Whos Responsibility
Hello I am fairly new to the industry and working on a construction site as a safety coordinator. I am consistently finding hazards and asking the superintendent to correct them. The hazards are not addressed or take a very long time to get addressed. I am wondering if notifying the superintendent and documenting the notification takes the responsibility out of my hands, and in turn becomes his responsibility to fix? or is this still my responsibility? Thanks in advance!
Comments (7)
Welcome to construction. You have to find out what the home office's organizations attitude toward safety is. Where do your reports go and who sees them? Are you working for a Prime contractor that has direct labor? Do you work for a GC and are you looking at hazards and sins of the subs? Do the subs even know that they are in violation of safety protocols. Superintendents are often a major roadblock to safety as they often see safety as an increase to the budget and slowing down the project. Determine quickly if you are there to actually improve safety or if you are being paraded around strictly for show. Sounds harsh but safety professionals in construction are often at the bottom of the food chain.
I've been in your shoes before, here's my best advice. As a new safety professional it's your job to identify hazards and report them to management. In a perfect world the superintendent or foreman will drop everything they're doing and fix it immediately. However safety in the field is different from safety in books. These foreman and superintendents have been around and have become conditioned to accept certain risk. The site I worked on the GC would notify the other contractors of safety issues and expect them to fix them. I'd try to develop a good working relationship with you super and foreman, I wouldn't not go over their heads unless it's absolutely necessary. Remember it's not your job to take risk on behalf of the company, it's your job to identify those risk, rate them and report to management.
I would work with the supervisor to assign action items and make sure they get documented. Action items will be assigned to specific people. It’s a good way to hold people accountable
If there is a potential for there to be an actual incident/injury then it is everyone's responsibility. Always correct IDLH conditions as soon as humanly possible. When someone gets injured, it doesn't matter whose responsibility it is, the worst case scenario has already happened. Superintendents should understand this as well. They, as the controlling contractor, have the responsibility to fix those issues on the spot as much as you do. If it is a compliance issue, and poses no threat to the safety of the worksite, it is still your responsibility to follow through with it as much as you can. This may mean holding the superintendent accountable for the conditions of the site. Documenting the emails, number to phone calls to the superintendents, etc. will prove to your superiors that you are doing your job to the best of your ability.
Do you have a safety director? Sometimes its necessary to get the director involved if there are repeated issues onsite that aren't getting resolved.