by MIKE MCKENNA Feb 26, 2016
Although everyone on a construction site has a role to play when it comes to safety, it’s the prime contractor who is ultimately responsible for having a system to ensure compliance with WorkSafeBC rules and regulations. It’s a challenging endeavour that involves coordinating all H&S activities; often, say those on the front lines, with little in terms of clear guidelines or policies to guide their efforts.
Thus the goal of the Prime Contractor Technical Advisory Committee (PCTAC), which brings together representatives from COR-certified prime contractors to share experiences and develop proactive strategies aimed at meeting compliance. Established in 2012 by the BC Construction Safety Alliance (BCCSA), an important focus of the committee is on identifying ways to work effectively with subcontractors to ensure they are able to fulfill their safety responsibilities.
For example, members have recently been alerting subcontractors to issues surrounding formwork engineering and Baker scaffolding, both of which must meet CSA standards, as required by WorkSafeBC. TAC chair Jeff Lyth (also BCCSA’s senior safety advisor) says an uptick in accidents prompted WorkSafeBC to step up inspections, which in turn resulted in some orders being written. The PCTAC, through its member companies, heard about the problems early on and spread the word quickly through their network of projects and trades contractors about the need to be in compliance.
“The goal was to bring attention to these matters in a way that was proactive and cooperative rather than waiting for WorkSafeBC officers to visit and potentially cite violations,” says Lyth, adding that the committee’s work in this regard is a good example of how safety can be improved by proactively using the contracting chain to communicate and address safety issues. “The network created by the PCTAC can quickly reach hundreds of trade contractors and their workers.”
Members are also actively encouraging subs to ensure their workers get basic safety training before they arrive on a site and, to that end, are recommending BCCSA’s CSTS-09 on-line safety training — recognized industry-wide for providing a solid grounding in construction safety. More widespread adoption of CSTS would not only help improve overall site safety, they say, but could make a big difference to both subs and primes in terms of cutting time and costs associated with site safety orientations – an often frustrating component of compliance that can involve training hundreds or even thousands of workers, depending on the size of the project.
“Many orientations are detail heavy and often include information that may not be specific to the job at hand because the prime is trying to compensate as much as possible for those workers who have little or no safety training,” says David Kerr, safety manager with Polygon Construction.
“I often hear complaints about how long the sessions take, the cost, and so on, but if a sub was to come to me with documentation that his workers have taken CSTS-09, I can revise the orientation to focus more on site-specific hazards. Imagine the difference to even a smaller employer over multiple workers and job sites.” Jacqueline Spain, regional safety manager at ITC, agrees.
“Everyone on a construction site needs basic safety training and the ideal would be for them to get it before they arrive. As it now stands, we are the front line and we have no choice but to provide the training. But workers with CSTS would be eligible for expedited sessions, and in some cases might be able to go straight to work.”
Both Kerr and Spain add that employers whose workers complete basic safety training have also taken the right step toward meeting their own due diligence requirements with respect to site safety, which could be important if an accident does happen.
Mike McKenna is the executive director of the B.C. Construction Safety Alliance. Direct comments or questions to editor@journalofcommerce.com.