In most countries, construction culture is in its infancy. Awareness of hazards at workplace and safe working practices leaves a lot to be desired. The workforce, largely drawn from the rural, agricultural and construction sector is after the innocent victim of accidents, the causes of which remain beyond their comprehension.

Thus,there is a definite need to introduce safe practices in the increasingly complex construction operations. Therefore it is the responsible of a company to create a constant awareness of safety at work as well as train the employees on safety practices. The following provides an analysis of the situation and the approach adopted to have safe practice in the company:

1) Change Attitude Towards Safety

Many of the employees have been working in a certain company more than 7 years and above. There is thus a degree of complacency and reluctance to change among many of them. Changing their attitude is not easy. The message that needs to be driven home is that safety is part of their life.

2) Create Safety Awareness

Safety awareness is an important first step so that all the employees, subcontractors and management itself will understand its importance. It is not enough to just comply with Statuory Requirements, but also to educate them on the impact of their actions. It is best for management to conduct safety workshops and let them participate actively. Case histories of accidents or unsafe practices that caused injuries, or created hazards in the past, form an important part of the workshop. These workshops should be held frequently to cater to the needs of every section in the company. Different sections may need different approach and emphasis.

3) Provide Proper Training On Handling Equipment

Apart from safety workshops, the company should provide training on the use and caring of Personnel Protective Equipment and awareness on what will happen if they ignore the use of such equipment. Consequences of ignoring their use resulting in exposure to hazards should be highlighted. These include violation of the law pertaining to their uses, lost time, injuries and their responsibility towards their colleagues working together.

4) Provide For Mandatory Formation Of Safety Committee

The Safety Committe should consist of the workers and management as well. In order to ensure the smooth working of the committee and its Safety Officer, management has to put safety as priority.

5) Impose Rules & Regulations

Once the safety awareness has been created, company can begin to impose rules and regulations to include local restrictions such as no smoking at identified areas. The stage is set for imposing the safe work practices and a penalty system for those not complying with the rules.

Tags : safe, safety, hazard, hazards, work, place, workplace, committee, training, rules, regulations, construction, culture, accident, accidents, equipment, workshop, awareness, employees

This entry was posted on Friday, February 16th, 2007 at 9:30 am and is filed under Engineering Safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.