Building safeguards
Measures are already underway to bring about a strong culture of safety that will minimise accidents in the construction industry.
ONE evening in March 2013, A. Vijayasingam and Arifpuddin Mansoruddin were trying to negotiate their vehicles through the heavily congested Jalan Lapangan Terbang Subang.
Their cars could hardly move while stuck in the Friday traffic under the now completed Glenmarie LRT station, when nearly 10 tonnes of construction equipment fell on their cars.
The cause was due to a lifting operation at the LRT construction site that went awry, killing Vijaysingam, 34, and badly injuring Arifpuddin, 42.
This incident is just one example of how construction work can endanger the public if workers are not properly trained to perform hazardous operations.
The above is just an example that underscores Malaysia’s poor record in construction safety, with the authorities admitting that there have been far higher fatality rates in this sector compared to other industries.
In 2015, 140 people perished while working in the sector, a 57% increase compared to 2014. This translates to 21% of overall work-related fatalities or 10.94 per 100,000 workers.
With such disturbing figures arising from accidents in the construction industry, the focus has been on increasing efforts to improve safety measures for all in the sector, said the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB).
However, the board’s chief executive officer Datuk Ahmad Asri Abdul Hamid said that most fatalities, if not all, could have been avoided.
“In a lot of cases, we failed to follow the guidelines, procedures and the safety system,” he said during a media workshop last month.
“Because of that, we see a negative perception from the public with regard to the construction industry.”
A public perception on construction industry survey was commissioned in 2014 by the board, which comes under the Works Ministry. It surveyed participants across several dimensions including safety, quality, environmental friendliness and adoption of technology.
“The survey found that the industry achieved an overall perception index of 65. Furthermore, only two out of three members of the public have a positive perception of the industry,” said the board as it unveiled Construction Industry Transformation Programme 20162020 last September.
This poor perception affects the ability of the industry to attract the right talents, or sufficient talents in the first place.
“More than 40% of youths (below 24 years old) have a lower perception of taking up a career in construction, citing safety issues as a deterrent for them to enter the industry,” the board added.
The final nail in the coffin is the low level of public awareness of government-led initiatives that benefit industry stakeholders, with 60% of respondents declaring they were not aware of such initiatives.
Intervention needed
A programme under the 11th Malaysia Plan, the Construction Industry Transformation Programme (CITP) aims for quality, safety and professionalism to be ingrained in the culture of the industry, with the aspiration to halve worksite fatalities and injuries by 2020.
Naturally, arresting the number of deaths and accidents is one of the key thrusts of CITP. Some of the causes for the poor safety record of the industry are easy to identify.
CIDB pointed out the industry is characterised by the limited numbers of certified safety individuals such as Safety and Health Officers, Site Safety Supervisors, and Occupational Safety and Health inspectors, which then limit the level of enforcement of safety related matters.
In its Master Plan for Occupational Safety and Health in Construction Industry 2005-2010, a joint effort by CIDB and the Occupational Safety and Health Department (DOSH), some underlying causes for the high number of incidents include the “lack of occupational safety and health (OSH) information, training materials, courses and programmes for workers and supervisors; lack of standard guidelines on construction industry requirements for the development of OSH solutions; lack of communication between those in charge of construction processes and the workers executing them; and the misconception that OSH protection is an unnecessary expenditure”.
The document also noted that