Safety Management Practices in the Bhutanese Construction Industry

Kin Dorji1 and *Bonaventura H. W. Hadikusumo2

INTRODUCTION

It is commonly known that accidents have serious implications to the construction industry both in financial and humanitarian terms. Construction accidents may cause many problems, such as demotivation of workers; disruption of site activities; delay of project progress; and adversely affecting the overall cost, productivity and reputation of the construction industry (Mohamed, 1999). In Hong Kong, the cost of accidents accounts 8.5% of the total tender price (Rowlinson, 2003).

Considering the adverse impacts of accidents, construction safety management is of genuine concern to all stakeholders in the construction industry. Government, unions and insurers have spent a great deal of time and effort attempting to evolve legislation, rules and regulations to help reduce the large loss of life and limbs, and the high number of "lost-work days" (Goldsmith, 1987). In USA, the practice of safety in construction is regulated by governmental agencies such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which provides strict rules and regulations to enforce safety and health reduce accident rates unless craftsmen and management take positive actions to integrate these rules into their everyday activities by implementing a safety management program. Safety management is an approach aimed at removing or minimizing the forces which cause losses through injured workers, or damaged equipment and facilities.

In most developing countries, including Bhutan, safety consideration in construction project delivery is not given a priority, and employment of safety measures during construction is considered a burden (Mbuya and Lema, 2002). The construction industry in Bhutan is one of the fastest growing and largest sectors. It is also one of the highest contributing sectors to the national gross domestic product (GDP) next to agriculture. However, occupational safety and health in the construction industry in Bhutan is at the very basic level. It lacks all of the three fronts of engineering, education and enforcement ("Three E's) of safety. Safety concerns have been raised, of late, and earnest efforts are being made to promote safety and health in the Bhutanese construction industry. The industry, as such, needs to assess the safety situation, and accordingly plan and implement safe construction in Bhutan. Currently there is a genuine set of data on safety at construction sites in Bhutan. Apparently, there are no systematic and organized studies conducted specifically on the safety aspects of the construction industry in Bhutan. Therefore, this research study was aimed to assess the existing safety management practices and perception in the Bhutanese construction industry. The assessment was useful in providing information in terms of current safety practices administered in Bhutan. Meanwhile the perception was useful in finding out what are the main reasons, and whether the regulator and construction companies have different perceptions in identifying problems related to safety management. If they perceive different opinions on safety problems, the safety policy and law might not be able to solve the problems. The health issues are not covered in this study because the impact of health is long term; and at present the data is not available in the Bhutanese construction industry.

BHUTANESE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY AND GOVERNMENT ROLES IN SAFETY

The construction industry is one of the fastest growing and largest employing industries in Bhutan. It is also, like in any other developing countries, one of the major stakeholders of the national economy. Its contribution to the national GDP rose from 6.7% in the early 1990s to about 12% in 2002. The construction industry, however, is dominated by the government since most of the major infrastructure developmental works are owned by the government.

During the Eighth Five Year Plan (8 FYP) (1997–2002) the construction sector, with an estimated growth rate of 17.3%, had a major influence on the GDP growth rate mainly because of the construction of large hydropower projects. The Ninth Plan (2002–2007) has placed much emphasis upon the infrastructure development such as urban housing projects; and because of this, construction sector has been projected to grow at an average of around 16.4% per annum. The construction sector is also expected to contribute 17.8% to the national GDP at the end of the Ninth Plan.

In order to support the construction development, technological and managerial aspects of the Bhutanese contractors must be improved. Many new government agencies have been created in response to these needs. Some of them are Standard and Quality Control Authority (SQCA), Construction Association of Bhutan (CAB), Construction Training Centre (CTC), Department of Labour (DOL) and others. The role of the CAB is to represent as a forum for the construction industry, and to address problems and policy issues at national, regional and international level for the development and promotion of Bhutanese construction industry. SQCA is currently one of the main government regulatory agencies entrusted with the tasks of regulating the quality aspects of the construction works in the country. In the past, the former Public Works Department (PWD) used to be the only central agency entrusted with all the engineering works of the government. However, over time, with increasing volume of works it has been proliferated to several other government agencies. As such, today, every Royal government agency possesses a small team of engineers to oversee its engineering functions. This over stretch has resulted in the variations in the construction and engineering standards.

The Ministry of Works and Human Settlement takes its roles in overseeing the construction industry in Bhutan. The Ministry carries out most of the developments and implementation of various rules and regulations, policies, bye-laws and standards, etc. that has general bearing on the construction industry. However, there is no single specific government agency that regulates the construction safety. There is no concrete legislative standard either for construction safety and health. The only legal instrument protecting the working conditions of national and foreign workers is the Chathrim for Wage, Recruitment Agencies and Workmen's Compensation 1994 passed by the National Assembly and implemented by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Even the applicability of this labour regulations is limited to the five categories of workers (designated by skill levels) identified in the Chathrim. The Chathrim and its related amendments also establish the minimum wage levels and welfare such as accident insurance coverage, medical coverage and safe working conditions.

The Ministry of Labour and Human Resources which has been recently established in June 2003 has been entrusted with the responsibility for labour administration policies and laws. The occupational safety and health related laws and regulations are currently encompassed in the overall labour administration policy and law, which are still at the draft stage. The DOL under the same Ministry is mandated to assume responsibility for labour inspection and labour relations functions. Over the next few years, the DOL will be striving to achieve the following objectives in terms of safety and health management (MLHR, 2004):

a. Labour laws and regulations concerning labour inspection and labour relations will be drafted, submitted to the national assembly, enacted, widely publicized and enforced.

b. All workers, both national and foreign, will benefit from labour protection activities through a safer and healthier working environment, and improved working conditions.

c. A national occupational safety and health policy will be in place, and supporting laws and regulations will be enacted, implemented and enforced.

d. An integrated labour inspection system will be established and become operational.

e. A system for bargaining by the Department on behalf of the employees on a range of labour relations issues, including wages and working conditions, will be established until the finalization of the nation's constitution.

SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Management approach to health and safety in construction industry can be seen in three important ways – firstly, from legal point of view, the need to abide the rules and regulations of the place; second, the socio-humanitarian aspects which is to consider human lives involved; and finally, the financial-economic aspects of the accidents which have high direct and indirect costs.
Construction safety management deals with actions that managers at all levels can take to create an organizational setting in which workers will be trained and motivated to perform safe and productive construction work (Levitt and Samelson, 1987). The system should delineate responsibilities and accountabilities. It should also outline procedures for eliminating hazards and identifying potential hazards before they become the contributing factors to unfortunate accidents.

Safety Policy

A health and safety policy is a written statement of principles and goals embodying the company's commitment to workplace health and safety (CSAO, 1993). It demonstrates top management's commitment to ensure safe working methods and environment at the construction sites. Koehn et al. (1995) states that in order to reduce financial risk, management support for safety programmes in both developed and developing countries should be considered as an economic necessity since accidents had proved quite costly to the contractor. This is in addition to the ethical and professional responsibility of the management for providing a safe work site for all employees. Sawacha et al. (1999) also stresses the importance of management's viability and participation in achieving successful safety performance. The safety policy elements which are applicable in Bhutan are written safety policy, proper posting of policy, effective implementation and policy updating.

Organizing

One of the essential elements of the safety management is the designation of individual with responsibilities and accountabilities in the implementation of the construction safety programme and plan. The organization should demonstrate how accountabilities are fixed, how policy implementation is to be monitored, how safety committees and safety representatives are to function, and how individual job descriptions should reflect health and safety responsibilities and associated accountabilities (Stranks, 2000). As such, in order for the safety policy to be effective, both management and employees have to be actively involved and committed (Holt, 2001). In the research finding of Sawacha et al. (1999), it indicates that having a well-trained safety representative on site can improve safety performance by undertaking fault spotting and insisting on corrective action being taken. Also having full-time safety personnel will somewhat relieves the pressure on the on-site construction project team (Koehn et al. 1995). Sawacha et al. (1999) further indicates that companies with effective safety committees are more likely to take steps that improve safety performance than those without. This means that safety committees can play a positive role in the improvement of safety performance. In UK, the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 which was implemented by the HSC, describes the appointment and functions of safety representatives and the establishment of safety committees (Davies and Tomasin, 1996). Similarly, in USA the OSHA standards for the construction industry had listed the necessary requirements for a minimum standard of safety and health (Koehn et al. 1995). The committee is empowered to research, discuss, coordinate and make suggestions related to labour safety affairs at the job site. Organizing elements which are applicable to Bhutan are safety representative, safety committee, safety responsibilities and accountabilities, and organizational commitment (i.e. resources).

Planning and Implementing

Planning is a critical area in the control and enforcement of a safety program (Goldsmith, 1987). It is a process that prepares, creates, implements and monitors the safety programme, thereby addressing the workplace health and safety through an organized, step-by-step strategy (CSAO, 1993). Planning starts with the company's written health and safety policy. It ensures that health and safety efforts of all job-site personnel really work by designing a programme that translates policy into practice. Planning, as such, entails identifying the objectives and targets which are attainable and relevant, setting performance standards for management, considering and controlling risks to all employees and to other people who may be affected by the organization's activities, and ensuring documentation of all performance standards (Holt, 2001). The safety and health programme covers a range of general safety procedures and practices. Some of them are safety training, safety meeting, safety inspection, accident investigation and reporting, job hazard analysis and control, safety promotion, and personal protective equipment (PPE), etc.
The elements of planning and implementing safety programme which are applicable to Bhutan are safety plan, safety programme, safety training, safety inspection, job-site hazard identification and control, safety meeting, accident investigation and reporting, safety promotion and PPE.

Measuring Safety Performances

Safety performance measures are used primarily for comparisons among companies and supervisors. In addition, they are also used as a means for pinpointing problem areas (Levitt and Samelson, 1987). Also according to Laufer and Ledbetter (1986), a key factor in the control and improvement of any performance aspect on site is the ability to measure the performances. Measuring safety performances is important to check the effectiveness of various training methods and it also serves as an instrument in choosing a contractor. There are various methods of measuring the safety performances. Some of the common methods are experience modification rating (EMR), accident costs, frequency rate, behaviour-based safety and OSHA-recordable incidence rates. The elements of safety performance measurement which are applicable to Bhutan are accident cost and accident frequency rate.

Reviewing Safety Performances

The review of safety performances serves as a feedback loop to improve the performances. Safety audit can be undertaken to review the safety performance in terms of whether the safety plan is implemented and whether the plan is effective to attain the organization's safety goal.

CONCLUSION

A survey has been conducted with 40 construction companies and the government regulatory agencies relevant to construction industry in Bhutan to better understand their safety management practices. The five key elements of a construction safety management system were inadequately applied in the Bhutanese construction industry. In terms of safety policy, most of the companies did not have safety policy and they had poor safety awareness. In terms of organizing, most of them did not have safety department, safety representative and safety committee. Less than 25% of them did not have safety budget. In terms of planning and implementation, most of them were aware of the safety regulation and claimed to have insurance schemes for the workers depending on the clients' requirements. Most of them also claimed that they provided PPE to workers although some of the workers did not want to use the PPE because they felt uncomfortable. However, most of the companies did not have a formal safety plan. In terms of measuring and reviewing safety performance, many of the companies did not have proper records to give indication on the number of any kind of accidents occurring at their construction project sites. In addition, many did not employ safety audits.
Our study also concludes main reasons for why the application of safety management system was not adequate. The contractors perceive that the five top most reasons were (1) lack of safety training facilities, (2) lack of safety awareness and understanding of safety benefits, (3) lack of safety professionals, (4) lack of knowledge about safety management, and (5) lack of safety regulation enforcement. While the government officials perceived that financial constraint was one of the most important reasons instead of lack of safety professionals. The data showed that basically the contractors and government officials were not statistically different in their opinions.

This study was published in the “This Journal of Construction in Developing Countries, Vol. 11, No. 2, 2006” and full journal article is available upon request.

Abstract: The construction industry is considered as one of the most hazardous industrial sectors wherein the construction workers are more prone to accidents. In developed countries such as United Kingdom and United States of America, there is strict legal enforcement of safety in the construction industry and also in the implementation of safety management systems which are designed to minimize or eliminate accidents at work places. However, occupational safety in construction industry is very poor in developing countries such as Bhutan. This study investigates the prevalent safety management practices and perceptions in the construction industry in Bhutan. The study was conducted among 40 construction contractors and 14 government officials through method of questionnaire survey, interview and discussion. The results of the study revealed that there are many occupational safety problems in the construction industry in Bhutan, problems such as lack of safety regulations and standards, low priority of safety, lack of data on safety at construction sites, lack of competent manpower, lack of safety training, lack of safety promotion, and lack of documented and organized safety management systems. Furthermore, the study also proposes some recommendations for safe construction in Bhutan.

1Standards and Quality Control Authority, Ministry of Works and Human Settlement, ROYAL GOVERNMENT OF BHUTAN

2Construction Engineering and Insfrastructure Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathumthani, THAILAND. *Corresponding author: kusumo@ait.ac.th