Architecture & Design

30 | Architecture & Design Project Supervisor Services Parnis & Associates provides supervision services in H&S matters at design and construction / execution stage as per LN88/2018 – Work Place (Minimum Health & Safety Requirements for Work at Construction Sites) Regulations. At design stage, P&A will develop a Project Health & Safety Plan addressing the project safety requirements, risk assessments and control measures to be enforced throughout the whole project. Throughout the construction phase, P&A will monitor Health & Safety Practices on site by regular visits. Any hazards noted will be communicated directly with management and/or contractors and corrective measures will be tackled and enforced. The client will be notified of each visit with a Site Inspection Report. HSEQutive (Saas Cloud Base Solution) One of the reasons why Parnis & Associates has developed this innovative solution is to offer a cloud-based Health & Safety, Environment and Quality Management Systems Platform providing HSEQ professionals with online tools they require to implement best HSEQ Management practices in their day-to-day operations (www.hsequtive. com) CAN YOU TELL US IN MORE DETAIL ABOUT THE ROLE OF A SAFETY OFFICER? The role of the safety officer is to ensure the implementation of Health & Safety Practices in the Workplace. This is done with some preparatory work in advance when establishing the Top Level Health & Safety Plan defining and laying out the Health & Safety policies and procedures at the workplace. The HS Plan shall be communicated to the operatives in the form of training sessions or toolbox talks on site, and provided to all subcontractors working on the project. Apart from the Health & Safety Plan, the Safety Officer is involved in the development and review of Risk Assessments. The Safety Officer will ensure that the necessary resources and control measures listed in the H&S Plan and Risk Assessments are effectively implemented at the workplace. H&S Officers shall review method statements and operating instructions to familiarise themselves better with the work plans. The safety officer is also responsible for observing ongoing works to ensure operations are carried out safely and in a planned and coordinated manner. Emergency Response Planning is also part of the Health & Safety Officer Responsibilities. The risk assessment exercise shall identify the major hazards and risks and relevant control measures hence assist in defining emergency response requirements. In general, every workplace shall be equipped with a basic First Aid Box as minimum and adequate Fire Protection Systems. The safety officer shall ensure that an emergency response plan layout is developed, communicated to all employees and posted in common areas for all workers to see. The layout shall provide safe route directions leading workers towards the nearest assembly point, and marking the locations of fire extinguishing equipment, first aid box and emergency equipment, and spill kit location. The Safety Officer will also lead the Emergency Response Team who will be acting specific tasks and duties in case of an emergency situation. Emergency Response Plans and Teams are to be regularly tested by means of an emergency drill where a simulation of emergency situations will be carried out to familiarise employees with emergency protocols and identify any failures/malfunctions and other emergency response improvements. The safety officer is also responsible for investigating and reporting of incidents at the workplace. The safety officer will carry out investigations at the site of incident, interview injured persons and other witnesses. He/she will also look into machinery maintenance records, operator training records and other process related documentation. Based on his/her investigation, the safety officer will identify the root cause of incident and recommend the necessary corrective and preventive measures to eliminate recurrence of similar incident. WHAT ARE THE MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT HEALTH AND SAFETY IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY? The first common misconception is that people think that the OHSA in Malta is inexistent and not effective enough in its regulatory and enforcement obligations. Let me assure you that with its very limited resources OHSA is giving its best possible attention to the construction industry. They have a shortage of personnel and I strongly believe that this is where much technology is needed for OHSA to be able to cover 2000+ construction sites yearly. The second misconception is that ALL developers are greedy and do not care for the health & safety of their workers. Reality shows that there is a greater amount of unsafe contractors than those who consider Health & Safety seriously and provides the necessary resources to comply to requirements. I believe this misconception of 'ALL Developers are greedy' is a very unfair statement on those contractors who are truly diligent and complaint. Industry Contractor HS Audits and Contractor Safety Performance Classification Systems can be the way forward to evaluate the level of Safety of Contractors. WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES YOU FACE IN YOUR ROLE? We face various safety challenges in the construction industry. The latest and most worrying issue is that of 'communication' and 'introduction of new unsafe practices' at construction sites. We have seen a drastic influx of foreign workers in the construction industry bringing in a lot of challenges for the locals and foreigners alike especially in communication. This for me is very concerning especially if one needs to communicate any special safety measures for the task at hand. Another related challenge we are also facing is the fact that foreigners are bringing in their own method of working, which may not always be considered as safe at this side of the world. We witness a great amount of imaginative makeshift platforms and stages that are unsafe. We also see people working without giving any protection or respect to the public. These are all attributed to the lack of control of professionals in the Construction Industry. BICC's Skill Card can play a great role in the regularization of Contractors, Self Employed and Professionals, however same with OHSA department, the resources are limited to control the overwhelming growth of the construction industry. I trust that the new Building and Construction Agency – BCA will eventually deploy the desperately needed contractor regularization in the Construction Industry. WHERE DO YOU THINK MOST CONTRACTORS FALL SHORT IN TERMS OF HEALTH AND SAFETY? I believe that some contractors lack health & safety practices due to some old attitudes stating that safety is only creating additional costs and hindering work progress. These are very limited in number but somehow considered as a high risk. Contractors must take Safety into account at quotation and budgeting phase. Missing this consideration out from project budget will only give way to some 'surprise' costs. Sensible contractors always budget for safety and ensure safety costs are effectively in use on site. I also believe that there is a lack of general construction safety training programmes, which contractors can provide to their workforce. This lack of general training is attributed to the mentality of loss of production and an additional cost. We are also still facing the old village mason working on alterations and additions who still works in old traditional unsafe ways. These people are now being phased out however they must realise that safety must be adhered to at all times whether you are working at a construction site or carrying out a small job at home. I believe that businesses fall short of health and safety because they are solely focusing on their core business activity – producing and selling their product – forgetting the safety aspect of their operations.

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