A lack of trained safety officers at Dubai's construction sites is causing industrial accidents, while the municipality is considering accreditation to ensure qualified people take up the post, industry sources said.
"A safety officer's job is to provide a safe environment for workers and the public," says C., a senior safety engineer in Dubai. "A safety engineer is more important than any other person on a construction site."
Safety aspects include ensuring workers wear uniforms, safety shoes and helmets and harnesses, when necessary. Safety officers must supervise all work on scaffolding as well as other construction work. They are also responsible for attending to injured workers on site.
The municipality says construction sites must have a safety officer.
"For construction sites with less than 150 workers, you can have a part-time safety officer," says Marwan Al Mohammad, head of the municipality's building supervision unit.
"The safety officer must be full time if you have 150 1,000 employers. You should have one safety officer per 1,000 employees."
C. says that because the municipality does not have a system of accrediting safety officers, this contributes to industrial accidents. "That means there's no formal definition of what a safety officer is."
A safety officer has to have an engineering background, extra studies in safety and experience, C. says. "Certainly a short course isn't enough to provide expertise. It's certainly a handicap that there's no accreditation so far."
Meanwhile, a lack of qualified training officers is causing untold problems, C. says.
"I've seen awful accidents caused by untrained safety officers.
"In one incident, a worker pulled a bolt loose on some scaffolding. That was the only thing supporting the scaffolding and some workers died."
Few construction sites have qualified training officers, according to another senior safety officer.
N. worked as a safety officer for more than a decade with different government bodies, specialising in industrial fields. He says with the exception of some major construction companies: "I can guarantee you they will show you one guy with no basic qualifications and say he is the safety officer."
S., another safety officer who has worked in Dubai for the past year supervising 1,100 workers on two sites, said: "It's rare to find a safety officer with an engineering background. You can say 99 per cent don't have the right background. I've seen many accidents from not implementing safety procedures falls, cut fingers electronic saws without protective equipment, no protection."
N. says with increasing pressure because of construction injuries and deaths, some companies are hiring people who have obtained one- to two-week safety course certificates.
Low salaries were keeping qualified people away. "Construction companies aren't offering the right salaries. They offer Dh4,000, while a beginner should start at Dh6,000. The salaries they offer attract people who have done a two-week course, or people with bogus certificates of which there are a good number out there. The people they are hiring are only good to blame when accidents happen."
S. says contracting companies were the main problem. "With the exception of some big companies, contractors are more concerned with profit. So they bring in a safety officer to ensure they are fulfilling contractual requirements. They don't give any powers to safety officers to allow them to do their work."
Al Mohammad says the municipality takes workplace accidents seriously. "We are all at fault if this happens. It's dangerous and wrong."
C. says: "The problem is complex because more than one government body is involved. I understand there has been a request submitted to the municipality to work on an accreditation system." He declined to give details.
Municipal officials confirmed that they were working on an accreditation system for safety officers.
"It appears that the municipality is working step by step to impose safety regulations at construction sites. In early 2003, they sent a letter to all construction companies notifying them of the necessity of a safety officer. Last year, I believe they also trained their staff on safety practice and theory," C. said
"I believe there are also other plans to put pressure on contractors who don't follow safety regulations by denying them the opportunity to upgrade their building licence. At present, some contractors can only build ground floor structures, others one floor, and so on. Obviously, the higher the structure, the more lucrative the business. So it's a carrot and stick approach.
"I hear the same thing may be done with consultants to re-energise their role to inform the municipality if the contractor is not abiding by safety regulations. Consultants may be fined if they overlook safety regulations on site
"Step by step, they are putting pressure on contractors. It's a steady process that has to be accompanied by training, opportunities to plan for financing and guidance."
N. says construction companies could get away with giving unskilled workers the title safety officer because of infrequent municipal inspections. He blamed the lack of frequent inspections on a combination of factors.
Al Mohammad says the inspections department was working hard to oversee approximately 4,500 to 5,000 construction sites in the city. "Dubai is divided into 18 areas. There's an engineer for each area."
Al Mohammad says municipality inspectors did follow up regularly. "It's the same engineer who follows up the same project. They should be visiting each site every 21 days, give or take a few days. If there's a violation, they should visit in three to four days to follow up on that case. There's a period of time to follow violations."
The municipality also has a safety engineer who carries out surprise inspections. "We are asking for a team of five engineers," Al Mohammad says.
Keeping tabs on work environment
A safety officer's job is to provide a safe environment for the workers and the public
Safety aspects include ensuring workers wear uniforms, safety shoes and helmets and harnesses. They must also supervise all work on scaffolding as well as other construction work. They are also responsible for attending to injured workers on site.
Municipality says any construction site having workers numbering between 150 and 1,000 should have a safety officer.
