate number of fatalities occur in construction to this particular demographic, it is alarming to think that some construction companies don't even know that they don't know (about competent persons)! This point is made even clearer through the fact that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA's) Construction Resource Manual Appendix B - 50 Most Frequently Cited Standards lists constructors not having a competent person among the top ten violations. The transient nature of the industry, high worker turnover, and lack of safety and health training for both worker and supervisor also often contributes to this situation and leads to a real disparity in designating or even being aware of the need for the designation of the competent person.
