INGENIEUR
Occupational Safety and
Health in Construction
Industry Management
Guidelines (OSHCIM)
By
Ir. Dr Mohd Fairuz Ab Rahman
Mohd Fiqri Mohd Hanafi
Mohamad Syamir Senin
Department of Occupational Safety and Health
T
he success of a project 1 is often defined by
the certainty of project costs and duration.
Perhaps for clients 2 , they prefer to know
what the cost of a project will be and when the
structure 3 will be available for use, in ensuring
their business continuity. Safety and health may
not be the client’s or the designer’s top success
factor especially during the pre-construction
phase 4 . However, during the construction phase 5 ,
safety and health gradually becomes a critical
success factor for the contractor 6 .
Occasional clients who have no experience
in construction project procurement and little
awareness on construction safety and health,
are highly dependent on their professional
consultants. The consultants (engineers,
architects, surveyors and constructors) working
1
2
3
4
5
6
6
48
in a project team, must share among them,
creative thinking and well thought-out designs
and examples of successful design practices that
will ensure the project’s success. The opportunity
to add real value to the clients’ undertaking and
improve the wellbeing (safety and health) of all
must be grasped by individual professionals and
by the teams and organisations in which they
work.
Project success must also incorporate the
outcome of the project beyond its construction
period. Besides the buildability aspect during
planning and project management, success
should also be gauged from the perspective of
the project’s operability and the maintainability
aspects of the structure. The professionals in a
project team should always consider their designs
Project means a project which includes or is intended to include construction work and includes planning, design,
management or other work involved in the project until the end of the construction phase.
Client means any person for whom the project is carried out.
Structure means: (a) any building, timber, masonry, metal or reinforced concrete structure, railway line or siding, tramway
line, dock, harbour, inland navigation, tunnel, shaft, bridge, viaduct, waterworks, reservoir, pipe or pipeline, cable, aqueduct,
sewer, sewage works, gasholder, roads, airfield, sea defence works, river works, drainage works, earthworks, lagoon, dam,
wall, caisson, mast, tower, pylon, underground tank, earth retaining structure or structure designed to preserve or alter any
natural feature and fixed plant; or (b) any structure similar to anything specified in sub regulation (a); or (c) any formwork,
falsework, scaffold or other structure designed or used to provide support or means of access during construction work; and
any reference to a structure includes part of a structure.
Pre-construction phase means any period of time during which design or preparatory work is carried out for a project and
may continue during the construction phase.
Construction phase means the period of time beginning when the construction work in a project starts and ends when the
construction work in the project is completed.
Contractor means any person who, in the course or furtherance of a business, carries out, manages or controls construction
work.
VOL
VOL 79
55 JULY-SEPTEMBER
JUNE 2013 2019