Accidents at work occur extremely frequently on construction sites, making the construction industry one of the most dangerous in terms of health and safety. Conducting construction work of any kind involves a relatively high risk - every year up to several dozen people die on construction sites because they failed to comply with applicable safety regulations, or because the employer did not have adequate safeguards in place. Non-use or lack of personal protective equipment, lack of training or even ignoring clear OSH violations are problems that are not uncommon on construction sites. But who is responsible for them? On whom in the hierarchy on a construction site does the duty to see to the safety of workers fall?
Who's who on a construction site, or responsibility for health and safety in the company's hierarchy
Under current Labor Code regulations, it is the responsibility of every employer, including the person in charge of a construction site, to ensure adequate safe working conditions for employees. However, the construction industry itself imposes additional responsibilities on individuals in the hierarchy, listing construction participants in detail, defining their health and safety duties and their responsibility for the state of health and safety at the construction site. Thus, among the most important terms and positions that the construction law distinguishes appear investors, construction manager, among others - the traditional terms employer or person in charge of employees are absent in the construction law, although the terms used are partly the same with them.
The basic rights and obligations of the participants in the construction process, that is, the investor, the investor's supervisor, the designer and the construction manager, are clearly defined in Chapter 3 of the Construction Law (consolidated text: Journal of Laws 2010 No. 243, item 1623, as amended). The various articles of the above law define the duties of the subsequent participants in the construction process, also taking into account issues related to the ordering of health and safety on the construction site. Who is responsible for the safety of workers?
Duties of participants in the construction process in terms of health and safety.
The investor, i.e. the employer on the construction site
According to Article 18 of the Construction Law, it is the responsibility of the investor to organize the construction process, including health and safety rules. As part of taking care of the safety of workers on the construction site, the investor should appoint persons with the appropriate professional qualifications to develop the construction project, to take charge of the construction by the construction manager, to develop a safety and health plan, to execute and receive construction works, and, in cases justified by the high complexity of construction works or ground conditions, persons to supervise the execution of construction works. The investor is also entitled to appoint an investor supervision inspector at the construction site or to oblige the designer to perform author supervision. In practice, this means that the investor is the coordinator of all activities undertaken as part of the construction process, and has the status of an employer under the Labor Code, so he is obliged to carry out his duties in the context of health and safety in accordance with the Labor Code.
Construction manager and worker safety
The construction manager directly represents the investor and, in accordance with current regulations, this position can only be held by one person on a construction site. The basic tasks of the construction manager include, first of all:
- preparing or ensuring the preparation of a safety and health protection plan (BIOZ plan);
- taking over from the investor and adequate protection of the construction site with the construction objects and technical equipment located therein;
- ensuring geodetic delineation of the object and organizing the construction and managing the construction of the building object in a manner consistent with the project and the construction permit, regulations, including technical and construction regulations, and occupational safety and health regulations;
- Coordinating the implementation of tasks that eliminate safety and health hazards in the development of technical or organizational assumptions for the planned construction work or its individual stages, as well as in planning the time required to complete the construction work or its individual stages;
- Coordinating activities to ensure compliance with the principles of safety and health protection contained in the OSH regulations and the safety and health plan;
- taking measures to prevent unauthorized persons from entering the construction site;
- Suspending construction work if the possibility of danger is identified and immediately notifying the appropriate authority.
Thus, the construction manager, representing the investor, will play one of the most important roles in the context of ensuring the safety of workers and thus will be responsible for ensuring that all health and safety rules are properly observed on the construction site.
In the hierarchy of the construction site, under the construction manager will, of course, be the managers of the various stages of the work, the shift supervisors or, finally, the individual workers, who are obliged to strictly comply with the applicable general health and safety regulations and the rules of procedure of the construction site. Important from the point of view of occupational health and safety is the assumption introduced by the Regulation of the Minister of Infrastructure of February 6, 2003 on occupational health and safety during construction work, according to which the participants in the construction process are obliged to cooperate with each other in the field of occupational health and safety in the process of preparation and implementation of construction, and the use of the necessary personal protective equipment is obligatory for all persons on the construction site.
The safety of workers on the construction site is, of course, taken care of by their employers, namely the developer through the construction manager. Their duties, however, do not remove from the workers themselves the need to observe health and safety rules and use common sense. Often it is the ignored rules and negligence on the part of anyone at any level of the hierarchy on a construction site that causes the number of accidents on construction sites to increase, not decrease, year after year.
