How to manage contractor health and safety?
Both the person or organisation hiring a contractor and the contractor share responsibility for health and safety.
Thus if an organisation hires a roofer to periodically maintain the roof and they fall off the roof, the organisation has responsibility even though it may not even have known the roofer was there.
The new ACOP on Contractor Health and Safety being put out by Worksafe New Zealand explains this in great detail. You can find it here – we can provide you with a much more succinct advice as we have been doing this across Auckland constructions sites – large and small – for the past fifteen years.
This is the concept of overlapping duties reflected in the legislation. This involves an exchange and arriving at a common understanding of the risks and how health and safety will be managed. A contractor management process provides a template for managing this risk FOR CONTRACTORS UNDERTAKING HIGH RISK WORK.
Why contractor management matters
Contractors typically present a significant health and safety risk and are quite likely to be one of an SME’s critical risks. Therefore, if the SME is not managing your contractors, the consequence is they are not taking control of a critical risk. The reasons contractors may be a critical risk include;
- They are typically operating under their own health and safety management system which may not be aligned to yours.
- Contractors typically undertake higher risk, specialist tasks – which is where SME in NZ tend to use contractors.
- An SME is unlikely to have the knowledge to supervise them – so they are self-managing
- They need to work alongside normal operations / in difficult circumstances, at times
Thus the organisation relies on contractors having the competence and work systems to keep themselves safe and healthy. But for these things to work, the safe work systems need to be in place in advance of the work, which is where contractor management processes come into play.
For contractors undertaking low risk work this is not an issue. But where the work is high risk (at height, with chemicals, with electricity etc) organisations need the tools and advice to manage contractors – which is where Winsland can assist.
Contractor management processes
The fundamentals are:
1. Scoping – Define the work clearly and identify the specific risks associated with the job and the site.
2. Prequalification – Verify the contractor has a solid safety record, the right skills, and a functional H&S management system
3. Documented safety plan – agree on a Site-Specific Safety Plan (SSSP) and Safe Work Procedures (SWP)
4. Implementation – put in place processes, described in the SSSP, to ensure risk is identified and managed as the project progresses.
5. Monitoring – Regularly check that the contractor is following the agreed safety plan. This includes site audits and reviewing incident reports.
How SME in NZ use Winsland to help manage contractors
- Advice on managing health and safety on a new project – for example,
- What sort of fall protection should contractors use?
- Do contractors working in confined space need a Permit to Work – and what form does this take?
- There may be asbestos on site – what precautions do contractors need to take?
- Providing forms SME need contractors to complete – i.e. the Winsland Health and Safety APP
- Reviewing a SSSP (hirer) or developing a standard / customisable SSSP template (contractor)
- Audit or inspection of contractor
- Writing or reviewing a Safe Work Procedure
- Advice on compliance of contractor with Approved Code of Practice, Regulation or Standard
- Reference checking contractor
- Assisting a contractor with pre-qualification
Case study – Neighbourhood Construction
Winsland was engaged to provide the health and safety framework and all the procedures and systems required for health and safety for this very large construction project in Auckland. Typically for a construction project, there were a large number of contractors involved and contractor management procedures were the main means of ensuring health and safety. Winsland:
- Developed the health and safety management system based on ASNZS4801, Regulations and Standards, Approved Codes of Practice and Worksafe guidance.
- Provided monthly auditing to give Directors independent assurance on health and safety across the project.
- Drafted the site traffic management plan
- Supported incident investigations.
- Coached site management on contractor management.
The result was what was effectively a green fields site was able to engage a very large workforce in short order, set and maintain highest standards of health and safety and complete the development without serious health and safety incidents for workers, contractors or residents, justifying the director’s original decision to invest in a quality health and safety framework from the outset. Find out more here