Effectiveness of Construction Safety Competency Assessment in Improving Overall Safety Aspects on Construction Site

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Abstract

The present study aimed to determine the relationship between competency assessment and the rate of fatalities in the construction industry. Using the construction assessment and some information provided by, the effectiveness of construction safety competency assessment in improving overall safety aspects on construction site can be determined.

Introduction

1. Background

Construction work is known as one of the economy-leading sectors of the national economy but it also the most dangerous and high-risk industry in the world. According to the statistics based on construction workers in Malaysia, the rate of fatalities is increasing with alarming rate. In every 100,000 workers in 2014, the rate of fatalities was 7.26. It increases to 10.74 in 2015 and further increase to 12.78 in 2016. In 2017, the rate of fatalities has reach 14.94. (Lajiun, 18AD). From this statistic, it can prove that construction workers have the highest possibilities for accident occur compare to the other industry. To decrease the rate of fatalities in construction industry, a competency assessment must be applied.

Competency is one`s ability to achieve and complete a task successfully. In the construction industry, the parameter for competency of worker are the knowledge, skill and behaviour to manage safety, during the construction work. These competencies will affect their performance on construction site. If the workers are lack of the knowledge and skill of their current post, they will not be able to accomplish their task efficiency and might make mistake that will cause accident and fatalities. According to the star(2016), a senior lecturer in Building Technology, School of Housing, Building and Planning, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Dr Mohd Zailan Sulieman stated that some of the authorities demanded their construction worker without providing health and safety induction courses. He also stated that many of the accident investigation showed that the carelessness of incompetent handlers are the causes of the accident. Thus, to improve the construction safety and the efficiency in the construction, right person has to be assigned to a right task. The physically and mentally capable person that can use the right knowledge, experience and skills to complete the assigned tasks are defined as a right person. (Aksorn & Hadikusumo, 2008). Competence plays a main part to control the number of accidents on construction site. To check the competence of a worker, a competency assessment is provided for every worker by human resources before hiring them.

2. Problem statement

Safety performance for construction site can cause by many reason such as due to lack of knowledge or training, a lack of means to carry out the task safely, or due to an error of judgment, carelessness, apathy or downright reckless. (Mohammadi, Tavakolan, & Khosravi, 2018)

Low level of safety awareness in construction site for the unskilled workers is one of the main cause of the construction site accidents. According to (Mohammadi et al., 2018), they state that the main factor cause the accident is `unsafe behaviour’, which such as not responsible, not awareness and less of communication. (Mohammadi et al., 2018). We can found that most of the construction site accidents are mainly caused by the ignorance of the workers. They intent not to wear the required PPE for their safety purpose, when the accidents occur, yet the responsibilities being counted to the construction developer or contractor.

The certification being provided for the workers based on their attendance of the safety training is very important for anyone who working in the construction site. From the statics required inspection items (RII), Non-certified skill of worker ranked 6 in 25 elements, with a RII of 0.84. In construction, some of the activities needed high standard skill, such as tower crane and gantry operations, and framework and scaffold erection. (Tam, Zeng, & Deng, 2004). Form the statistical data, we can found that certified training is very important towards machinery operating in a high-risked construction site. Any single mistakes being made by the workers which do not know how to operate the machine such as tower crane, will eventually lead to a catastrophic disaster.

3. Objective of the Study

To identify the different types of construction safety competency assessments
To assess the current construction safety competency assessments
To propose strategies to effectively utilizing the construction safety competency assessments

4. Scope of Study

The methods that are going to be used to collect relevant data are designed questionnaire and interview. The series of questionnaire are design for the construction staff to answer, based on the understanding and experience about safety performance in construction site. The data collected will be further analysed to determine the effectiveness of competency assessment.

A portion of people accepted answering the questionnaire will be asked to have a detailed interviewing by answering a couple of questions, basically designed to determine current construction safety competency, and how they going to apply competency assessment in safety performance. As stated above, the area of study will be covering on the infrastructure construction site, Kuantan, Pahang.

The focus of this research is the effectiveness of construction safety competency assessments; hence no sample will be taken from the Building construction site in Kuantan area. This is because the type of construction in building and infrastructure have big differences, the activities under construction will come to a big contradiction if did not analysed separately.

5. Significance of Study

This study will offer a new analysis on the effectiveness of Construction Safety Competency Assessment. Other than analyse the construction safety framework, which focus on risk control of activities. For this research will more on competence of worker, which is education level, skill and behaviour.

Besides, this research will provide a platform for construction industry as a detailed report on the effectiveness of Construction Safety Competency Assessment. Action must be taken to improve Overall Safety Aspects on Construction Site

Safety

The act or regulation be established for safety important to employer and employee, which discuss the duty and protection of them.

1. Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 or Act 514

Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 or Act 514 important on ensure safe and healthful working conditions for worker. The law mention that employers should provide worker are good working conditions, which are mitigation of hazard and risk of activity. Before beginning the activity, employers should prepare and publish the document: 1. Safety and health policy, 2. Duties of the employer, employees and the safety and health officers, 3. The safety and health committee of companies, and 4. Occupational safety and health inspections and officers.(Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 1994)

1. Health and safety at work Act 1974

Health and safety at work, etc Act 1974 is the main law of health and safety. This law discusses about the duty of employers and employee on how to ensure the health and safety standard.(Health and Safety 2008/09, 2008)

2. Occupational Safety and Health in Malaysia

There are few ministries help for ensure worker safety. Below is the ministry of human resource and act related to Occupational Safety and Health in Malaysia. (YUSOF, 2015)

Ministry of human resource

Act

Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH)

Factories and Machinery Act 1967 (FMA)
Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 or Act 514

Labor Department

Employment Act 1955
Worker Compensation Act 1952

National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)

National Council for Occupational Safety and Health

Social Security Organization (SOSCO)

Employees’ Social security Act 1969

History construction safety

Late 1800s

Worker have awareness about construction place is no safe after Civil War. Insurance are being bought by workers to protect worker if in case of an accident happening on job. Worker got the insurance plan by company. While injured worker’s due to construction accident will got de suitable job from company. Company raised the salary worker to attract and retain the worker. This due to worker realize construction job is dangerous than other job which cause some of the workers.

1900s

During 1900, 0.3% workers killed on jobs every year in 100 000 workers. That mean every day will has 1 accident about died on job happened. Worker have action take in order for getting indemnify due to injuries happened on job site. However, that action does not gave big impart for guarantee worker safety.

1910s

A workers’ compensation law passed by New York in 1910, which law benefitted both workers and company. Company should provide better and more reliable benefits to workers. At the same time company not need worry about competency of worker and get more predictable cost. Workers’ compensation law abolished except six states on 1921

In 1913, an organisation, which named The National Safety Council(NSC), was founded in 1913. The aim of founding this organisation is to promote the health and safety of Americans. A Congressional chamber is granted to NSC by the U.S. Congress and President Dwight D. Eisenhower as awarded for appreciate NSC effort.

Another organisation, which have the same motivation as NSC, are also founded in 1913. The organisation is U.S. Department of Labour and their main focuses are on occupational safety .

In 1916, the workers who sustain injuries or contract illness during or on the job benefits from the Federal Compensation Act. By using this act, Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs are also created.

1930s

After Golden Gate Bridge built, it comes out a safety mandatory which construction company realize the important of safety measure. There only 11 accident about fatalities in 4 year of construction Golden Gate Bridge.

1970s

Occupational Safety and Health Act found on 1970 which include National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health for analysing and improving safety. In 1971 established Occupational Safety and Health Administration. This organization take care about workplace safety and organize safety program to make sure safety and health worker.

1990s

National Occupational Research Agenda was created for decrease the accident fatalities on job site.

Nowadays, construction accident reduce to 7 construction only happen 1 accident case.

2.2 Construction safety

History

High risk industry

There are various different of industry all around the world. An industry is the production of goods or related services within an economy and it involves many sectors, which are manufacturing, agriculture and construction. These industries may include some of the accident and injuries during their operation.

Table 1: Fatal occupational injuries for all sectors in Malaysia

Table 1 shows DOSH report, which is the report of fatal occupational injuries for all sector in Malaysia for year 2013 to 2016. Based on DOSH report, construction industry obviously has the top number of cases of injuries compare to the other sector. In year 2013, construction has 69 cases, manufacturing has 58 cases, agriculture has 33 cases and others sector’s number of injuries are lower than 10 cases. These cases increase in each year from year 2013 to 2016. Construction increases from 69 to 72 in 2014, from 72 to 88 in 2015 and from 88 to 99 in 2016. Each year, construction sector dominates the fatal occupational injuries for all sectors in Malaysia as construction sector occupy over one third of the injuries which is 36% in 2013, 34% in 2014, 41% in 2015 and 41% in 2016. From this data set, a conclusion, which is construction industries have the most fatal occupational injuries and this situation increase for each year.

3. Type of construction

Construction is one of the major and primary industries for a country. Construction industries involve all the activity with the process of constructing a building or infrastructure, which can be separated by Residential Construction, Institutional and Commercial Construction, Specialized Industrial Construction and Infrastructure and Heavy Construction.

Residential Construction are mainly focus for the individual and multi-family dwelling. Residential building is designed for sleeping accommodation for residential. When a building has more than half of its floor area for dwelling purposes, it can be defined as Residential building. Residential Construction can be categories to build, repair, remodel and install utilities. The utilities that needed to be installed for residential building are electricity and water and sewer. These utilities are paving around the structure.

Institutional and Commercial Construction refers to the building of schools, medical facilities, sports arenas and stadiums, retail stores, shopping centres and skyscrapers. Institutional and Commercial Construction works are maintenance and upgrading of existing structures.

Specialized Industrial Construction can be categorized in chemical, medical or power generation, which are under industrial or for-profit corporations. Specialized Industrial Construction require a high degree of specialization and technological skill to design and build the building structures.

The purpose for Infrastructure and Heavy Construction is serving public interest, which are normally develop by large private corporations and government agencies. Infrastructure and Heavy Construction focus on constructing roads, railways or communications around an existing building.

4. Type of accidents in construction

Construction industry is the riskiest industry for fatal occupational injuries to occur. This means that the worker will be facing dangerous at any time during their construction work. These dangerous can be come from materials, tools and machinery at the construction site. There are various types of accident that can be found in the construction site. For example, falls, hit by objects or vehicles, machinery accident, fires or explosion, trench or building collapse and overexertion.

Falls are the most common cases among all type of accident. Some of the construction site need its worker to work in a high place. They are required to be work on a scaffolding, cranes, roofs and ladders. This situation made the worker has the high risk to be fall. Other than that, due to the height of the construction site, there might be some object that will be dropped from above, such as tools, building material, chunks or beams. If the object dropped and hit a worker, the worker will be having a serious injury and even death.

In the construction site, there has various truck with a heavy load that go in and out. If the driver does not focus when they are driving, construction worker might be hit by the truck. Heavy machine equipment is an essential element in a construction site to help in the construction work. Each machine equipment has their step to use and SOP. Before using the machine, worker need to be attending a training for that specific machine. Otherwise, a worker without any knowledge and experience that use the machine, it might cause injuries to that worker.

Fire and Explosion are less common compare to the other type of the accident. However, if it really happens in a construction site, it will cause a catastrophic situation to worker. The main reason for the fire and explosion in a construction site are unfinished piping, leaking gases and incomplete electrical systems.

If the design for a construction site are incorrect, Trench or Building Collapses will be occurred. This type of accident will cause a serious injury and even death to more than 1 worker. Incomplete structure for the building to be supported are the main reason for Trench or Building Collapses.

Another type of injuries is cause by the health of a construction worker. Construction work obviously is a work that require someone to work under the sun and a lot of stamina and strength. Worker will have injuries that related to overexertion and heat stroke. These health problems can lead to brain, heart, kidney damage or even death.

5. Cause of accident

The reason for a fatalities accident to be occurred can be classified into different sectors, which are working experiment, transport and lifting equipment, other equipment, machines and other.

Table 2: Details of facilities accidental agents cause in the construction sector from 2013 to 2015.

Table above shows Details of facilities accidental agents cause in the construction sector from 2013 to 2015. From the table, working environment is the main factor that cause the fatal accident. For the indoor working environment, working surface, floor, stairs and confined quarter are the causes of accident. For underground environment, roof, faces of mine and tunnel are the causes of accidents. In 2013 to 2015, working environment, which have 43 cases or 47.78% from the overall cases, is the main factors that affect the worker safety.

Accident cause by transport and lifting equipment have 24 cases or 26.67% from the overall cases. Under this sector, the dangerous factors are caused by vehicle such as crane, lift/elevator, and lorry. They are use to transport and lifting construction material from one place to another place. The communication between worker and driver also can cause fatal due to miscommunication.

Other equipment that use in construction site, such as scaffolding, and ladders also will cause accident such as fall and hit by an object. Machines are another cause of accident in construction. This is because the equipment is not well maintained, not properly guarded or not used correctly will cause the serious injuries. Worker that does not have experience and training might be injured if they using the machine.

For the others sector, the dangerous factor that causes accident is health problem of a worker. A worker might experience overexertion and heat stroke during their operation in construction site.

6. Safety plan

To ensure the safety of workers, construction safety should be strictly enforced by government and organism all around the world. There exists a law that ensure the safety of worker is Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1994 (OSHA 1994) by Department Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH). The OSHA is making sure the employer provides the safety working condition and keep the possible factor that cause accident away. The OSHA also provides information, training and assistance to both the employers and workers. ((OSHA), 2017) There are few factors that affect the safety performance in a construction site.

6.1 Safety program

A safety program is a definite plan of action designed to prevent accidents and occupational diseases. Safety program introduces the rules and regulation inside a construction site, which also known as safety measures. These measures are used to help employer to maintain construction site in a minimal safety standard. Each of the company or employer should organize a safety program for their construction worker. By attending this safety program, workers will have a more understanding to the safety rules. If they follow the compliance, the safety in the construction site will be increased. These programs should be organized regularly, for the workers to reminding of the safety rules. Shin, Gwak, & Lee stated that safety regulations and rules can increase the safety motivation but cannot make sure the safety awareness always be there. Thus, safety awareness has to build in construction worker by training course and risk management.

Health, safety and environment (HSE) competency training course should be provided for worker to rise their safety awareness. The training course are useful for the workers to gain protection skills, understand the real situation of construction and apply the safety regulation on construction. Employer should make sure their workers have attended the training course before starting construction work to ensure them have safety knowledge and strong awareness of safe practices around them. The way and step to control a machine or safety equipment will also be learned from that training courses. Through the training courses, construction worker are able to understand their aspect of work.

Moreover, company should contain a risk management in the construction site, which are used to identify and analyze risks. By using risk management, construction project management can be improved and resources can be used effectively. Before the beginning of the construction work, the hazard and risk should be identified. There are three steps of identification which are task analysis, hazards identification and causes identification. Task analysis is the first step of risk management. In this step, a list of activities that will be carrying out during the construction. All the possible hazard during the activities also need to be list out. Then, the next step is hazards identification. The hazard that are listed out in the previous step need to validate with other third-party files and reports. Finally, the cause identification has to be carried out. Each of the validated hazard need to find out their causes and list out. After identified the hazard, controlling hazard should be used as controlling hazard is used to take action to reduce or eliminate hazard. Hierarchy of control is one of the popular methods for risk controls which can determine how to implement feasible and effective control solutions.

6.2 Project condition

Each of the construction need to calculated their safety instrument and cost as in the project budget. Some of the company will cut down the costs for the protective equipment, so that they will save up the money. The shortage of protection equipment for the worker will increase the risk of an accident occur. Company should provide necessary protection equipment for their worker such as Personal protection equipment (PPE) and teach them the correct way to used it. Safety Officer are responsible to make sure the worker use PPE in construction site. The worker, who failed to apply PPE, will be fined by safety officer. There are 3 steps to reduce the accident by protection equipment. Firstly, get the protection equipment based on the worker task and activities. Secondly, enforce and make sure the worker uses the equipment. Lastly, make sure the equipment is always in good condition.

Furthermore, schedule delay is another reason of accident occur. Schedule delay, which is a common event that will occur in construction site, stressed out the manager as well as the worker. Manager will push worker to work harder as the manager wants to catch up the schedule without considering of the worker safety. For example, manager will ignore worker and other condition as manager only want their goal to achieve on time. Even if the worker didn’t wear PPE and don’t have any other protection, they still ask them to work. Manager will also force the worker to work day and night that cause fatigue and affect their physical condition. This situation increases the probabilities for an accident to be occur in a construction site.

6.3 Organization

Organization are a major role in making sure the safety of their workers. Thus, a good safety culture should be brought up in the organization. According to OSHA, a good safety culture means that every worker responsible on their own safety and apply it in daily. They make safety as a task, which change any unsafe conditions and behaviors, and intervene every working day. Management should create a safety culture that encourages workers to actively report any accident onsite and involve themselves in hazard identification. This can help and enhance workers’ skill and capability. A good safety culture is a great strategy to reduce the number of accidents as the workers have awareness on safety.

Attitude and behaviour of worker are the main factors that affect the working condition. The major root causes of construction accidents are because of the behaviour of worker in safety training, processes, and programs. The good emotional state is vital to keep employees to work more effectively, whereas negative attitudes, which are underestimate the risks and take shortcuts to get the job done, posed great threats to safety.

3. Competency

3.1 Labourer at construction

The job scope for construction labourer is providing the physical labour to perform all kind of tasks at construction sites no matter construction phases or production phases. The Labourer be a main person to conduct the activities on construction site such as hand tools, transferring materials, site cleaning, site preparation, digging and controlling basic equipment. (Labourer – Job Description Key Responsibilities :, 2014)

3.2 Competency

The competency related to skills, knowledge, attitudes and personal characteristics. The competency criteria important for measure potential and job performance when during selection, recruitment and hire employees. The requirement of job for recruitment employee is based on the competency criteria. Each of the job has its specific competency. Competency models will use by Human Resource Department to match needed and strategic objectives of a company. That help for increase the progress of task when placing the right people in the right job.(Seema Sanghi, 2016) According to (Shahhosseini & Sebt, 2011), the competency criteria hierarchy will divide into 3 part which are technical, behavioural and contextual competency

3.2.1 Technical Competency

Technical Competency is about the knowledge and skills needed for the specific role and task. The knowledge and skill are based on the training and education. When mastered the know-how and soft-skills together, the worker will performance well in specialized fields. Based on (Shahhosseini & Sebt, 2011), the table Labourer technical competency criteria analysis show the Instructing is the main of the technical competency which has the higher score with the mean is 4.34. Monitoring also one of the important the technical competency, which has mean is 4.o9. From both high score can make a conclusion, the technical competency focusses on how progress method.

Table: Labourer technical competency criteria analysis

3.2.2 Behavioural Competency

According to (Register, n.d.), behavioural Competency divide into 6 categories which are external focus, working together, professional expertise, setting direction, delivering results and improving and innovating. Firstly, external focus is about understanding the company need ensuring meet with the mission and vision of company. Secondly, working together discuss about team work, how motivate other people and how communication with colleagues. Thirdly, professional expertise is talk about the develop and maintain of own expertise. Setting direction is thinking about the strategies plan and setting goals for future planning. Furthermore, delivering results is the process achieve the goals which from problem solving to decision making, planning and managing performance. (Register, n.d.)

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