Masonry Magazine August 1995 Page. 11
Power Plan: 3 Steps to A Jobsite Safety Program
Make a small investment of time in a jobsite safety program now before accidents occur -- or spend it later when a valued worker's livelihood and possibly the future of your business is endangered by needless injury. By PHILIP L. COLLERAN
Put everything you've read about safety programs aside for a moment and remember three basic components of any successful accident prevention program:
Inspection
Training
Enforcement
None of these basics is new. Safety practitioners have advanced them for decades. How they're carried out on today's construction worksite may need some rethinking.
Inspection
Since the post World War II era, construction contractors have been designating "Competent Persons" to handle jobsite safety responsibilities. A Competent Person is one who:
* understands the hazards associated with the work at hand.
* understands what safe work practices can be used to avert hazards and,
* most important, has the authority to (and actually does) carry out prompt corrective action.
OSHA Requires "frequent and regular inspections of the jobsites, materials and equipment to be made by competent persons designated by the employers."
For the small to medium-sized construction contractor, who can't afford the luxury of full-time site safety coordinators, the designated competent person is most often a first line supervisor or foreman. It is a fortunate contractor who can hang on to a core group of foremen and invest in their development as effective managers.
Regrettably, the construction industry faces business cycles that keep both first line supervisors and hourly workers in flux. Hourly workers may be employed by as many as three or four different contractors in a given year, each with their own particular method (or lack of method) of approaching jobsite safety.
Foremen are contractors' first and last lines of defense in assuring a smooth job, yet frequently the least equipped to deal with basic safety management. They haven't received the proper training to be effective.