Health and safety: Construction industry

All workers have a right to work in places where risks to their health and safety are properly controlled. Health and safety is about stopping you getting hurt at work or ill through work. Your employer is responsible for health and safety, but you must help.

Health and safety law states that organisations must:

• Provide a written health and safety policy (if they employ five or more people);
• Assess risks to employees, customers, partners and any other people who could be affected by their activities;
• Arrange for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of preventive and protective measures;
• Ensure they have access to competent health and safety advice;
• Consult employees about their risks at work and current preventive and protective measures.

Failure to comply with these requirements can have serious consequences – for both organisations and individuals. Sanctions include fines, imprisonment and disqualification.

Under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 an offence will be committed where failings by an organisation’s senior management are a substantial element in any gross breach of the duty of care owed to the organisation’s employees or members of the public, which results in death. The maximum penalty is an unlimited fine and the court can additionally make a publicity order requiring the organisation to publish details of its conviction and fine.

The Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981 require all construction sites to have:

• A first aid box with enough equipment to cope with the number of workers on site;
• An appointed person to take charge of first-aid arrangements; and information telling workers the name of the appointed person or first aider and where to find them. A notice in the site hut is a good way of doing this.

The law requires construction workers to:

• Take care for your own health and safety and that of others who may affected by what you do, or fail to do;
• Co-operate with your employer, fellow workers, contractors and others to enable them to make and keep the workplace safe; and never interfere with, or misuse anything provided for health and safety.

Employers and contractors who control construction work are required to assess the risks and provide workers with:

• Induction: a suitable site induction on health and safety matters;
• Information and training: for the particular work carried, out including the risks and precautions required;
• Site rules and emergency procedures.

As a worker in the construction industry, you can look after your own health and safety by:

• Only do construction work that you are competent to do safely; and
• Do not walk past by obvious hazards that can be dealt with easily. Remove the hazard or tell someone who can.

Good standards of safety are achieved when everyone on site works together. You can help by following site health and safety rules and any directions given by those who manage the work.

Related resources: construction health and safety plan | health and safety file

Subscribe To Site:

Full Post Feed | Summary Feed | Comments Feed