The importance of safety as a cost controlling measure is often overlooked. Work-related injuries and illnesses mean losses not only to workers, but also to their families and employers.
In 2008, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the construction industry had 969 fatal occupational injuries—more than any other major industry. This represents a fatality rate of 9.6 per 100,000 full-time workers. Additionally, 31,310 cases of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses involving days away from work were recorded in 2008, representing a rate of 383 per 10,000 full-time workers.
Some employers believe introducing safety programs creates additional costs, but nothing could be further from the truth. Given that the costs resulting from accidents are significantly higher than the costs of establishing and maintaining standards, attention to safety requirements and procedures will increase productivity and ultimately save employers money.
The Center for Construction Research and Training (CCRT), formerly called The Center to Protect Workers’ Rights, estimates the total cost of fatal and nonfatal injuries in the construction industry is nearly $13 billion annually. Deaths are estimated to account for 40 percent of the total, and nonfatal injuries and illnesses (mainly injuries with days away from work) represent 60 percent of the total cost.
On average, the death of a construction worker results in losses valued at $4 million, while a nonfatal injury involving days away from work costs approximately $42,000. These estimates include direct costs (such as hospital, physician and medicine payments); indirect costs (wage losses and household production losses, and costs of administering workers’ compensation); and quality-of-life costs (the value attributed to the pain and suffering that victims and their families experience as a result of injuries or illnesses).
According to the CCRT, several occupations, including roofers, construction laborers and structural metal workers, rank high for both total costs of injury and per-worker costs.
Implementing Safety
Ensuring the safety of workers requires clearly defining, implementing and enforcing construction site rules.
Construction companies should establish and regularly revise safety programs to comply with state and federal safety regulations. They should strive to achieve and sustain zero accident performance by continually improving their practices and stressing safety as a component of each job task.
Project owners also should be concerned about safety due to the potential risk to their employees, tenants and property, as well as the risk the contractor bears. The contractor’s risks will add considerable cost to the contract and decrease the firm’s potential profit for a particular job.
Every contractor is in business to bring profit to the bottom line, so expected losses have to be taken into consideration and included in the project estimates. Thus, the owner’s dedication to safety and its efforts to assist the contractor in maintaining a quality safety program ultimately will benefit all parties.
![]()
Wednesday, February 8, 2012