Safety first makes your business last

One of the advantages for an editor running a news website is that, unlike traditional print magazines, the feedback on what you publish is near instantaneous. A quick glance at the statistics can tell a website editor exactly which stories are capturing interest, and which ones aren’t being read.

With that in mind, it’s safe to say that stories regarding safety, injuries and sadly, fatalities seem to consistently bring in readers. Two weeks ago, the story of the horrific fire at a labour camp in Saudi Arabia was a top tracker, and this week the stories on unsafe Bahraini firms being prosecuted, and a frightening fatality from a fight on crane have been breaking the records, not to mention attracting substantial feedback in the form of comments.

While it’s fair to say that human curiosity for the macabre plays a role in why these stories have been so popular, arguably it’s also evidence of a growing understanding of just how vital it is to provide adequate safety and protection for workers.

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We’re seeing this in the form of intervention and involvement from both the public and private sector. Last week, a senior Dubai official praised the work of the midday working ban investigators in protecting worker rights. Meanwhile, Kuwait is closely following Bahrain in reforming its sponsorship system, giving more rights and freedoms to workers. On the private side, Build Safe UAE has partnered once again with Big 5 PMV to drive the safety message home.

We can’t kid ourselves and say that all contractors are exemplars of safety in their operations. But it is clear that many are taking the matter very seriously. Protecting workers is as sound a strategy to protect a business as making shrewd investments - protecting workers is an investment.

The march of progress suggests that it won’t be too far in the future that workers will be able to move relatively freely between companies – and they aren’t going to stay with firms which don’t ensure they come home safely at the end of a day’s work.

Firms that don’t take safety seriously are going to lose their staff and even lose their licenses to operate, if the precedent set by Bahrain’s Labour Ministry is anything to go by.

With this in mind, only the contractors who put safety first, are going to see their business last.

James Boley is the editor of ConstructionWeekOnline.com