Build Safe UAE (BSU) yesterday said it would like regulators and developers to comment on its paper "Managing Health and Safety on Mega Construction Projects in the Middle East".

The paper outlines a practical methodology to achieve good health and safety standards on large construction projects (work valued in excess of $20 billion or Dh73.4bn) in the UAE.

This comprises maybe 60 large contracting organisations and 30-40 consulting companies and the workforce of 45,000 personnel delivering more than 10 million man hours per month at peak periods.

"We want every developer and regulator to take action and support our initiative and we hope that industry responds to the work being done.

"We want to know if they agree that this paper is the most feasible way forward and how we work for the best interests together in a collaborative way," said Elias McGrath, Group administrator BSU and Assistant Project Manager at Bovis Lend Lease International.

Alan Bennett, who started work on the paper two months ago, has been a member of the BSU for a year. He said: "BSU's work is far greater than anything that I have seen in my career," said Bennett.

"I presented this paper as a goal to aim for by developers, consultants and the construction industry in the UAE," he said.

BSU is a not-for-profit organisation aimed at improving the health, safety and welfare conditions of all industry stakeholders through free exchange and sharing of information.

BSU is now 88 members strong from its initial six in 2008 and the original Build Safe Dubai platform.

"In most cases, Middle East clients [developers] may not always have previous experience of large scale construction projects and a significant percentage of the work force has never even worked on a construction site before.

"The general low level of understanding of health and safety of the workforce presents enormous challenges to all directors, managers and supervisors of the organisations involved in the process," said the report.

Enforcement of health and safety standards in Dubai is significantly stronger than in Abu Dhabi, albeit, the latter IS moving towards establishing an enforcing authority, added the report.

The construction industry in Abu Dhabi is currently self-regulating, although there is a code of practice for construction sites issued by the municipalities in Abu Dhabi. This is equivalent to an approved code of practice in the United Kingdom.

Health and safety culture really does "start at the top", added the report.

Without the commitment of senior management, it is very difficult to cascade health and safety ethos from the client's organisation down to the project. It is probably fair to say that in the Middle East health and safety is sometimes seen as a burden, it added.

There are several reasons for this, including a lack of understanding of the costs of poor health and safety and a lack of awareness and training at many levels.

Another significant factor may be the cultural, with workforces and supervisors less sensitive to injury and loss of life due to their background and experience.

However, more mature and experienced organisations recognise that a positive health and safety regime can considerably cut costs and raise standing among suppliers and partners.

"We have a range of statistics contributed by 31 contractors within BSU and the purpose is to identify lost time injury (LTI) in the UAE and fatalities," McGrath told Emirates Busines.

"We also identify the trends that occur and to find solutions. In 2008, we had 18 main contractors sending statistics. We saw 690 LTIs that required three days off work and 20 fatalities.

"Falls from heights topped the trends in incidents on construction sites followed by falling object materials and fractures. Eight out of 20 fatalities were from falls from heights, which we actioned as a focus group.

"In 2009, we have 31 contractors contributing data. This year we have come across 309 LTIs until July and four fatalities.

"However, in 2009, slips and trips on sites have been the most significant trend. We have significantly lowered the numbers of falls from heights incidents."

Valuable experience could be gained by the client's personnel undertaking site visits to view activities and be talked through typical health and safety issues and scenarios, said Bennett.

This would provide them with first hand experience of the challenges involved in achieving adequate health and safety standards in construction activities.

It must be noted that, in the Middle East, "blood money" is a factor, which has to be taken into consideration. When an employee is injured on site the employer is legally bound to pay money to his family, dependent upon the degree of injury, he said.

Incentive schemes are a vehicle that can provide encouragement to staff in co-operating and looking after their health and safety.

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