D31RQ Safety Performance And Economic Aspects Of Occupational Safety And Health For Building

Project In Singapore
D31RQ SAFETY PERFORMANCE AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH FOR BUILDING PROJECT
IN SINGAPORE

Arul Sujin Chellathurai

Reg. No. H00184404

Abstract: The construction industry is increasingly reliant on the voluntary effort to reduce accidents on
construction sites. As investments in construction safety cannot be limitless, there is a need for a scientific way
to support the decision making about the amount to be invested for construction safety. The aim of this study is
to investigate the financially optimum level of investments in workplace safety for building construction projects
in Singapore.

Keywords: Safety performance, Safety cost, Accident cost, Investment on Safety, Building Projects, Singapore.

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Background

For the few decades Singapore government and industries put their efforts to address the
safety issues in construction industry. Construction industry is the most dangerous industry is
Singapore. According to WSHs SHINE newsletter published on July 2015, construction
industries accounted about 45% of all fatal injuries in Singapore. Although there is some
improvement in fatal injury rate in 2014 (27 number of workplace fatal injuries) compare to
2013 (34 number of workplace fatal injuries). But the workplace major injuries are increased
by 5% from 640 in 2013 to 672 in 2014. The minor injuries increased by 10% from 11740 in
2013 to 12863 cases in 2014. Almost third of the major injuries contributed at construction
sector from 2011 to 2014 as 24% to 30% and the major injuries rates increase from 2011 to
2014 as 33.3 to 41.2 according to 2015 WSH statistics. The occupational diseases are
increased by 12% from 887 cases in 2013 to 992 cases in 2014. Singapore Workplace Safety
and Health council and Ministry of Manpower co-drafted the WSH 2018 to achieve
continuous improvement and consistent in WSH standards. The aim of the WSH 2018 are
make safer and healthy workplace, decrease the national fatality rate to less than 1.8 per
100,000 manpower and get one of the best safety records in the world.

1.2 Aim and Objective

1) To examine the effects of safety investments on safety performance of building

projects in Singapore.
2) To determine the factor that affecting safety performance of building projects and their
interrelationships.
3) To investigate the costs of accidents to building contractors in Singapore.
D31RQ Safety Performance And Economic Aspects Of Occupational Safety And Health For Building
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1.3 analysis and scope of research

In the context of building construction in Singapore the safety cost vary with industries
regions and level of organisations at the project level. This is because: 1) as the demand for
building is around 70% of the total demand for construction, the construction of building is
the most important part in the demand for the construction (BCA, 2006).; 2) The aim of this
study is to suggest analysis for project level, to impede the development of a universe model
using time and resource constrains. The contractors study is the unit of analysis. From the
contractors perspective accident costs and the safety investments are subsided to those
incurred by the project. Client project organisations and consultant are not targeted within the
design of the research. The investment and cost incurred by the other parties of the project
building are not defined in the study. The typical members included in the contractors project
are site engineer, site manager, planning engineer, safety manager, safety officer, site quality
surveyor, fireman, safety supervisor, etc. Financial losses of contractor are confined with the
costs of workplace accident. The cost incurred by the society because of construction accident
and if additional resources are needed then it is called social cost. To save the societys
resources, the accidents should not be happened (Saram and Tang, 2004, p. 645-646; Tang et
al., 2004;). As the non-material looses due to suffering pain and social cost does not define
the loose by the contractor they are not included in the research. This study is concentrated
only on the financial aspects of the accidents if the accidents are intangible and they are
avoided. The root causes of accidents are as follows: unsafe working condition, failure of
management, unsafe act of workers, non human related events. The non human related factors
like natural disasters, weather inclement, unexpected ground conditions are also not included
in the scope of this research.

Chapter 2 - Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

This chapter will review the government publication, journals and literature from books
related to the safety performance and occupational safety and health investment for the
building projects.

2.2 Definition of Accident / Causes of Accidents

Accidents are unexpected incidents happened without intention of human which leads to
death, injury, unwanted results or other effects (Hollnagel, 2014). Besides, accidents not only
make miseries to affected person and their friends, families. It also brings down unpleasant
losses from stop work order, medical expenses and insurance claims as well (Occupational
Safety and Health Branch, 2011). Anyway, accidents can be controlled by avoiding hazardous
situations or by implementation of risk assessment to reduce those dangerous (Lind, Nenonen
and Kivisto-Rahnasto, 2008).

Introducing accident causation models are tried to understand by many researchers. The
accident causation theory research was pioneered by Heinrich (1931), who developed the
D31RQ Safety Performance And Economic Aspects Of Occupational Safety And Health For Building
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domino theory of accident causation. Heinrich's Domino Theory stresses that a chain of serial
event results are accidents, its like a dominoes falling over one another. Dominoes trigger the
next dominoes, and the next... When one of the dominoes falls, - but removing that particular
main factor (like an unsafe act or an unsafe condition) stops the origin of the chain reaction. 2

2.2.1 Unsafe acts and conditions

Heinrich (1931) concluded that only 10 per cent were caused by unsafe conditions and 88 per
cent of accidents are due to unsafe acts. Heinrich explains accidents causation in terms of five
factors which are of a fixed logical order. The five factors are: unsafe act, social environment,
persons fault, accidents, and injury.

Heinrichs (1931) theory was criticized as he not focused on the root causes of accident but
only focused more on the immediate reasons of accident. Heinrichs model was further
updated by many researchers as a stresses on management is a first reason for accident. This
updated model describes that failure of management is the primary cause for accidents and
that the solution for long-term issues focuses on the sequence of first domino.

2.3 Safety Performance

The root cause of accidents is the lack of management control as per accident causation
theories and the accidents can be control through management efforts.

2.3.1 Safety Management Activities:

Fang (2004) proposed five essential features of safety management events, such as safety
meeting, safety inspection, safety rule enforcement, safety communication and safety
education. Workplace safety could be developed forcefully by periodic safety inspection and
that function as a subsequent development tool to benchmark safety on site (Ng et al., 2005).
Safety issues can be properly settled by regular safety meeting at workplace, (Ng et al., 2005).
Anyway, effective authority and control of safety on sites fully recommends strict rule
enforcement. On site, workers will completely obey safety rules if the top management issue
warnings and fine system for non compliance on safety. Failure of issue warning and fine
system will result in increase accident ranges as a outcome of non compliance of safety rules
on workplace (Probst and Estrada, 2010). The management must draw an attention on giving
enough training and education to workers to make sure all workers have knowledge of safety
matters on site, it will help reduce future accidents in construction industry (Chan et al., 2010;
Tam et al., 2004). Spreading safety message require top management commitment to facilitate
a strong and healthy route of communication in between workers to contribute in joint
resolution processes of problem that will boost safety performance at workplace (Kines et al.,
2010).

2.3.2 Safety Performance through Motivations:

Motivation factors are pulling the workers to behave in a desired technique to safety
regulation at workplace. It can be achieved by an emotional approach that prizes workers for
their good safety practice at workplace (Haines III et al., 2001). Teo et al (2005) advised that
D31RQ Safety Performance And Economic Aspects Of Occupational Safety And Health For Building
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motivation program comprises of three main parts such as disciplinary action, monetary, and
non monetary. Safety behavior is improved by a reward system that utilizes money,
recognitions, and promotions. Workers on site likely to set up their behaviors agree with the
company objective, choosing both forms of rewards at the end of the stated agreement of
protocols. The other hand of disciplinary action is a way of punishment to the workers who is
violating safety rules and regulations at workplace. Mix reward and punishment can be
thought of as a success plan that develops safe behaviors among workers at workplace.

2.3.3 Safety Performance through Policies:

Safety policy is indicating expression of the organization in prioritizing safety in workplace

(Torner and Pousette, 2009). Depicted in Malaysia OSHA (1994) act, employers duty is to
formulate safety policies in the workplace to his employers. To provide better performance
good quality standard rules will make positive management attitudes, collective values,
personal attitudes and formal conditions (Torner and Pousette, 2009). However, every
comprehensive policy on site should be well known by every personnel on sites (Teo and
Ling, 2006). To control risk related to occupational health and safety event OHSAS 18001
certification standards are followed. Companies that follow OHSAS 18001 certification
provides better safety than the others (Vinodkumar and Bhasi, 2011).

2.3.4 Safety Performance through Personnel:

Teo et al (2005) suggested that to shape the organization on site both the management attitude
on safety and supervisors and also workers attitude on safety are considered in personnel
factors. Involvement and direct support from top management in safety is a sign of shows
interest on safety (Ng et al., 2005). Likewise, supervisors great safety attitude will develop
positive safety culture on workplace. Anyway, through the continuous safety competence
training and seminars only this can be done (Tam et al., 2004). Nevertheless, the proactive
way in improving personnel safety performance is constant monitoring of human errors on
site. Failure to follow safety rules and regulations and faulty judgment are common results by
human errors (Hetherington et al., 2006). WSH Singapore guidelines suggested that safety
performance can be improved by performance monitoring and this performance monitoring
indicator can give assurance that safety risks are adequately controlled.

2.3.5 Safety Performance through Technical:

Technical aspects comprises plan of work, machinery and equipment, automation level, work
environment design, maintenance and also safety related systems like personal protective
equipment, emergency control system and risk control systems (Sgourou et al., 2010). To
prevent any unsafe condition and unsafe behavior on site due to complexity of construction
works the organized technicalities to be employed that will make easy. The priorities should
be given on the effort of motivating hazards awareness and technical proficiency through
suitable elimination methods like the use of PPE on site always (Olson et al., 2009). The
safety performance on workplace will gradually improve in adequately.
D31RQ Safety Performance And Economic Aspects Of Occupational Safety And Health For Building
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2.3.5 Safety Performance through the Process of Work:

Process means the method to be used to achieve objective and producing final product.
WSHC Singapore has published the safety circular on safe work procedure. As per this
publication legal obligation under section 47A of the factory act the safe work procedure to be
implemented for some particular type of work carried out in factories. The scope of safe work
procedure should be contained the provision of proper PPE to all workers, during the
emergency the safety precaution to be taken, and all implemented safe work procedure must
be documented to show to the auditor.

2.4 Direct and Indirect Cost of Accidents:

Heinrich (1959) who was pioneered in cost on accident research, he was the first measure
work accident costs in his studies during the 1920s. Heinrich argue that almost all work
accident costs are hidden, for employers its very difficult to identify and quantify the hidden
cost of accident. Visible costs are called direct costs which included medical leave wages,
lump sum compensation and expenses in medical. Hidden costs are called indirect costs
which included site investigation of the accident, waiting time of equipment if repairs, costs
of injured worker replacement, delays in manufacturing and delivery of product, strained
relationships with clientele, insurance premiums increasing. Heinrich also said that direct and
indirect costs are interred related, and that indirect costs are usually four times higher than
direct costs (1959: 50). The direct accident costs could be directly related with injuries and
mortality (Everett and Frank Jr. 1996; Hinze 1997). The direct costs of accident injuries are
associated with the hospitalization and any unique coverage offered to workers as a effect of
being injured (Hinze, 1997). Work injury compensation insurance policies are covered as
above. In Singapore as per(MOM, 2008b) regulation employees are eligible to take sick leave
if they are entitled to both hospitalization and paid outpatient if they have worked for at least
three months in their company. To improve performance of projects in cost minimizing firms
the identification of indirect cost is motivated as suggested by Brody et al. (1990). The
amount of hidden costs can be much higher than the directly related costs to the accident
proposed by Bird (1974). Many factors are identified to have an impact on the ratio that is
related to the characteristics of an individual project or a contractor.

2.4.1 Size of Company

Total safety cost that impact on the size of company which is demonstrated by Rinefort
(1976), he has examined large size, small size and medium size companies on significant
effects of safety control activities on work injury. As per Rikhardsson and Impgaard (2004)
statement In larger companies the OHS department has number of specialists with staff
function manned and it operates under numerous policies, rules and regulations. Thus, while
an accident happened there are more formal activities initiated in large companies than
smaller companies. In large companies there are many people involved, and more internal
administrative processes that need to compile. (p. 179)
D31RQ Safety Performance And Economic Aspects Of Occupational Safety And Health For Building
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2.4.2 Size of Project

The cost ratios in between indirect and direct costs contribute to increase with the size of the
project Hinze (1991). When work is being performed in crowded conditions, larger projects
generally employ greater number of workers. In bigger projects injury will naturally being
expected to have broader hidden cost. Usually bigger project has deeper hierarchy structure in
which many numbers of personnel involved with accident investigation reports. When
considering the cost ratios of injuries the project size has a significant role (Hinze, 1991: p. 9-
10) Rikhardsson and Impgaard (2004) argued that when the employee has key responsibility
or key function in the production process the accident cost are higher because there is no
immediate replacement available. Thus, it seems in smaller projects the production process
tends to be more vulnerable than in large firms.

2.4.3 Type of contract

On medical case injuries the cost on reimbursable contracts is higher than different contract
type such as lump sum contracts, Hinze (1991). In lump sum contract projects injuries do not
receive enough attention, but in poorly managed cost reimbursable contract to increase cost
inherent incentive provided.

2.5 Economic Aspect of Safety Management

2.5.1 Loss control theory

The important function of business management is considered as the control of losses due to
the defects of safety management (Miller and Cox, 1997; Lingard and Rowlinson, 2005). Loss
control means design a management system to eliminate or reduce all features of accidental
loss which may tends to wastage of the firms resources including materials, manpower,
machinery, money and manufactured goods (Ridley and Channing, 1999, p. 9).
Organizations risk and economic control are identified by sound management techniques
(Bird and Loftus, 1976; Ridley and Channing, 1999). Loss control is basically an economic
approach to risk management (Rowlinson, 2005). Loss control activities closely associated to
economic matters which increases the emphasis on the economic argument,( Ridley and
Channing , 1999).It stresses that the selection of relevant loss control activities depends on the
application of the loss control program within economic constraints (Bird and Loftus, 1976).

2.5.2 Economic evaluation of safety investments

In allocation of resources as well as accident prevention activities within specified budget

various techniques were developed. The four categories of safety related expenses by
Andreoni (1986) are expenses related to safety including the daily expenses denoted before
work area injuries happen, the expenses following every workplace injury, the expenses
associated with manage in the financial importance of an workplace injury to every insurer
and the other expenses that are exceptional during prevention. He also added that based on an
organizations sum of all these costs total safety expenditure is measured which is an
D31RQ Safety Performance And Economic Aspects Of Occupational Safety And Health For Building
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important part of organizational costs. To check whether the expenses during the prevention
of injury is proportionate with the expenses increasing from the workplace injuries
meaningful cost benefit analysis can be undertaken. These research were determined on
profitability of investments in accident prevention activities and resources allocated within
fixed budget of safety activities. The methods focused on this research are aimed at first
concern on the investments of safety arbitration included cost-benefit analysis (Jervis and
Collins, 2001).The technique to followed is cost-benefit analysis. (Harms-Ringdahl, 1990;
Lanoie and Tavenas, 1996, 1998) to be concerned. A Tool Kit for self-assessment (Amador-
Rodezno, 2005) and an accounting framework (Riel and Imbeau, 1996) were proposed to
facilitate the cost-benefit analysis of safety investments. Even though cost-benefit analysis
was considered as an important way to measure the investments in workplace safety there
were many limitations. One of the most important difficulty is the estimation of benefits of
investments in safety (Rickardson and Impgaard, 2004).The positive results of investments in
certain safety interventions are researched for the importance of safety performance.

2.5.3 Safety costs optimization

To reduce the risks in high injury cost the capability of safety investments should be identify.
This is called as the safety cost optimization (Hinze, 2000; HSE, 1993b). It also states that the
company will invest only a small amount for total safety costs (Diehl and Ayoub, 1980).
Certain theoretical and empirical investigations are conducted to copy the theory of safety
coat optimization.

2.6 Summary

The accident can be prevented by management efforts as per the review of the accident
causation theories. The level of non-human related events, management efforts in accidents
prevention, inherent project hazards is associated with the safety implementation in building
projects. Management provides some physical input such as safety personal and training for
the cultivation of safety culture at workplace. The rules related to the location and the aim of
the construction site is the simple part of the inherent project hazard. Natural disasters are
non-human related events and that are out of prediction and control. Higher level of safety
investments is associated with better performance in safety when the review is carried out
between the relationship of safety performance and safety investment. This assumption is
supported by a little evidence. There are still arguments on the correlation between safety
investment and safety performance. When we consider the direct and indirect cost during
accidents, direct costs fail to reveal the true impact on the accident. Most of the impacts of
accident are hidden and are difficult to identify. Therefore the hidden and unhidden cost
should be found to identify the true cost of an accident. Some studies have been done to
examine the expenditure on accident prevention on economic feasibility. The results shoes
that it is profitable to investments on safety interventions. Most of the studies were based on
the theoretical relationship among coat of accident and safety performance. The only
empirical study on safety investments is Tang et al.s (1997) study. The different
mathematical models on the relationship among the safety investment are failed to be
explained by the theory, Tang et al.s (1997).
D31RQ Safety Performance And Economic Aspects Of Occupational Safety And Health For Building
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Chapter 3 - Research Methodology

3.1 Introduction:

The methodology followed for this research is described in this chapter. The adapted
approaches for data collection need an explanation about the presentation research outcomes.
Based on this research the steps and methods followed by the author or known. Naoum (1998)
entitled that this research explains data gathering and analyzing through that. The methods of
research are to achieve the objective of the project and used method to collect the data and
analysis it.

3.2Research Design

Selecting an appropriate approach from many data collection approach is dependents on the
nature of the research and required type of information (Naoum, 1998). According to Fellows
and Liu (1997), to achieve the scope the method and objective should be cleared. The method
can be quantitative or qualitative. The quantitative approaches lower the difficulties of
research by insisting the important parts of monitoring and looking the features of
phenomena. But to understand the full problem it overlook at simple realities (Csete and
Albrecht,1994). It is better to use quantitative approach to understand and ontological
implication for the research strategy. Experimental, non-experimental and semi-experimental
are the three main designs are used to conducting quantitative research (Kumar 2005).
3.3 Quantitative Approaches

Quantitative approaches are mainly the measurement made on collection of data. The data
requirements of the particular research project are helped by theories, laws and principles
which have developed by quantitative approach of previous work. According to Oppenheim
(1992) in questionnaire form design; the open-ended questions are required to answer more
than one word. It is best to avoid open end question as much as possible because it will make
respondent to think and write also this kind of questions are more time consuming, the
respondent may be discouraged to answer. Therefore, the preparation of questionnaire
structure is important to avoid some kind of open-ended question except optional question
which is giving freedom for practitioners who want write what they want. The aim of the
questionnaire approach the safety level through question. The question will be divided into 4
section, at least one question should ask about firm information to get experience level of the
respondent. Around 5 questions should ask about top management to identify management
support of safety implementation on site and to track the records like accident record, safety
investment record, financial level of firm, injuries, planning and programs, safety awards.
About 14 questions should ask about safety procedure followed by the company on site every
individual project. At least 4 questions should ask about opinions and comments to identify
the viewpoint of practitioners on site safety.

3.3.1 Pilot Study

The pilot study is important to assure that the text and wording of the questionnaire is clear
and respondents can understand. It will check the reliability of the collected data. This pilot
study is used to calculate the requirement needed to answer the questionnaire. The sample
questionnaire should be send to a small group to make sure that the questions are fully
understandable and to make sure that there is no mistakes in the questionnaire.
D31RQ Safety Performance And Economic Aspects Of Occupational Safety And Health For Building
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3.4 Data Collection

The aim of this study is to investigate the desirable level of safety investments in Singapore
building projects by studying the relationships between accidents costs, safety performance
and safety investments in building projects. This study investigate the underlying associations
between variables, e.g., the relationships between safety investments, safety performance and
safety culture, project hazard level, the relationships between accident costs and safety
performance, the relationships between total safety costs and safety performance, and so on.
From these variables, some can be well documented; at the same time some are imperceptible
variables which must be obtained from measurable or manifested variables. Before the data
collection instrument is developed every research variable should be operational and well
defined.

3.6 Method of Data Collection

In the research process, before selecting the appropriate data collection methods the data
collection instrument is to be developed and the type of research design is to be determined.
Using questionnaires, interviews and archives the datas that are primarily needed for non-
experimental quantitative research is determined. (Kumar, 2005; Tan, 2008; Fellows and Liu,
2008).

3.7Method of Analysis

To know what is the experience of every respondent in the firm the first section in the
questionnaire is used. To indicate the safety performance and investment of every firms
involved in the research the Sections 2 & 3 are the important parts. Questionnaires will be
mostly in a yes or no pattern. If the answer is {Yes} the score will be given one, and if the
answer is {No} the score will be zero. The type of question will explain in chapter 4 which
will be used to score the average of safety performance, safety investment and the cost of
accident. And it will be tabled according the sample scale of assessment table1.

Table 1: Scale of assessment for the companies

D31RQ Safety Performance And Economic Aspects Of Occupational Safety And Health For Building
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3.8 Summary

This chapter presents the details regarding data sample characteristics, data analysis methods,
data collection methods and research design. This explains that the regression/correlation
research design and quantitative research approach are suitable to be carried out in this study.
Data collection for this study is made using questionnaire method. Questionnaire is the
specially designed data collection instrument. The questionnaires data will be developed using
the detailed analysis method to find some data to help fulfilling the aim of this research.

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