Geminiani, F L; Smallwood, J J and van Wyk, J J (2008) The effectiveness of the occupational health and safety (OH&S) inspectorate in South African construction. In: Dainty, A (ed.) Proceedings of 24th Annual ARCOM Conference, 1-3 September 2008, Cardiff, UK.
Abstract
Irrespective of all the efforts made by the Department of Labour (DoL) and other relevant stakeholders to improve construction occupational health and safety (OH&S) performance, there is still a very high level of accidents and fatalities in South Africa. Injuries and accidents to workers help no community in any nation. A doctoral study was recently conducted with the aim of investigating the effectiveness and performance of the DoL OH&S Inspectorate in the Republic of South Africa. Information was sought and obtained from various respondents including civil and building contractors, OH&S consultants, project managers, DoL inspectors, and designers by means of questionnaires. The research significantly identifies interventions which contribute to a reduction in the number of accidents, which in turn is likely to result in: a reduction in the cost of accidents (CoA); a reduction in the cost of workers' compensation insurance; alleviation of fatalities, injuries, pain and suffering, and a reduction in the indirect CoA to society and the national health care system. The salient findings of the study are presented and elucidate that the DoL OH&S Inspectorate is not effective in terms of OH&S relative to the construction industry in South Africa. Conclusions and recommendations included reinforce the need for a reviewed OH&S Inspectorate model framework. The findings of the study with recommendations are included.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction; health and safety; inspectorate |
| Index terms: | South Africa, fatalities, compensation, construction industry, insurance, questionnaire, health care, effectiveness, occupational health and safety, designer, pain, building contractor, injury, project manager, society, health and safety |
| Subjects: | profession, data collection methods, practitioner, dispute resolution, economic analysis, health risk and incident analysis, performance management, public and environmental health, health safety and environment, Geography, occupational health and safety management, health conditions and diseases, industry analysis, communities and social development |
| Topics: | Quality Management, Legal Issues, Roles and Professions, Stakeholder Management, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Health and Safety, Business Strategy |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here