BENCHMARKING THE CURRENT STATE OF CONSTRUCTION SAFETY PRACTICES IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

Construction industry (CI) is one of the most hazardous industries where workers are more prone to accidents. These accidents can be reduced by improving the safety performance of CI through a benchmarking approach. This approach helps the construction companies to compare their safety performance with the industry best practices. It ultimately leads the companies to superior safety performance by evaluating their weaknesses and incorporating the best safety practices. This study presents the mechanism to identify the weaknesses in current safety practices of CI of Pakistan through benchmarking and suggests measures to improve it. The study is undertaken via a questionnaire based survey comprising of 60 safety practices. Data collected from 54 construction projects located in 16 different cities of Pakistan, is analyzed using SPSS. Results demonstrate that the safety performance of Pakistani CI is not satisfactory. Major findings of this study include; non-existence of a regulatory authority to implement safety, more emphasis on productivity by all stakeholders, clients aversion to provide any budget for safety, contractors reluctance to invest more on safety, and workers unawareness towards their rights. The most neglected safety practices requiring special emphasis are; (a) safety training for the workers of subcontractors, (b) refresher safety training sessions, (c) workers education for not taking unnecessary risks, (d) participation of subcontractors in safety meetings, and (e) providing job specific safety training. Benchmarking of eight mega projects against their safety performance indicates that the factor of ‘safety training’ has the lowest safety performance level, followed by ‘safety in the contract documents’, ‘safety meetings’ and ‘worker’s involvement’. The study recommends establishing an administrative body for occupational safety and health under the ministry of ‘Professional and Technical Training’ which may work in collaboration with Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) to provide safety training and evaluate the safety performance of all registered construction companies periodically. Safety credit points may be incorporated in the process of contractors registration, enlistment and renewal, and a record of occupational injuries and fatalities may be maintained and published annually so as to benchmark the safety performance of all registered construction companies.