Study finds safety poor on KSA sites

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Better training, more equipment and inspections are needed to boost site safety in KSA.

A new report has claimed a lack of safety standards in Saudi Arabia's construction industry.

Husain Al Omani, a project manager for Ali A Tamani Company, has released his study, ‘Improving Safety Performance at Construction Sites in Saudi Arabia'. Al Omani is a safety expert whose job is to visit construction sites to check that workers are being looked after on site.

During 2005 and 2006 he visited numerous sites across Saudi Arabia to conduct his survey.

Among his findings were that some 25% of contractors did not give new workers orientation; 25% did not provide personal protective equipment; 25% did not provide first aid kits on site; and 38% had no trained safety personnel. His survey also compared accident figures in the UK with those in Saudi Arabia.

In the UK in 2005, there were 3,760 injuries to workers and 28 deaths. In the same year in Saudi there were 102,259 injuries and 493 deaths.

Al Omani said there were laws in Saudi Arabia to protect workers but some contractors, mainly the smaller ones, were flouting them. He told Construction Week: "One of my tasks is to monitor safety performance during the life of the project and I also make many visits to the site to see the safety situation. I have found some workers working without safety shoes, I could not believe it.

I made my inspection and discussed with them, and actually I was fighting and shouting with the contractor. I told him: ‘If you treat staff in this way I will never accept you as a contractor because you will affect our reputation in the market.

Al Omani said many contractors needed to realise that safety standards on site would affect the profitability of the project.

He said: "The main reason is that safety education in small contractors does not really exist.

"There is very poor safety education about how it will affect the performance of the project or of the operations.

Al Omani said: "I know that the number of accidents in Saudi Arabia is a lot higher than other countries in the GCC, even though most of them are not perfect.

"The government employees should make surprise visits to the site to make sure that safety standards are met. There should be co-operation between the government and the private sector because you cannot consider them separately as many are semi-government companies.

He is also calling for better training for workers, mandatory supplies of safety equipment and improvements of safety on construction sites.

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READERS' COMMENTS

SAFTEY STANDARDS POOR???...YOUR TOO KIND!
Posted by Hussian Motabagani, Khobar, Saudi Arabia on Saturday 5 January 2008 at 10:13 UAE time

Seriously Mr.berger,
If you think Saftey standards are poor you were being generous. "Saftey standards in Saudi Arabia outside Sabic and Saudi Aramco are almost non-existent".
From what I've seen only 10% of contractors give any regard to safety issues "and safety as understood by the market is....wearing a helmet."

I can name a hundred of the biggest brand dealers who have their teams working with no safety equipment....

Currently working with 3 of the biggest contractors in KSA and only one of them is applying Aramco's safety procedures to the letter, the other two (who are even bigger than the first) don't even know what safety is.

I don't want to sound mean or be a stereo typical... but sadly most engineers and project managers come from nations that have no regard for human life - I mean Egypt in particular - and almost all those being killed are foreign labour from South Asia.

This is an issue I've had so much trouble with in the past, I too have yelled to work crews from companies like "Schindler elevators to get off site...no safety harnesses or helmets 13 stories up"

Mr.Omani did a great job, and i as a fellow Saudi Engineer have the highest regard for his efforts.
but in the end he is an individual handing in an "independent report"... and we now how much weight that carries in KSA....sadly almost none.

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