Construction safety is a global concern – wherever there are construction activities there are safety concerns. The ILO (2005) estimates that there are 60,000 fatal accidents worldwide each year, or put another way, this equates to a fatal accident occurs every ten minutes and 17 per cent of all fatal accidents. Arguably, the problems are rarely unique to one country or region and so this presents an opportunity to address issues on a global scale by sharing practices from country to country (Hinze, 2008). National construction expenditure is closely related to national income with Europe, USA and Japan responsible for over 70 per cent of global output (ILO, 2009). The ILO estimated (1999) that between 9 and 20 per cent of national populations are involved in the construction sector.
In Great Britain, in the last 25 years, over 2,800 people have died from the injuries they received as result of construction work. Workers in the construction industry account for more than 30% of the fatal accidents. It's Britain's biggest industry with 250,000 firms employing 2.2 million people in a wide range of roles. The industry covers construction materials and products; suppliers and producers; building services manufacturers, providers and installers; contractors, sub-contractors, professionals, advisors and construction clients and also organisations that are relevant to the design, build, operation and refurbishment of buildings.
Given the economic significance of the industry in terms of its output and impacts, considerable efforts have been afforded to identifying how best to manage the health and safety issues. In this paper we will examine and illustrate the key requirements for developing effective health and safety management in client – contractor relationships in the context of the construction industry:
Contractor competence
Client-contractor communication
Partnership working
IOSH and ASSE have long recognised the key principles that contractors and clients should adopt before, during and post contract. IOSH (2003) publication ‘Global Best Practices’ sets out a blueprint for good practice:
Clients adopting good practice
make use of health and safety responses to pre-tender questionnaires throughout the process
create a culture – internally and with the contractor - that fosters co-operation, co-ordination, communication and competence, avoids confrontation and focussed on a precise interpretation of the contract
consistently manage the relationship with the contractor and expect the contract to do this with any sub-contractors
have clear contract health and safety management processes and accountabilities, including regular, active monitoring and enforcement of performance standards.
identify hazards and implement risk-based controls for all their activities
create a culture – internally and with the contractor - that fosters co-operation, co-ordination, communication and competence, avoids confrontation and focussed on a precise interpretation of the contract
implement current and relevant regional and global health and safety standards and practices
are good practice clients for their subcontractors.
A pre-mobilisation stage
An on-site stage
A post-contract stage.
