Unpacking Construction Site Safety

Unpacking Construction Site Safety provides a different perspective of safety in practice. • examines how useful the concept of safety actually is to the development of effective management interventions • providing new insights and information to the audience, and assist in a more informed development of new approaches in practice • aimed at safety and construction management practitioners as well as academics

Preface xi

Acknowledgements xv

1 Introduction 1

References 4

2 Construction Site Contexts 5

Winning Work 6

Subs of Subs of Subs 8

The Workforce 9

Working Conditions 13

Never work a day in your life … 13

Construction Site Life 14

References 17

3 Safety and Society 21

The Media and its Myths 22

(Mis‐)Interpreting the Legislation 25

Where there’s blame … 28

Safety and Society and Construction Sites 31

Understanding People 32

References 42

4 Safety in Construction 47

Measuring Safety: Accidents and Statistics 48

Cause and Effect 51

Safety Management Systems 55

Competence 58

Training 61

Personal Protective Equipment 66

References 73

5 Just a Bit Unsafe? 77

The Legislative Lexicon 77

Safe/Unsafe 83

Safety and Unsafety 88

Safety and Risk 94

Acknowledgements 104

References 104

6 Safety versus Work and Work versus Safety 107

The Non‐Productive 107

Segregation and Integration 111

Problems of Production 114

Production in Practice 116

References 121

7 Engagement and Enforcement 123

Engaging with Safety 124

Safety Propaganda 129

Enforcing Safety 134

Rules Made to be Broken? 138

A Hierarchy of Safety: Responsibility and Ownership 142

Acknowledgements 148

References 148

8 Counting Down to Zero 151

Target Zero: Theories and Thinking 152

Brand Zero 156

Zero in Practice 159

Measuring Zero: Non‐Accident Statistics 161

Achieving Zero 163

Acknowledgements 169

References 169

9 Constructing Safety on Sites 171

What is Safety on Site? 172

Site Safety Culture 177

Putting it into Practice 181

References 187

10 Reflections 189

Index 191

Fred Sherratt PhD MCIOB C.BuildE MCABE FHEA has worked in the UK construction industry for over 13 years, starting as a site secretary and working up through the ranks, via the planning function, to site management. She is now a researcher and Senior Lecturer in Construction Management at Anglia Ruskin University. Safety is something that seems to be very simple – but it is actually deceptively complicated, and so it is perhaps unsurprising that we are still struggling to get it right in the construction industry. There is considerable variance in how people position safety within their working lives; it is not embedded in construction practice but often treated as an add-on to the work of the construction site, with significant differences in how �safety� is talked about by corporate management, site supervisors and site operatives. So for those who manage safety on site, areas of concern, confusion and even potential conflict can arise when trying to implement management systems and more complex safety-culture programmes. Unpacking Construction Site Safety helps academics and construction practitioners develop better knowledge and understanding of the site context for construction safety; it places safety firmly within the social context of construction site work practice, and explores how �safety practice� fits within this environment and how such practice is perceived by those who work with it every day. This increased awareness of the contextual complexities of safety on site will help improve the design of safety management systems and interventions which need to operate within incoherent, contradictory and potentially hostile site environments – and give them greater potential to succeed. By exploring safety from this fresh perspective, the author examines how useful the concept of safety culture actually is to the development of effective management interventions. The academic approach taken in this book is unique; although regulations, management systems and safety culture are all topics for investigation, they are not considered as the inevitable means to their own ends. Rather they are critically appraised within the realities of the sites, including the potential for their ineffectiveness, providing new insights and information to the audience, and assist in a more informed development of new approaches in practice. Aimed at safety and construction management practitioners as well as academics, the book prioritises practice. Research findings are presented with the intention of informing and helping to develop interventions with a better understanding of the construction site context.