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The chairman of Build Safe UAE, Grahame McCaig, has called on the Dubai Municipality (DM) to publicly release statistics on the number of workers killed and severely injured on construction sites in the emirate.
“At the moment nobody is sure of the figures in Dubai or the UAE market,” said McCaig, who is also general manager of contractors Dutco Balfour Beatty.
“I’m sure somebody must know, because there is a requirement to inform the DM of any major incidents and definitely any fatalities.
“Without the statistics how do we know the scale of the problem and if the UAE construction market is getting safer?”
McCaig made the comments after a heated panel discussion at the Construction Week Conference 2008 in Dubai, which covered health and safety practices in the region. Opinions were divided as to why the region’s safety record is considered poor. Some laid blame on the government, others developers and others on small-to-medium renegade contractors.
All agreed that every contractor must train their workers in health and safety through thorough on-site education programs as well as employ a detailed safety management plan to monitor and analyse accidents and near misses.
Panel members also agreed that more transparency is needed when accidents occur.
“The newspapers and the magazines are unable to get accurate information from the contractors concerned,” said McCaig.
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“Why won’t we give the information? We need to step up to the plate – prepare statements and issue them. There are many valuable lessons to be learned in sharing this information,” he said.
Audience member and senior project manager for Schon Properties Neill Blignaut suggested setting up an industry body with government support to monitor, investigate and formally report on worksite accidents and deaths.
McCaig said investigations are usually carried out by the police and he is not aware of any government department that specifically deals with occupational accidents.
Last week the Bahrain government announced plans to form its own National Occupational Safety Authority, which will be charged with curbing the number of work-related deaths that are on the rise in the kingdom.
Bahrain’s Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) has also vowed to soon disclose accident statistics to the public.
The deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East division, Joe Stork, said it is a positive step forward for Bahrain and urged other GCC countries to follow their lead.
“These are issues that we pointed out in our report in 2006, so it is frankly disappointing to see that it is still a problem,” he said.
“It’s very clearly laid out in international human rights law that the state has a responsibility to protect and enforce safety
standards.
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