Plan and prepare

Cameras can monitor dangerous zones that security guards would not be able to patrol without breaching health and safety.

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Volcanic ash disruption from Iceland, vandalism on site, theft, and damage to property as a result of fire. These are just some of the unforeseen challenges faced by today’s construction industry in the GCC. As if the pressures of achieving sustainability in the context of a global recession aren’t enough.

Companies in the region are under very little obligation to maintain tight security on their construction sites. Unlike health and safety, there are no penalties or sanctions for companies who do not prepare for say, a natural disaster.

Though the UAE penal code does enforce some level of security, companies need only secure their sites enough so as to protect their workers from injury or death, a statute which may be widely interpreted.

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There is the added impact of a slowed economy, which as well as slashing security budgets, increases the safety risks to properties and structures left unsold or unfinished respectively.

These factors in mind, it is easy to understand why only 38% of businesses with between two and just under 10,000 employees have an emergency plan in place in the event of theft, vandalism, a fire, medical emergency or other “workplace disaster”, according to research from the Ad Council.

The good news is that the industry is starting to become more security-conscious. Amid oil spills, tsunamis and volcanoes, recession and economic volatility, the industry cannot afford to be complacent, and it has started to realise that health and safety officers alone cannot respond to the wide variety of possible workplace disasters, and that the risks associated with these disasters are much higher than was once thought.

But while change never happens over night, many firms continue to deal with security and health and safety independently because police investigations are dealt with separately from safety officer’s reviews. Perhaps, as the industry veers toward the beginnings of a more standardised safety culture, now would be a good time to take an integrated approach to safety and disaster planning?

Dodsal’s HSE director and vice president of the Emirates Safety Group Garry Crighton, is certainly in agreement. “Taking an integrated approach brings quality into safety,” he said, “this should include security and preparation for disaster, particularly since the international standard for security ISO/PAS 22399 is heading our way.”

Compliance with international standards it seems, have become increasingly popular across the GCC construction industry as a means of separating leading suppliers from their rivals.

But according to Claymore Security and Safety Consultants’ managing director Hussain Alyasi, the benefits of taking an integrated approach to safety and security have more to do with site efficiency, cost-effectiveness and safety.

“In my opinion, safety and security should be handled together,” he says. “When construction firms have to use two different companies for safety and security, often these companies will make contradicting recommendations, creating a workplace that is less safe, less efficient and more expensive to maintain.”