The Civil Engineering Contractor March 2019 | Page 32
INSIGHT
Are we serious about
safety? I think not!
By Andre Coetzee,
managing director of
SHEQProf
The past few months
had me baffled and I feel
I need to share some
of my findings. I might
step on a few toes in
this article and may have
several people strongly
disagreeing with me,
but luckily, we all have
a right to our opinion
and this article is based
on my experience and
research.
C
oming from a corporate
environment and dealing with
companies and contractors,
I knew the mindset around safety
was sometimes challenging. Since
taking over SHEQProf, a SHEQ
consulting company, I have come to
the conclusion that we are in deeper
trouble with regard to the attitude
towards safety and safety compliance
than I initially could imagine.
It is amazing that in this day and
age, most companies I come in
contact with blatantly fail to comply
with safety legislation and have a
blasé attitude towards safety. Now
this might be contributed to several
factors, one of which could be the
lack of adequate enforcement by
30 | CEC March 2019
the relevant enforcement agencies.
However, as a company or a manager,
one has a moral obligation towards
one’s employees over and above one’s
legal obligation. This seems to be
irrelevant to some companies and
managers. How can this be and what
does this say about us as a society?
Poor understanding
To be fair, some of the companies
are blissfully unaware of their
responsibilities and duties. The
concerning part is that this is not
always due to the lack of commitment
… which brings me to another
concerning trend I’ve picked up.
Companies appoint safety officers or
consultants that fail to understand the
basics of safety or legal compliance,
but fulfil an advisory role within that
organisation. How do you advise if
you yourself have limited knowledge
and experience? I might be stepping
on some toes now but if the shoe
fits … We are dealing with people’s
lives here. As a safety officer or
consultant, if that responsibility is
less important than the pay cheque,
then you are in the wrong profession.
Not only do you give the profession
a bad name, but you are complicit in
any injuries. Sadly, these companies
are unaware of the risk exposure to
them and their employees when not
using skilled and experienced safety
professionals.
Some individuals have a major
problem with SACPCMP and
the registration process. I admit
SACPCMP has not covered itself
with glory in the handling of the
registration process. This may be
contributed to several internal and
external factors, which I will not
go into now. What I do want to
highlight is the necessity of having
competent safety professionals and
that a registration process to assist
with this is critical in all industries
and not just the construction
industry.
Starting off as a new broom,
I tried over several months to
establish a mentoring programme
which would have improved
the level of safety officers and
managers. Not only would this
have improved skills, but it would
have, in a small way, created jobs.
SACPCMP was quite happy to be
involved as well as some prominent
construction companies. However,
after numerous unsuccessful
attempts to meet with the entities
(including SETA) to obtain funding,
we decided to park this initiative
until further notice. It seemed
safety training initiatives are not
high on the agenda since they would
not even answer direct emails.
As part of my postgraduate
studies, I researched some statistics
with regard to incidents within
the construction industry in South
Africa. The reason I only used FEMA
(Federated Employers’ Mutual
Assurance Company) statistics was
that they were the easiest to obtain.
By no means do I want to focus on
the construction industry alone.
While analysing the information, I
found that on average over the past
16 years, the industry has killed
73 people a year. This is almost
the same as the mining industry.
www.civilsonline.co.za