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.
