Construction Safety: A Critical Review

This assignment delves into the critical realm of construction safety. It examines the essential competencies required of construction supervisors to ensure effective site safety. The analysis extends to legal ramifications surrounding workplace fatalities and investigations, highlighting the importance of accountability and justice. Furthermore, the assignment explores the role of technology in mitigating risks through Building Information Modeling (BIM) and other advancements in safety management practices.

Running head: WORKPLACE HEALTH & SAFETY IN AUSTRALIA
Workplace Health and Safety in Australia
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1WORKPLACE HEALTH & SAFETY IN AUSTRALIA
The Safe Work Australia is the statutory body of the Australian government
established under the Safe Work Act Australia 2008, which endeavours to improve work
health and safety and compensation of workers in Australia. The companies irrespective of
industrial type are to abide by the laws and policies laid down by the act
(safeworkaustralia.gov.au, 2017). The workers engaged at construction company in particular
are prone of accidents and even deaths due to unsafe working conditions maintained by their
employers. According to an international daily, one such death took place at Kenoss
Contractors, Canberra when an employer called Michael Booth was electrocuted to death
when his tipper touched low hanging electrical cables over the site he was deputed at. The
company tried to hinder the investigation and tried to alter the attendance records of Booth.
ACT Work Safe Commissioner Mark McCabe penalised the company huge fine of $ 1.1
million, which was probably the highest penalty in the history of Australia. The court
observed gross lack of safety measures and breach of Occupational Health and Safety. The
ACT Work Safe Commissioner further warned the companies in Australia to ensure safe
working conditions of their workers. The case became a milestone in the history of workplace
health and safety in companies in Australia (abc.net.au, 2017).
The workplaces like construction sites of Kennos Contractors, Australia are often
characterised by lack of safety and presence of hazardous environment. The hazardous
situations in the construction sites can happen due to slips, trips, lying of debris and uneven
walking conditions. The workers often meet accidents due to tripping over equipments and
excavated materials falling over them from above due to lack of security measures while
demolishing standing structures like buildings (Zhang et al., 2013). The materials and
unstable structures often cause accidents when they get misplaced and fall on workers.
Workers also fall seriously sick and even die due to coming in contact with poisonous and
explosive gases. The vehicles and wires often cause death of workers who encounter them

2WORKPLACE HEALTH & SAFETY IN AUSTRALIA
suddenly. The blocked paths due to debris, gases and other materials often prevent escape
and movement of injured workers and result in the death of those workers. The management
of the construction companies often do not arrange for first aids and safety measures, thus
causing the heath conditions of workers deteriorate which sometimes even cause death of
injured workers (Dagan & Isaac, 2015).
According to Taylor (2015), the construction site of Kenoss Contractors where
Michael Booth was working was characterised by several serious hazards and breach of basic
safety measures. The site had high-tension electric wires which had electricity running
through them even during the work went on in the construction site. The contractor did not
employ any supervisor to look into the safety of the workers. There was no safety sign to alert
workers about the active wires and the authorities of Kenoss Contractors managed the access
to the site poorly. There were no locks and the compound appeared to have been designed as
a dump yard of debris (Hardison et al., 2014). The workers were warned not to visit the site
and there was no explanation of Mr Booth’s employment at the highly unsafe site. The
Industrial Magistrate Ms Lorraine Walker pointed out that the safety precautions from the
side of the management of Kenoss Contractors could have abated the death of Mr Booth. She
in her statement further pointed out that the hazardous conditions at the site were sufficient to
cause injury or even casualty. The situation at the site revealed gross breach of Safe Work
Australia Act 2008 and OHS (business.gov.au, 2017).
According to the Industrial Magistrate Ms Walker, the breach in safety and
Occupational Health and Safety could have avoided the fatality of Mr Booth using
precautionary measures. There were hanging wires over the site, which were active even
during the commencement of work at the site. The authorities and the engineers deployed to
supervise the work at the site should have turned the wires off before the commencement of
the work (Grow, 2017). The company should have employed supervisors to supervise the

3WORKPLACE HEALTH & SAFETY IN AUSTRALIA
safety measures at the site. The wires should have been flagged with red or any other
appropriate colour to warn workers maintain distance. The Model WHS Act mandates the
companies to employ safety officers at the sites to ensure safe working conditions of the
workers. Kenoss Contractors should have employed safety officer at the site in accordance to
this act. The company should have maintained proper accessibility and maintenance at the
site. These precautionary measures according to Model WHS Act could have helped in
avoiding the accident, which killed Mr Booth (Zhang, Boukamp & Teizer, 2015).
According to the news by a leading Australian daily, the workplace where the
accident that took the life of Michael Booth happened was characterised by hazardous
working conditions. Michael Booth was employed at a resurfacing project under Kenoss
Contractors on March 2012. The work place environment was extremely unsafe and the
company did not follow the Model WHS Act (canberratimes.com.au, 2017). The act
mandates the employers to ensure safe working conditions and protect the employees from
accidents. The tip truck, which Booth was driving, came very close or in direct contact with
the high-tension electrical lines hanging over the site. This contact resulted in huge flow of
current strong enough to deflate the heavy tyres of tip trucks and leaving burnt marks on the
road (Demirkesen & Arditi, 2015). Michael Booth, in order to save his life jumped off the
truck, collapsed and died. Ms Walker, the Industrial Magistrate reported that the safety
officer of the company was the son of the general manager and did not possess the required
qualifications to function as a safety officer. The management of Kenoss attempted to tamper
with evidence to obstruct the legal procedures by modifying the attendance records of Mr
Booth. The magistrate acknowledged a huge penalty of AU$ 1.1 million to the company,
which went into liquidation. The court issued a very strong message to the companies and
warned them against breaching the OHS laws (safeworkaustralia.gov.au, 2017).

4WORKPLACE HEALTH & SAFETY IN AUSTRALIA
The Safe Work Australia resolved the issue by penalising Kenoss Contractors with a
fine of AU$ 1.1 million. Safe Work Australia lays down clear model codes to be followed by
companies carrying out construction works like construction of buildings and pathways.
Regulation 297 mandates the companies engaged in construction business and employing
people at construction sites to identify the sources of probable accidents on the site like naked
wire and debris. It is the responsibility of the employers to eliminate the hazardous source to
the extent possible. The employer if fails to eliminate the risks should at least take steps to
minimise the hazards. The top management of the company should also supervise the
hazardous sources regularly to ensure that the hazards are under control and take measures to
ensure that the hazards stay within the control of the company (Wachter & Yorio, 2014).
Chapter 3 of Safe Work Australia under Safe Work Australia Act 2008 provides codes of
practices construction companies should follow to ensure security of their workers at the
sites. The chapter directs the companies to recognise the possible sources of accidents and
risks to the lives and well-being of the workers. The employers should employ techniques to
find out the risks those can be caused due to the hazards (Matthews et al., 2014). The
construction company owners are required to implement control measures to reduce the
hazards and maintain this control. Industrial Magistrate Lorraine Walker announced the
verdict of the penalty on the company, which had gone into insolvency by then. The
industrial magistrate went to investigate the safety situations at the site and discovered that
the safety laws were not followed. The verdict became a historical case in workplace safety
and health in Australia. The magistrate warned the construction company to follow the safety
laws (Chan et al., 2016).
The construction company Kenoss Contractors could have managed the workplace
safety and health of the workers in a different way to ensure their safety. First, the top
management should have employed a professional safety officer with appropriate

5WORKPLACE HEALTH & SAFETY IN AUSTRALIA
qualification and experience to study the risk factors in its construction sites. Second, the
safety officer should have assessed the seriousness of the risk factors and the graveness of
accidents they are capable of causing. The safety officer should have prepared reports
regarding the safety conditions at the site as per Safe Work Australia’s model codes of
practices pertaining to the construction sector (Choudhry, 2014). Third, he should have
presented the report to the higher management and advised them on the safety measures that
could be taken to minimise those risk factors, if their total elimination is not possible. The
safety officers and the engineer in charges should have ensured control of hazardous situation
like deactivating live wires hanging overhead before employees start their work. They should
have stopped Mr Booth who sub-contractor from entering the site just as they had inhibited
their own employees from entering the site. Taking these steps could have saved the life of
Mr Booth (Zhou, Goh & Li, 2015).
I would have looked into the safety and security of the workers had I worked in the
site of Kenoss Contractors. First, I would have treated both the workers under the payroll of
Kenoss and the subcontractors like Mr Booth in the similar way. I would have followed the
laws under Safe Work Australia and identified the hazardous factors, which were capable of
causing accidents at the construction sites. Then I would have prepared and maintained a
report on the hazards and their likely threats to the security of the workers (Hardison et al.,
2014). Then I would have presented the same before the higher management and advised
them on the safety, which according to the OHS laws they should take. The next step would
have been to conduct a survey of the construction site. This would have made it possible to
study the hazards to the security of the workers like heaps of debris obstructing the ways for
smooth movement of workers in case of accidents. The next step would have been to remove
the debris and clear the ways. The wires would have been tested and marked red to warn the
workers to stay away from them while working at the site. A very effective step that I would

6WORKPLACE HEALTH & SAFETY IN AUSTRALIA
have taken to ensure the safety of the workers riding trucks and bulldozers would have been
deactivating the live wires when the work starts on the site. This would prevent workers from
meeting with accidents, suffering injuries or even meeting with death on coming in contact
with the wires (Chan et al., 2016). The wires would have been marked in red to warn the
workers driving trucks to stay away from them to avoid accidents. I would have used
machines to demolish buildings and completely mechanise the process to ensure no accidents
caused to workers due to falling of demolition debris on them. A very crucial step would
have been training the employees of all hierarchies on work place health and safety. This
would have enabled them to take precautionary measures in case of accidents, which would
help in saving lives of injured workers.
Workplace health and safety have become important aspects of the workplaces in all
industries in Australia including the construction industry. Kenoss did not follow the
directives on employee safety at their sites. This slackness of Kenoss resulted in the death of
Mr Booth, subcontractor. The company tried to tamper evidences but remained unsuccessful.
The magistrate court penalised the firm with a fine of AU $ 1.1 million but the company went
into dissolution. It can be recommended to the construction companies in Australia that they
should follow the policies like Model Codes of Practices laid down by the Safe Work
Australia and Workplace Health and Safety, Australia. It can be recommended that the apex
management bodies should frame safety policies in accordance with these safety laws. This
would ensure safety and security of the workers on sites. This would ensure higher safety of
workers, which would reduce accidents, and resultant loss of productivity. This would
ultimately promote higher productivity by enabling more accurate execution of projects.
Thus, following of safety laws would ensure higher revenue generation in the construction
companies due to more appropriate execution of the projects according to the requirements of
the customers.

7WORKPLACE HEALTH & SAFETY IN AUSTRALIA
References:
Chan, A. P., Javed, A. A., Lyu, S., Hon, C. K., & Wong, F. K. (2016). Strategies for
improving safety and health of ethnic minority construction workers. Journal of
Construction Engineering and Management, 142(9), 05016007.
Choudhry, R. M. (2014). Behavior-based safety on construction sites: A case study. Accident
Analysis & Prevention, 70, 14-23.
Dagan, D., & Isaac, S. (2015). Planning safe distances between workers on construction
sites. Automation in construction, 50, 64-71.
Demirkesen, S., & Arditi, D. (2015). Construction safety personnel's perceptions of safety
training practices. International Journal of Project Management, 33(5), 1160-1169.
Grow, h. (2017). OHS : OH&S : Occupational Health & Safety : Risk Management : Sydney
Australia. Ohsaustralia.com.au. Retrieved 28 September 2017, from
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Hardison, D., Behm, M., Hallowell, M. R., & Fonooni, H. (2014). Identifying construction
supervisor competencies for effective site safety. Safety science, 65, 45-53.
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supervisor competencies for effective site safety. Safety science, 65, 45-53.
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8WORKPLACE HEALTH & SAFETY IN AUSTRALIA
Matthews, L. R., Fitzpatrick, S. J., Bohle, P., & Quinlan, M. (2014). Investigation and
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9WORKPLACE HEALTH & SAFETY IN AUSTRALIA
Zhou, Z., Goh, Y. M., & Li, Q. (2015). Overview and analysis of safety management studies
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