Available statistics from the construction industry across the world indicate that over 90 percent of all accidents that occur at construction sites are indeed preventable. The common safety risks identified include employees being struck by construction materials, falls from heights, electrocution and employees being caught between construction machinery. These are safety risks that can be addressed by having a Construction Site Safety Plan.

Like in other countries around the world, New Zealand’s Occupational Health and Safety legislation makes it mandatory for all contractors to prepare and put in place an appropriate safety plan to eliminate or control safety within their construction sites. Contraction companies doing business in New Zealand are required to prepare a Construction Site Safety Plan for every construction project they undertake. This is so because different construction sites present different safety risks.

There are however standard details that all safety plans must embrace. For instance, all safety plans must indicate a construction site’s address, the principle contractor and any sub-contractors involved in the construction. Other details include those of architecture and designer responsible for construction works. Lastly, the plan contains details about when a project commences and expected completion date.

In order to ensure that what a Construction Site Safety Plan contains is actually implemented, all contractors are required to appoint a group of people from amongst employees to oversee the implementation of the plan. As a matter of fact, it is this group that is responsible for preparing a safety plan. Developing an effective safety plan therefore means that the group should have membership drawn from all departments. The names of members are usually captured in the plan as the people responsible for the plan and who employees can report to directly in case of any arising safety issues.

The most important section of a Construction Site Safety Plan is usually the part that deals with communication and rules. It is in this section that employees need to find the necessary procedures of handling construction materials and equipments. It is also in this section that employees need to obtain the necessary instructions on how to handle and communicate safety issues they identify while working.

Like in the US, the different regions of New Zealand have their own mechanisms of enforcing Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) legislations. This is definitely in partnership with the national agency responsible for enforcing the same. Contractors who fail to comply with OHS requirements face stiff penalties, which include financial penalties and in extreme cases, license revocation.

The need for health and safety at workplaces worldwide cannot be understated. Many jurisdictions across the world have made it mandatory for all employers to provide their employees with healthy working environments free of all kinds of risks. Where such risks cannot be eliminated, employers are obligated to institute necessary measures including training of workers on the same. This is the case in New Zealand where appropriate legislations have been enacted to ensure that employers carry out what is required of them.

All of New Zealand’s safety legislations are contained in the Health and Safety in Employment (HSE) legislation, an act of parliament enacted in 1992. The Health and Safety Legislation supports various principles including placing the primary responsibility of providing healthy and safe working environment on employers. The act also recognizes the fact that workers too have a role to play in enhancing their own safety at their workplaces. The act encourages the need for a close working relationship between both employers and employers to bring the two sets of responsibilities together for the realization of intended goals.

Unlike most workplace legislations in other countries, the New Zealand’s Health and Safety Legislation does not impose specific requirements on both employers and employees. Instead, the act requires every employer to engage his/her employees in designing a systematic and flexible health and safety measures applicable in their workplaces. Such however must be in line with the provisions of the act, codes of practice and best practice guidelines. In this regard, all employers are required to set in motion mechanisms of designing appropriate health and safety programs by incorporating the input of their employees and professional with the expertise in their respective businesses.

In order to enhance health and safety of employees, the New Zealand’s Health and Safety Legislation (Act) was subjected to amendments in 2002. The amendments extended its jurisdiction to cover employees working aboard ships and aircrafts. The amendments also introduced clauses covering employees seconded by one employer to another and volunteer employees. More importantly, the amendments placed other health and safety responsibilities on equipment manufacturers and sellers.

Although New Zealand’s Health and Safety Legislation apportions some health and safety responsibilities on employees, employers bear the greatest responsibilities. To ensure that their workplaces are healthy and safe, they are required to identify and systematically manage the identified risks by eliminating or minimizing the same. They are also required to provide their employees with appropriate protective clothing and equipments in addition to providing heir employees with health and safety information, including appropriate training.

There are many health and safety issues relating to the construction industry in general. Such issues have made the construction industry the most dangerous on-land industries for one to work in. Injury and fatality statistics obtained from different sources worldwide is a clear indication of how dangerous working in the industries is and for this reason, principle construction companies are required to put in place elaborate measures aimed at protecting their employees at construction sites. This is in addition to adhering to relevant construction legislations in place.

The Occupational Health and Safety Act that is in force in many jurisdictions lays the basis of measures that principle construction and other employers need to adhere to. For the construction industry in particular, it is a legal requirement to have a Health & Safety Policy document for any construction site. This is a document or statement of principle prepared by a construction company’s management indicating its commitment to workplace health and safety. A company’s management must operationalize its policy document through various safety programs for the benefit of employees.

Although there is a standard policy document relating to the construction industry, a company’s management is obligated to develop a policy that addresses health and safety issues relating to specific construction sites. A policy should ideally be s straightforward statement but broad enough to cover all that relates to a construction site. It should be a living document open for review. In this regard, it should be capable of accommodating other health and safety issues that may emerge in the course of construction work. It is a legal requirement that principle contractors must prepare and sign fresh policy documents every year.

A basic Health & Safety Policy document should contain a written statement indicating a management’s principles and goals regarding health and safety of employees. It must be signed by the chief executive officer of the company in addition to signatories by other relevant company personnel. More importantly, it must contain the date it is prepared, which is an indication of its effectiveness. The statement should basically recognize the need to comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Act and other construction regulations.

A well designed Health & Safety Policy statement should acknowledge the right of every employee at a construction site to work in a safe and healthy environment free of any risks. It is a legal requirement for a prepared policy document to be posted in a conspicuous location where all employees can access the same. In addition, copies of the same should be distributed to all departments. It must be followed by all employees including senior management in all construction work activities. A Health & Safety Policy document is affected through various health and safety programs that a company’s management must institute and appoint personnel whose duty is to ensure that such programs are followed.

Employers in most western countries are required to have a comprehensive Health And Safety Plan that is relevant to their particular field. For instance, individuals who work with dangerous chemicals are required to follow very specific procedures that will ensure the protection of the individuals working with the chemicals. These plans are very strictly enforced, because without health and safety in a workplace, dangers quickly become hazards and people can be injured or even killed. The responsibility for designing plans regarding health and safety lies with the employers or supervisors at a business. In addition, educating the employees and creating an environment that values health and safety is also the responsibility of the employer.

A Health And Safety Plan should have many different facets. The most important aspect of the plan should be the accident prevention and safety promotion aspect. Without this part of the plan, the health and safety guidelines are little more than emergency procedures. As the old adage goes, an ounce of protection is worth a pound of cure. Accident prevention and safety promotion should take into account all of the risks that employees face on a daily basis at work and the best way to mitigate the risks that they face at work. Without education, it is very difficult for people to know how they should act or what they should do when they are faced with a risk in their workplace.

The Health And Safety Plan should also emphasize safety compliance, or compliance with all legal safety standards. Employees must be educated about legal safety standards and taught how best to go about fulfilling them. They should be taught how to use equipment and machinery properly to avoid injury and hazards. If there are site specific dangers like hazardous chemicals or special machinery, employees should also be educated on the best way to deal with these hazards. Proper safety practices should be taught to new employees and expected of all employees.

A proper Health And Safety Plan will also address personal protective equipment that is necessary. It will inform employees how they can best be involved in the safety policies in the workplace. Everyone wants to be safe at work, but often, people are unsure of how to act in a way that protects them and others against the hazards of the workplace. Emergency procedures in high-risk workplaces should also be reviewed regularly to help individuals avoid dangerous emergency situations.

Most nations have passed a Health And Safety Act through their legislature. These acts are meant to protect individuals from harm when they use public facilities and while they are at work. Essentially, the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and all the other relevant organizations view health in the workplace and in public as an inalienable human right; every individual has the right to a safe work environment and safety outside of his or her own home.

The Health And Safety Act is integral to the growth of a nation. Without protections on workers, it can be difficult to find individuals who will take up high-stakes jobs like construction or factory work in most of the world. One obvious exception to this rule is China, where the sheer number of people negates the drive for health and safety standards.

A Health And Safety Act concerns itself with occupational health and safety and health and safety in the public sector. For instance, Health And Safety Acts are concerned with things like public transportation, as people often use this type of transportation to get to and from work every day. It would be a bad thing if trains were derailed weekly or buses prone to collision. The government, it has been generally accepted, is responsible for what happens to its people when they are outside of their homes.

One of these Health And Safety Acts that concerns the working environment will aim to protect individuals while they are at work. These Health And Safety Acts will ensure that an employer looks at all the potential hazards of a job, assess those hazards, and determine what kind of outcome that could be born from the hazards. After that, he or she will perform a risk assessment and determine how a hazard can be best mitigated.

A Health And Safety Act is very important for the individual who chooses to work in an environment like construction, emergency services, or other high risk environment. These individuals often put their lives on the line for their job, and as a result, the government feels the need to look at each job and assess the ways in which individuals could be protected from the different hazards that they face each day at their jobs. Often, government jobs like police and fire have even more stringent standards than those jobs that exist in the private sector, because the government has more control over its employees than it does over companies that exist outside the public sector.

The Construction Industry is any aspect of architecture or design that involves building or assembling infrastructure. This encompasses a great many different types of jobs and types of infrastructure. The Construction Industry is a hugely profitable industry in Australia, particularly in cities and other places that have large amounts of growth and growth potential.

There are two basic types of construction within the Construction Industry. The first type is known as building construction. Building construction is the act of adding something to an existing property. This can include anything as small as a renovation on a house to building a new structure. The owner of the property is usually the driving force behind building construction.

The second type is called industrial construction. Industrial construction deals with any type of construction that is done for large industrial corporations. This can be office buildings, factories, commercial farms, or any other kind of building that will be used in a for-profit manner. This kind of work is the backbone of the Construction Industry, as it is the type of work that is the most profitable for construction companies, architects, designers, contractors, and building supply distributors.

The Construction Industry consists of many different types of people doing a multitude of different jobs. There are construction workers who work on the physical building, but before the building can be built, it must be conceptualized by an architect or design team. After it goes through many different drafts and iterations, the architect begins to work with a construction company on the project. The construction company and architect also work with lawyers and inspectors to ensure that the project is in line with all the different local building codes. These building codes can vary a lot from place to place, so it is important for all the people who are responsible for planning a construction project to be well-versed in local building codes.

Engineers are also important to the Construction Industry. Engineers are the individuals who do much of the testing with materials to ensure that the buildings that are being built are safe for people to enter and use. There are many other people that assist in making building projects successful, as well. For large projects, there is usually a civil engineer involved, as well as a mechanical or structural engineer; before building on a plot of land, a surveyor needs to verify it; and there is always a project manager to ensure that the building schedule runs smoothly.

Construction sites can be dangerous places to work and it is vitally important that both employer and employees take care when a job is being carried out. In New Zealand there are strict laws defining what must be done before a job is started. A lot of information about this can be found on the website hosted by the Department of Labor and this will be a good place for anyone to start and anyone involved in Safety Management in Construction should read it.

Some companies may decide that they will write their own Safety Management in Construction plan and many of the larger ones do that. If however the company is smaller they may not feel that there is an employee who can write it for them and so they can hire a company to provide the plan. This may add to the cost but not so much as you will be if you do not having a plan in place and finding out that you are going to be sued. It has been quoted that hiring someone can add as much as $3000 to the cost of the plan. When you think of the sort of problems that can happen many people will think of machines breaking down or damaging property or workers being hurt or killed in a fall but there is so much more to it than that.

Machinery is covered but there is also the work that the machines carry out that need to be addressed. Once a trench is dug the machine may move away but there could still be accidents. The walls of soil removed must be safely stored and workers must not do anything to make it move.

In New Zealand the Construction Safety and Environmental Management Plan (CSEMP). It covers New Zealand safety standards NZS 4801 and is designed in a way that means you can alter it for each job that you are subsequently successful in obtaining. It is not just the case that you can put in different details for a different job but that there will be prompts for each type of job so you will always be giving the correct information. It is important to make sure all staff are fully aware that these Safety Management in Construction plans are legal documents and as such if they do not adhere to them they could be responsible not you.

As with many other countries it is important to consider the safety of the public. When considering Safety Management in Construction everyone should be protected.

There are many industries that require safety equipment, but few may be as important as Construction Safety Equipment. Construction Safety Equipment not only protects the workers involved at a construction site, but also protects the public in general.

The Construction Safety Equipment for workers varies from the smallest item like ear plugs and safety goggles to larger items like rolls of fencing around unsafe ground areas. It is extremely important that the person responsible for the Construction Safety Equipment be knowledgeable in both areas of construction and safety. You have to know what the risks are or could be so you will know what requirements there will be with Construction Safety Equipment. It isn’t just the obvious risks that need to be addressed with hard hats, tethers, safety goggles, etc. It is the other risks.

Did you know that many accidents that occur at construction sites come from the workers who are involved in the trenching and excavating portion. In this area alone, there are risks which involve cave ins, asphyxiation due to lack of oxygen, collapsing walls, electrocution, explosions, deep water drowning, unstable soil, and more. The Construction Safety Equipment that should be used in this area would include everything from equipment to make the walls sturdy to respiratory protection. You would not normally consider a breathing mask as Construction Safety Equipment, but it is and it is very important in maintaining the health and safety of your worker.

Another aspect that we just touched on earlier was that Construction Safety Equipment protects the public too. If there were not certain safety equipment in place at construction job sites, the public could be exposed to chemicals or other dangerous exposures. For instance, there could be electrical or water lines broken which could cause public distress. If a neighboring property had someone dependent on oxygen equipment or any other life sustaining equipment that was generated by electric, causing an electrical outage could be life threatening. Construction Safety Equipment needs to be in place to safeguard this type of risk.

Construction Safety Equipment needs to be the best quality available. This is not a place where financial shortcuts should be taken. Having cheap Construction Safety Equipment would be worse than not having any at all because the workers feel that they are protected, when in fact they are not. Imagine the trench worker with the respiratory mask thinking he has the necessary safety precaution to keep him healthy finding him out after the fact that his lungs were damaged due to inexpensive Construction Safety Equipment.

Of course, this is another reason the person who is responsible for this part of the construction site be knowledgeable in not just the construction work but in safety issues too. They would need to understand that safety issues need to be the top priority, not just enough to meet the mandated regulations. Construction Safety Equipment needs to be used and used properly and needs to be the best, for the safety of the workers and for the public.

There are many safety issues in the world that we have very little control of, but Safety in the Workplace should never be one of these issues. A person should be able to confidently go to their jobs on a regular basis and be assured that they are in the safest environment possible. This has not always been the case, in the past Safety in the Workplace was rarely addressed and certainly not regulated. I believe if there were any issues with Safety in the Workplace years ago, it was usually addressed within the workplace, if at all.
For instance if an employee discovered that a chemical they were using was unsafe, they went to the employer with the information and hoped they took care of it. I believe that most employers took care of the Safety in the Workplace issues, but unfortunately there were some who ignored the issues. Probably if the solution was financially prohibited, it was ignored.

Because these issues were coming to light, most likely due to injuries and illnesses resulting from the lack of Safety in the Workplace, regulations were established. Since these regulations were made, it is important for plans be put in place to make sure there is Safety in the Workplace. It doesn’t matter what kind of workplace you are in, whether it is a construction site, governmental site, education or medical sites, or any other type of business, a plan needs to be established. Accidents can occur anywhere if risks are not managed or illnesses can arise if certain circumstances arise. Safety in the Workplace should be one of the top priorities of any business owner or manager.

In order to establish Safety in the Workplace, the employer must first discover what the risks are that need to be addressed. Finding the risks should be a very comprehensive task because it is important that as many risks as possible be found, not just the obvious ones. Unfortunately accidents have occurred from a risk that was never imagined, but usually they are known risks that were not properly addressed. Once they are aware of what the risks are in their business, a plan must be established to manage or even remove these risks. In addition to managing or removing risks, there needs to be a plan established that would give instruction on how to proceed should an accident occur, no matter how small the incident may be or how large, instructions need thorough and need to be written down. These instructions need to be policy and need to be shared with everyone involved in the workplace if they are going to be effective in maintaining Safety in the Workplace.

As you can see, Safety in the Workplace is an important issue and should never be taken for granted, it needs to be worked on in order to achieve it. Remember, that Safety in the Workplace doesn’t occur by accident, it is well thought out, planned and implemented.

Many people would wonder about someone who is actually happy about having a Construction Safety Audit, but it truly can be used as a positive tool at your construction site. It is all a matter of attitude. Instead of being fearful or intimidated by an audit, you should look at is as a reflection of the careful planning you and your construction team have put into the safety process.

A Construction Safety Audit should not come as a surprise to any construction project, therefore you should have been pro-active and had all your basis covered in advance. Once the audit is complete, you will know whether your checks and balances were proper or if you have any deficiencies that you need to repair. Construction safety is a major issue that should be everyone’s concern, from the lowest paid worker on the site to the highest person in charge. In statistics recorded in 2007-2008 the construction industry employed 9% of the Australian workforce. In this workforce, there were approximately 39 employees per day who were injured in one way or another that caused them to miss at least one week of work. These are just the injuries, the 37 fatalities recorded in the same report indicates a incident rate of 5.6 per 100,000 in the construction industry. This is more than twice the rate of all other industries fatalities. These two statistics alone are more than enough to prove why a Construction Safety Audit is necessary.

In recent legal proceedings held, there have been many incidents where there have been breaches in section 24 (1) of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995, having failed to ensure workplace safety.  Because of these incidents, the Government is making its presence felt in the construction industies by auditing hundreds of construction sites. This move is part of the Government’s initiative to improve the sector’s safety performance.

These audits are focusing on many safety issues but falling from heights appears to be a major focus. These claims alone have jumped from 8 percent of all workplace claims in 2003 to 14 percent in 2008. These claims should be going down in percentage not going up. Workers in the construction industry deserve to be safe. In addition to falling issues, the Construction Safety Audit will also review safety issues pertaining to scaffolding, physical tasks and fatigue. In the past, many employers felt they were meeting safety standards by simply telling their employees about a dangerous situation was sufficient, but this is not the case. Actions need to be taken. For example a building company was contracted to do some work on a house and the building company owner hired a couple workers. One of the workers fell to his death through a hole in the floor that was left there by another contractor. Even though the owner verbally warned his worker, he was found responsible for causing the workers death by not taking action. He should have taken precautionary actions and barracaded the hole or covered it. Even though this owner felt he did warn his employee, it wasn’t and he could have be advised of this before the tragedy if he had undergone a Construction Safety Audit. Because of this situation, I am convinced a responsible site manager will be happy to have a Construction Safety Audit.