Legislations in Construction Industry - Essay Example

Safety Health &Environment Student’s Name Course Instructor Date Legislations in Construction Industry There are definitely a number of laws and regulations in operation whose focus is to ensure safety health and environment. Most of these regulations have been imbibed into contractual arrangements between employers and employees. While some may not be directly applicable to construction or engineering industries, most of them are used in these industries. For instance, Health and Safety at Work of 1974 provides a series of provisions aimed at providing a very safe working environment. Sec 2(2) says that employers must provide and maintain plants and systems that are safe to work with. This touches on heavy commercial machineries used in construction and engineering industries. This therefore demands extra training and practical implementation of the relevant policies. The success of all these is linked to the provisions in the employer obligation to the employee and the vice versa. Furthermore, section 3 touches on the responsibility of the employer to ensure third parties are not victims of such risks. Section 7 of this Act provides some other guidelines on overall duties of employees. The law requires that the employee takes reasonable care to protect himself and the other employees of the company. The employee is expected to adhere to the safety rules set by the employer to ensure that safety is achieved. At the same time, section 8 of this Act prohibits any person from interfering with any system or program that has been put in place to ensure safety of the members. Therefore, members of the organization have a duty of according due care to such facilities for the benefit of all people. Moreover, the Act demands maximum cooperation from senior managers. Any failure by the managers to adhere to or implement the necessary safety legislation shall be prosecuted. The provisions of these requirements are contained in section 37 of the Health and Safety Act. Therefore, senior managers must be fully committed to achieving these safety goals for the company. Another legislation that directly affects the construction and engineering relates to the preparation of safety policies. The employer has that responsibility of ensuring compliance by drafting policy statement relating to safety and health. This ensures that the prospects of the organization in relation to safety environment are very large. In doing this, it reaches a time where the guidelines contained in these policies are engraved in the minds of all members of the organization. Furthermore, the law requires the employer to outline emergence procedures to be undertaken in case of an eventuality (Robson & Tascano 2007, p202). Measures must be put in place to ensure that in case a tragic event takes place, there is a way out for escape. This is aimed at ensuring that the number of casualties is reduced as much as possible whenever there is a tragedy. This plan must be tested and properly reviewed to reduce the possibilities of failure in the midst of the tragedy. This calls for a special team to handle matters related to rescue operations. Rescue operations will ensure that loss of assets is reduced as much as possible. These policies apply indiscriminately to all industries. This is because all industries are faced with different tragedies whose consequence may affect not just the assets of the organization, but also employees (Bahr 1997, p79). Construction and engineering industries have not been left behind. In fact, these policies are directly linked to these industries. This is because the two industries are characterized by high safety risks facing employees. This is based on the kind of products and raw materials they deal with. Lastly, the law requires the employer to ensure a very healthy working condition. The National Environmental Policy Act outlines some of these provisions related to ensuring healthy working environment. Just like other guidelines, this one also is directly applicable in the construction and engineering industry. The employees’ health is a critical issue as it directly affects the quality of work that employees do. When employees are healthy, they are able to discharge optimal performance. This therefore calls for necessary compensation whenever the employees are working in an environment that is hazardous to their health. Risk Assessment Industrial Activities: There are those risks that cut across all firms in the construction and engineering firms. These risks are brought about by the nature of the industry activities. Therefore, they are synonymous to those of other companies in the same industry. There are many hazards a worker is exposed to in any construction company. This is regardless of how efficient and effective a company may be in undertaking its practices. For instance, the risk of physical harm of any kind is inevitable as long as one is working in any of the two specified industries. The source of this hazard is the tools and facilities used by the employees in their duties. At all times employees must be prepared to deal with such eventualities. Individual Activities: This caters for all risks whose occurrence is not affected by the nature of the industry. These risks are affected by factors inherent in individual companies. Their uniqueness is founded on the core activities of the company and the relevant procedures undertaken in discharging those procedures. These risks may include fire, accidents, health related risks, etc. The various exposures of these risks are in relation to negligence and ignoring laid down safety guidelines(Rowland, Day & Reader 2003, p129). The company has a responsibility of ensuring that the safety procedures are strictly adhered to minimize the chances and severity of these hazards. These risks are more likely to occur in an environment where inefficiency and ineffectiveness characterize the operations of the company. Assessing Industrial and Individual Activities In as much as the risks in the two categories may vary a bit, both are faced by almost similar hazards. Nevertheless, these hazards have the potential to cause harm of different magnitude. This is likely to range from minor discomfort to death. This is where the concept of risk assessment turns to be very helpful. Its purpose is to measure the extent to which theserisks can affect the organization. In risk analysis, the two main areas of concern are the impact of the risk and the likelihood of occurrence Steps to be followed in risk analysis: I. Estimating the severity of the harm: Analyse possible harm could occur and the consequential impact Analyse factors that will affect the level of severity How many people will be affected with such harm? Are these harms interconnected in any way? II. Analyse how these hazards are responsible for causing harm Assess the level of effectiveness of control measures in operation Keenly follow how work is done in the company Assess the frequency of occurrence of abnormal events III. Assess the probability of occurrence of the hazard How often is the task? : Certain to occur, very likely, possible, unlikely or rare. How often are people and assets close to the asset? Past experience of similar incidents Effective Management of Health and Safety Legislation The culture of the organization is mostly shaped by its philosophy. The philosophy adopted by the company provides guidelines on what is acceptable in the organization. In this light, the philosophy of the company determines its culture. For the organization to fully live by its philosophy, the issue of leadership is very critical. When the management emphasize the need to live by the philosophy of the company, eventually the whole organization will. Through this, the organization is able to build the culture of upholding regulations, policies and guidelines. For instance, the situation in which two employees died in the oven would have been easily avoided. This would have been possible if this organization followed strictly the laid down guidelines. It had been clearly pointed out that the oven must be allowed 12 hours to completely cool down. This was not followed at all. Instead, the desire to compromise this regulation with the aim of earning extra revenue cost the life of two employees. In an organization of this kind, it may be difficult to fully adhere to the guidelines because the rot begins with the management. At the same time, the organization must put in place disciplinary measures for those who fail to follow the required safety guidelines. For instance, the guideline requiring engineers to wear aprons in the field may sound casual, but it is very important. Another guideline is the prohibition from entering a power house with a neck tie. All these may sound minor and irrelevant, but they count a lot. There is a greater need to ensure that all employees adhere to all these guidelines. Failure to observe these regulations must attract the appropriate punishment to serve as an example. Similarly, the best examples in relation to the same issue must be rewarded to encourage adherence to policies. At the end of it, one has to understand that the whole issue of adherence to the laid down rules is more of an ethical issue. Therefore, it is more effective if it is guided by one’s moral sense. References Bahr, N 1997,System Safety Engineering and Risk Assessment: A Practical Approach. CRC Press, London, p78-83. Barkley, B 2004,Project Risk Management, McGraw-Hill, New York, p103-111. Cox, A 2001,Risk Analysis Foundations, Models and Methods, Springer, New York, p89-96. Fischhoff, B & Kadvany, J 2011,Risk: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, New York, p129-132. Goss, J 2009,Torchwood: Risk Assessment, Random House UK, London, p34-38. Hull, J 2012,Risk Management and Financial Institutions, Wiley. New Jersey, p66-68. Muckett, M. & Furness, A 2012,Introduction to Fire Safety Management, Routledge, Oxford, p19-23. Robson, M. & Tascano, W 2007,Risk Assessment for Environmental Health (Public Health/ Environmental Health), Jossey-Bass, New Jersey, p201-203. Rowland, E; Day, B. & Reader, J 2003,Health, Safety and Environment Legislation: A Pocket Guide, Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, p129. Vose, D 2008,Risk Analysis: A Quantitative Guide, Wiley, New Jersey, p167. Read More