On a building site, a worker is pictured walking across a concrete slab to retrieve some cleaning materials and, in doing so, trips over some scaffolding. Although he walks away with minor bruising, his colleague reports the near-miss to the site supervisor, pointing out that the accident could have been fatal had he hit his head. In a later frame, the workers' supervisor spots the two men tidying up the site – the climactic phrase is that, serious injuries can be prevented by “eliminating all hazards of slips, trips and falls.” So goes the 60-second video animation – one of BSU's current initiatives aimed at raising Health, Safety and Welfare (HSW) awareness amongst construction workers. This project, titled 'We Care for You' is an extension of Phase 1 – Animated Safety Stories.

 

Visual strategies

Mr McGrath takes up the story: “We have been focusing our efforts on raising the HSW awareness of construction workers using the Animated Safety Stories we have developed in collaboration with our sponsors and signatory members. These stories are produced specifically to highlight the most high-risk or frequent accidents and issues being experienced by the construction stake-holders in the UAE,” he explains. 

 

In recent months, investigations into fall incidents on UAE construction sites has revealed that, in many instances, workers and rescue team members are unclear on rescue procedures. Furthermore, many workers and co-workers fail to report perceived risks, such as reports of dizziness or awareness of medical conditions. Consequently, as part of its latest initiative to eliminate falls from height, Build Safe urges firms to practice high-rise rescues, which includes having plans and equipment in place in order to familiarise employees with falls and eliminate hazards on construction sites.

 

We have recently completed a 'lessons learnt' feedback exercise to understand how we can improve the next round of HSW awareness communications for on-site construction workers. From this exercise, we have started to develop Animated Safety Videos – 45 to 60 second Video Animations – which will be translated into various languages and subtitled to suit the mother-tongue languages of the workforces in the UAE,” continues Mr McGrath. “We will be encouraging organisations to play these videos in canteens and on buses.  Our goal is to prevent accidents and eliminate harm, so we will be extending our efforts to work with any construction stake-holder – regardless of how big or small, local or international – to encompass anyone prepared to support and align themselves with our commitment.”

 

In most cases, Middle East clients (developers) may not always have previous experience of large scale construction projects and a significant percentage of the workforce has never even worked on a construction site before,” informs Mr McGrath. “Similarly, a significant percentage of the workforce, at operative level, is recruited from Asian or the Asian subcontinent and has never before worked on a construction site.”

 

Disturbingly, even in countries where there is one umbrella body regulating health, safety and welfare standards, such as the UK's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) – the  operational arm of the Health and Safety Commission set up to minimise the risk of harm  from work activities, a breakdown in communication, or lack thereof, presents enormous challenges to all those involved in the construction process and remains a key cause of many accidents. In 2006, for example, research conducted by Glasgow Caledonian University for the HSE highlighted that a lack of communication on-site was still an ongoing problem. 

 

Leading by example 

There is currently no financial cost involved in joining BSU, although membership is no cut-and-dried affair. Today, the group consists of 78 signatory member organisations and 21 affiliated non-signatory member organisations compared to the 73 signatories we published in Issue 1 – 2009, Euroasia Construction. On July 1st, BSU conducted a Key Performance Compliance review and organisations found non-compliant with its KPIs (key performance indicators) were removed from signatory membership.  

 

The Member Organisations of BSU are required to contribute to the success of this initiative by participating actively and in accordance with a number of KPI’s, including  participation in focus groups, preparing and sharing safety alerts and alignment with 'best practice' information and alerts. The main difference between signatory and non-signatory members is that an affiliated non-signatory member must first satisfy and demonstrate full compliance with Build Safe's KPI’s, in order to qualify for full signatory membership.

 

Current compliant signatory member organisations include Al Futtaim Carillion, Al Futtaim Engineering, Al Futtaim Tarmac, Al Habtoor Leighton Group, ALDAR Properties Arabtec UAE, Bovis Lend Lease International, China State Construction Engineering Corporation, Drake & Scull International, Dutco Balfour Beatty, Mott MacDonald, Murray & Roberts and the Philippine Society of Safety Professionals. Current affiliated non-signatory member organisations include Nael Bin Harmal Hydroexport, Mace International, Lakesmere Limited, McConnell Dowell and PSE International. Additionally, BSU can confirm around 820 registered website users. 

 

We are also working hard to collaborate with regulators in every respect of HSW. We will be pushing to produce and to communicate even more awareness information as this remains our ongoing drive that we believe is vital to continue our positive momentum with construction stake-holders within and beyond the greater UAE,” Mr McGrath tells us. “We hope more developers will support this initiative and follow the steps taken by ALDAR Properties (the only developer which has signed on to become a full signatory member of BSU) and Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (the only regulatory body of the UAE which has signed on to become a full signatory member of BSU). These organisations have led this industry by great example and have publicly demonstrated their serious commitment to HSW,” he asserts, adding that, “We hope others will follow their actions for the greater good and benefit of others.

 

Latest initiatives

In addition to the group's 'Animated Safety' initiatives, Build Safe UAE is raising risk-awareness in the industry through the launch of the BSU Focus Group #5 – best practice guidelines document on 'Working at Heights'. “We are collecting and collating the safety statistics of the main contractors in BSU – so far we have 28 main contractors participating and this allows us to measure 'lost time injury' (LTI) and fatality trends occurring UAE-wide,” Mr McGrath tells us. “The aim of the BSU Focus Group #5 document is to identify, develop and promote 'best practice' guidelines for working at heights in the UAE Construction industry, by linking into existing regulations and international standards.” 

 

Furthermore, by incorporating all forms of 'best practice' witnessed and implemented within the emirates region, and by using accompanying photographic examples, the document offers a practical and feasible guideline that organisations can use to reduce and, hopefully, eliminate 'falls from height'. 

 

We are continuously expanding this database, in order to develop a more accurate performance measure of what impact we, as a group of construction stake-holders, have on the lives within this industry. In 2008, we measured 81 of 690 LTIs resulting from falls from height and eight of 20 fatalities resulting from falls from height. As a group we sat down with the general managers of these organisations and agreed that more needed to be done to reduce and eliminate the injuries and fatalities that are caused in this way.” 

 

Improved awareness

BSU's initiatives have already made a vast improvement in awareness across the UAE construction industry. “Organisations are taking this topic seriously and it is making its way to the top of corporate agendas,” affirms Mr McGrath. “Companies have become accustomed to more frequently sharing their lessons learnt and we are then communicating and converting their lessons learnt into safety alerts which we distribute throughout the industry. 

 

Rather than waiting for accidents to happen and react accordingly, BSU is encouraging workers in the construction industry to take proactive steps. As Mr McGrath says, “In theory, if a safety alert is received, management should implement the required preventative measures to prevent the same accident from reoccurring on other projects.

 

Mindsets are changing and organisations are realising the true benefits of investing in HSW as a way of improving their bottom line (by completing projects on time, with good reputations, quality of build, morale of workers) as opposed to the never-ending list of negatives. The signatory member organisations of Build Safe UAE have already contributed significantly to making a real and tangible improvement in the performance of HSW initiatives in the region's construction sector,” he concludes. 

 

Although work is steadily underway, and BSU has already facilitated wide-scale improvement in safety statistics across the region, there is a lot more that still needs to be done, as Mr McGrath concedes. “There will always remain a constant challenge and the HSW process begins from scratch, every time a new project is started. Facilitating this process well requires senior management commitment and a strong organisational culture that lives and breathes the benefits of doing things smart and ethically right – and that means investing in Health, Safety and Welfare. We need to engage more construction stake-holders and generate greater awareness with regards to high potential issues which have the greatest possibility of causing the widest impact.”

 

Encouraging self-regulation

Regulations have improved and are continuing to do so, although unfortunately this area still lacks enforcement. This is where BSU hopes to play an important role, by supporting the regulators and encouraging self-regulation. Mr McGrath elaborates: “What is needed is improved collaboration between regulators and construction stake-holders, support from the government, consolidating regulations and guidelines, stricter penalties and enforcement. Supporting messages should be sent from regulators which state their clear intentions and expectations that non-compliance will not be tolerated – as this was done with sustainability in the UAE – and that Health, Safety and Welfare is taken seriously!” He adds that, “Recognising good performers is equally important – developers playing their role and awarding contracts to contractors who qualify based on their compliance with these standards and setting regional competency levels.”

 

So, what is BSU doing to increase competency levels? “We are currently in discussions with various construction stake-holders regarding the possibly of launching a focus group to develop a competency framework with detailed criteria. It is important that organisations breaking the law are penalised, in order to set a good public example and to prevent offences or repeat offenders. Details of offenders should be held publicly, to assist the tender qualification process for future projects,” stresses Mr McGrath, going on to suggest that stiffer penalties may engage higher and more serious levels of commitment, and pointing out that, “The last thing organisations want in this current market is a penalty for non compliance.” 

 

Widespread adoption remains critical for self-regulation to work – namely because a lot of projects in the region have a number of main contractors and subcontractors engaged who not only display varying degrees of commitment, but who also often have contrasting HSW records. “This therefore puts everything that is riding on the project – reputations, profits, programmes and workers lives – at risk,” affirms Mr McGrath. “Therefore, if the industry benchmark is raised, it would benefit everybody. One way of doing this is by working on common issues collaboratively and sharing information freely, with no intellectual property restrictions attached when it comes to Health, Safety and Welfare– saving lives is in the best interests of everybody. Those businesses who fail to realise this mindset must not be allowed to put others at risk.”

 

The Big 5 PMV 2009

BSU has partnered up again with Big 5 PMV (Plant Machinery Vehicles) to communicate to the international suppliers and service organisations that will be participating in this exhibition “that this region does take the matter of Health, Safety and Welfare seriously.” 

 

Mr McGrath elaborates: “The construction stake-holders of this industry will be taking an expressive interest in plant, machinery and vehicles that incorporate measures which reduce or eliminate risk of accident, injury or harm to a person. Big 5 PMV supports this mindset and we are extremely encouraged because exhibitions held in this region rarely consider Health, Safety and Welfare.”

 

Although BSU was grateful to be provided with the opportunity to promote HSW at last year's Big 5, the organisation did not, unfortunately, receive the interest it had expected. “We approached others and asked them how these considerations were factored into their products or services, but the responses we received were disappointing and we found that the majority of exhibitors we approached responded with ‘well, that’s not my field' or 'you can refer to it somewhere in the manual or brochure’. Extremely disappointing, and it seemed our efforts were exhausted trying to sell HSW as a concept, rather than these product suppliers and service organisations gracefully embracing the normal expectations of today’s businesses. 

 

Given that the global economic downturn has resulted in many companies looking at ways to diversify and better-position themselves for the upturn, Mr McGrath is confident that this year's Big 5 will be a significant improvement on last year's exhibition. “During downturns, businesses are exploring ways to correct old, ineffective or non-productive ways of doing things and so look to improve ways to become better and gain a stronger position,” he explains. These businesses are not only looking at ways to improve procedures and systems, but also at incorporating plant, machinery and vehicles with good HSW functions into their selection processes. Big 5 PMV has supported our efforts to communicate this message, to ensure the right products and services make their way into this country and onto the site of our construction stake-holders.

 

If exhibitors can justify that what they offer meets the demands this industry is calling for today, they will be more likely to succeed,” summarises Mr McGrath.