Kota Kinabalu: Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia (PAM) regrets that the Human Resource Ministry has submitted the proposed new regulations to expand the responsibility for construction workers’ safety to include developers and designers to the Attorney General’s Chambers without prior engagement and input from construction industry professionals and stakeholders.The professional body for architects in Malaysia said the proposed new regulations concerned were submitted to the Attorney General Chambers through the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (Dosh).
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Its President, Lillian Tay (pic), said PAM is concerned on the recent statement by Human Resource Minister, M Kulasegaran, on the gazetting of the new regulations.
“Before establishing specific legislation and regulations, lawmakers should consider the views of stakeholders and industry professionals on the ground as they are more familiar with the frequent causes behind construction site mishaps,” she said in a statement Friday.
Furthermore, she said, the broad definition of “Designer” in the Occupation Safety and Health in Construction (Management) Guidelines 2017 can be misleading as commonly “designers” refer to architects and engineers.
In this context, she said, the term “designer” in the new guidelines need to be defined further so as to avoid public confusion.
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“Every construction accident has multiple and different causes and contributing factors and it is necessary, as in existing procedures, for a proper investigation to establish the root cause of the accident and the responsible parties.
“Under the Uniform Building By-Laws, the architect as the Principal Submitting Person (PSP) oversees the general design and delivery of the building works together with the engineers and contractors, and in larger projects, professional project managers.
Architects specifically are responsible for the architectural design of the building while engineers for the structural design and building working systems.
“As per all standard building contracts in Malaysia and elsewhere, the contractor is given full possession of the site upon being awarded the building works and takes full contractual responsibility for the management and execution and all building works and activities on the site. The CIDB Act 1994 (Act 520) Part VIIA, sets out the duty of contractors to “ensure the safety of the building and construction works whether during or post construction works’ and not “causing or threatening to cause a risk of injury to any person or damage to any property”
“To address the problem of frequent mishaps on sites, the role of CIDB is critical to ensure that contractors are committed and well trained to the highest level of safety practice on a construction site, from the worker level to site supervisors, the mandatory certified safety officer and management and allocation of necessary budget to maintain high levels of safety practice on site.
Contractors as expert builders and certified by CIDB, are responsible for the construction method which may vary with different builders depending on their equipment and resources and site conditions,” she said.
She said architects and engineers assist to advise if the contractor’s building method is consistent with the structural design and building design and established good safety practice.
“Building owners or developers as the employers in the Building Contract, can promote higher levels of safety by allowing fair and reasonable preliminaries which provide costs for safety procedures, training and supervision, including for temporary works.
Good site safety practices do not come without a cost,” she said.
Tay said presently, while building material and labour costs are fairly standardized by market pricing, preliminaries – in which lies the budget committed for safety provisions and supervision on the site - form the competitive and differentiating factors between a contractor committed to high safety practice and those who provide the minimum.
It is time instead to set guidelines or even regulations, on how much cost is to be committed in the preliminaries of a Building Contract, right from the tender and award stage, to ensure good safety practices will be provided throughout the entire construction period, she said.
“To improve safety and efficiency standards on the construction site, the well-established regulations for the training and certification of construction site personnel according to standards set out by CIDB and Dosh, must be strictly adhered to and stepped up. Not just at start of works but regular training and practice enforcement on site from every trade worker, machine operator to supervisor, until safety awareness becomes second nature, work ethic and corporate policy of a contractor company,” she said.
Contractors with poor safety records should be identified before accidents happen, rather than more ‘knee-jerk’ punitive regulations on architects or owners with limited control over the contractors’ daily operations and priorities, she said.
Tay said PAM suggests that both building industry and relevant authorities consider these larger factors that can help increase site safety culture and practice on building sites and improve the morale and well-being of workers in construction industry:
- Improve poor working and housing conditions for workers that contribute to low morale and work ethics.
- To improve site housekeeping practices, especially protection of work in progress, for example, when poured concrete is not yet set and work is suspended or abandoned suddenly during sudden heavy rainstorms. This is often a cause of site accidents and it is to be noted that the recent building collapse at Taman Desa happened during a heavy storm.
- Review current immigration policy to encourage retention of certified and experienced foreign workers who may go on to become knowledgeable supervisors, now grossly lacking in the market. Workers who have accumulated building experience working in Malaysia, are often not allowed to extend their work permit beyond 10 years.
- The contractors all-risk Insurance compensation for the death of workers should be increased from the current RM18,500 workman compensation for the death of a worker.
