Improvement Awareness of Safety Enforcement in Construction Industry for SME

Review the improvement awareness of safety
enforcement in construction industry for small
medium enterprise (SME)
Name:HHH
Nric:
Submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements of the
BSc (Hons) Degree Safety Health and Environmental Management
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Acknowledgement
Firstly, I would like to express my whole-hearted gratitudeto my supervisor Mr
_____________ for all his assistance and guidance for the timely completion of my
honours project. His intuitiveand critical comments are greatly valuable. I am truly
honoured to have him as my mentor who always spares the extra mile to help his
students.
Secondly, I would like to thank my management from ______________ who
approved the research program to be conducted within the organization. Without
them, the genuine approach of the study would not be conclusive to assess the
improvement awareness of enforcement. Special mentioned to Mr Wilson Tan, my
project manager who has permit the study to be carried out while he is aware that it
may affect and somehow cause minor impedance to the progress during the data
collection. All this is made possible with his beliefthat the research may yearn positive
results to continually improve safety. In addition, I am very grateful to Mr
______________WSH manager who has supported me in the data collection
development. I truly appreciate the guidance and assistance from him and his team
of safety coordinators, supervisor who have facilitate the process of obtaining data
from the volunteered workers. Not forgetting the workers and supervisors who
volunteered to be part of the data collection process and gave their full commitment
to determine the accuracy of the data.
Thirdly, ____________________CEO, whom is committed and open to new ideas to
improve the safety culture of his company. His great passion and interest to increase
the safety standards of V3 construction Pte ltd has motivated me to be more focus
and meticulous in the data analysis process. Furthermore, I am greatly honoured
thatthe result of the analysis will be greatly considered as part of the counteraction
program for the annual management review.
Lastly and most importantly to my family, my wife and my 3 sons, who have been
enduring the lack of family timewhile I am juggling my work and studies. Thanks to
them for make this all possible and achievable task for me.
It has been a long yet valuable experience for me.
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Abstract
The Workplace Safety & health (WSH) Act is the most crucial part of the framework
for cultivating positive safety practices in all individuals which ultimately reinforced a
strong safety culture in all workplaces. Since the introduction of the WSH act in
March 2006, Ministry of manpower (MOM) the regulatory bodies enforcing it have
played a vital role in the improvement of WSH standards nationwide across all
sectors. Internally, they have introduce various regulations, established various
department and platforms to promote, educate and enforce the acts and subsidiary
legislation.
Among the three guiding principles of the WSH acts, there is two which I would like to
bring to your attention. Encouraging the industries to adopt greater ownership of
safety and health and impose higher penalties for poor management safety
outcomes, which are related to topic that I would like to bring to your attention. While
the four key features on the act focus on placing responsibilities on stakeholders who
to control and ensure safety in the workplace, WSH systems and outcomes, facilitate
effective enforcement through the issuance of remedial order and imposing higher
penalties for non-compliance and unsafe behaviour. It is largely known that the
stringent penalties and BUS programme has been an initiative by MOM to uphold the
principle and key features of the act. With the regulatory body continually enhancing
its deterrence programs, there is a vital need for companies including SME to move
parallel forward to implement it companywide and influence its progression.
Hence this study aims to review the improvement in awareness of safety
enforcement in construction industry for Small medium enterprise.
There are two main components in the study............................
Keywords: Construction Safety enforcement, Small medium Enterprise (SME),
Improvement awareness, Enforcement
Total word count:
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title: Review the improvement awareness of safety enforcement in construction
industry for small medium enterprise (SME)
No Title Pg
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Background
1.2 Research purpose
1.3 Research aims & objective
Chapter 2: Literature review
Chapter 3: Rationale
Chapter 4: Research methods and design
Chapter 5: Data collection and Analysis
Chapter 6: Results
Chapter 7: Discussion
Chapter 8 : Proposed recommendation
Chapter 9 : Conclusion
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
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1.1 Background.
There are 180,000 local small organization which sums up to 99% of the enterprise
in Singapore which contribute to almost 50% of her GDP.(Singapore Business
Federation, 2014).The recent business report by Singapore credit bureau on Q3
2017 reportedthat the construction sector continues to be hit hard by slow demand
and sluggish payments. While it is hypothetically known that this affected groups
contributed to the figures tabulated in the WSH national statistics report, it
sympathize us more to know how the SME balanced out the need for safety in
workplace while simultaneously managing their cash flow. Proving that ,a research
article by (Sunindijo, 2015), studies conducted in Australia concluded that despite
their significant contribution economically to the construction sector, they are incline
to have a poorer safety practices than their bigger counterparts due to various
factors.
In an article by (Ayessaki and Smallwood, 2017) it claimed that inspection and
enforcement would increase the overall safety and health attentiveness and the
corrective effects will occur more greatly at the specific site.(McQuiston, Zakocs and
Loomis, 1998) It is interesting to prove that the claim is rather more applicable for
SME which generally have fewer worksite.
In a report by WSH council (Council, 2009), the national strategy aims to achieve a
country well known for best performances in Workplace safety and health. Launched
by the Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Commitment from leaders of different
organization, the WSH 2018 sets targets to support the former. In it strategies were
developed to make this goal possible. In line with the guiding principle and key
features of the WSH acts, one of the main focus in these new stratagems are
encouraging the industries to adopt greater ownership of safety and health and
impose higher penalties for poor management safety outcomes. The implementation
of effective regulatory framework focus on targeted intervention and enforcement
based on analysis trends. Therefore there is an urgent need for SME companies
whom is also applicable for the improvement to ride and move parallel on this
schemes to steer their personnel and direct them on to the common path.
Hence this paper seeks to identify the effectiveness of enforcement method as
approach and identify the necessary actions and evaluation needed to enhance
safety in the Construction industry. In doing so, it will explore the degree of extent
this method will be useful to achieve improved level of safety and recognize the
advantages and limitations while doing so.
1.2 Research Purpose
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The statistic reported for workplace fatalities remain stagnant in 2016 with 24
fatalities accounted from the construction industry alone(OSHD annual report 2016,
2016). The figure here raise doubts on the effectiveness of the enforcement action.
While various operations and method had been steered by MOM to increase
awareness and importance of safety, there is still doubts whether this programmes
have reached out to the SME whom theoretically contributed to the ever worrying
trend. The purpose of these research is to review the effectiveness of internal
enforcement programmes as a method of approach to improve awareness and
safety standards within my organization. The result gained will be a point of
reference to continually increase the stringency of safety programmes in my
organization.
1.3 Research aim and objectives
The aim of the study is to determine the effect of enforcement as an action by middle
to top management from my company. It aims to evaluate the awareness when such
programmes is implemented internally.
The objective of this study is to ascertain the efficiency of enforcement as a method
of application to improve awareness in my organization which ultimately aims to
increase WSH standards
At the end of the study, the factual data may be used to justify the need for
enforcement to improve the awareness in the ever dynamic state of construction
industry for SME.
CHAPTER 2: Literature Review
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