Contractors construction hazards

The SSC is successful in demonstrating that the implementation of the activities enhances the communication between site management and workers at all levels on safety and health matters. Further, it promotes workers safety awareness and improves housekeeping and site tidiness. These elements improve safety perfor-mance/culture and prevent accidents on construction sites. As construction practitioners are required to attend the morning session, it enhances commimication and coordination with other sub-contractors. The hazards that may be encountered on that day can be discussed in detail before work begins. It enhances workers safety awareness. Workers can also receive the most updated safety information and learn more about accidents that have occurred. In addition, because all levels of construction practitioners are required to attend the morning session, good relationships with front line supervisors can be built. 

The results of this study also produced a Field Evaluation Document (Volume II) and an Annoted Bibliography (Volume III) containing over 500 relevant sources. The Field Evaluation Document was designed for use by contractors and state agencies to establish the relative safety and for identification of potential hazards at the various locations and work elements on a sulfur-asphalt construction project. Recommended clothing and first aid procedures were included in this document. 

Electrocutions kill an average of 143 construction workers each year. Data from 1992 through 2003 indicates electrical workers suffered the highest number of electrocutions per year, 34 percent of the total deaths caused by electrocution ( Alarming statistics, by D. Bremer, 2007, Electrical Contractor). Direct death from electrical shock results from ventricular fibrillation, paralysis of the respiratory center, or a combination of the two. Electricity can be hazardous to the process employees in a variety of forms. They are ... 

The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) initially addressed the employer-employee relationship shortly after the OSH Act was enacted in the case titled Gilles v. Cotting, Inc. In this case, two employees of the primary contractor were killed in an accident created by and resulting from the actions of a subcontractor. OSHA issued one citation to the primary contractor and one citation to the subcontractor. OSHA subsequently vacated the citation to the primary contractor, finding the citation was improper and would impose liability outside the employment relationship. Over the years, the OSHRC, as well as the various federal Circuit Courts of Appeal, has addressed this issue primarily in the construction area, with focus on creation of the hazard and control of the hazard. In recent decisions and with the inception of the multiemployer woiksite rule, the scope of the duty to safeguard employees at the worksite has been substantially expanded."... 

The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) collects, analyzes, and shares data on industry incidents from work in offshore construction. The reports developed by IMCA contain descriptions of incidents, near misses, and potential hazards and give the apparent cause (or causes) of the incident and any actions taken to prevent a recurrence. 

Whenever construction work is to be undertaken if consideration is given to some of the hazards faced and the appropriate precautions taken, accidents and damage can be prevented. This applies whether you are a client having the work done or a contractor doing the work. However, once having agreed precautionary measures it is essential that the work is monitored to ensure the precautions are implemented. The contractor should supply all plant and materials needed for the contract. 

OSHA cited a NY state residential contractor with 48,000 in proposed fines for allowing employees to be exposed to unguarded rebar and fall hazards at a construction site. 

OSHA cited a Massachusetts roofing contractor for 16 alleged violations of safety and health standards. The company faces a total of 79,000 in proposed fines for ladder, fall, scaffold, and other hazards identified at a residential construction site. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requires contractors who perform construction work for the federal government to prepare a safety and occupational health plan (SOH). The idea is to analyze the potential work on a specific job or project and to plan accident prevention measures for each phase and component of the work. The plan includes work performed by subcontractors. It includes contractor hazard control measures. The plan must include frequent and regularly scheduled safety inspections of work sites, materials and equipment by competent persons. 

The multiemployer doctrine is particularly applicable to multiemployer construction worksites. The nature of construction requires that subcontractors work in close proximity with one another and with the general contractor at the same worksite. In these situations, a hazard created by one employer could be seen as reasonably affecting the safety of other employers Bratton Corp. v. OSHRC [8th Cir., 1979]). Specific areas of expertise or job area responsibility may limit a subcontractor s ability to abate hazards posed to its own employees that may be created by another subcontractor, general contractor, or host employer IBP, Inc. v. Herman [DC Cir., 1998]). 

Subpart B contains an interpretation and the applicability of construction health and safety standards to work performed under contract to government agencies. This subpart contains the general rules of the Secretary of Labor which state that no contractor shall require any laborers work in conditions that are unsanitary, hazardous, or dangerous to a person s safety and health. Section 107 of the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act is addressed. As stated in section 107, a con-... 

The main contractor is responsible for cooniinating the construction project activities so that separate but simultaneous tasks do not create hazardous conditions for anyone on the same constraction site. The main contractor must also appoint a safely coordinator to overlook and verify the correct safely actions, as well as the ones that the sub-contractors are responsible for. 

Q. 2 On a construction worksite where there are subcontractors and a general contractor, which employer has the right to take a hazardous electrical cord out of service ... 

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