Workers in the building and construction industry consistently find themselves at greater risk of being injured at the workplace.
According to the federal government’s Jobs and Skills Australia agency, the construction industry accounts for just over nine percent of the Australian workforce. And the size of the sector has increased substantially over the last two decades.
Across a similar period (2003-2024) the construction industry has increased from 16.6% to making up 19.7% of workplace fatalities (nearly one in five!) and over 11% of workers compensation claims.
What this data shows is that working in the construction industry places those workers at an increased risk of suffering an injury or worse while on the job.
So, what is it about the construction sector that results in statistics like these? Why is a construction worker more at risk of a workplace incident than a trade working in another industry?
The nature of construction
The nature of the construction industry is hardly a secret. High pressure, low margin, time crunches. From the outside, it can look as though it exists in a constant state of panic and rush. Always behind the eight-ball, struggling to stay on top of things.
It is hardly an environment where the time is taken or consideration is given to how workers can be kept safe while going about their day.
Completing the construction of a new building is not a straight-forward process. There are significant complications and points of tension throughout the project. Competing priorities are the rule, not the exception.
How these influences combine and manifest on site is different from project to project, but the outcome is the same – workers are repeatedly placed in situations where the risk of harm is significant.
But it is not just the overall nature of the construction industry that leads to increased risk. It is also the work itself and what undertaking a construction project can entail.
Building buildings
By definition an under-construction building is one that is not yet finished. And a building that is not yet finished does not have everything in place or in a completed state. This then means that important items that serve a safety function may be missing.
This is more than just the absence of specific safety systems – be it a fire alarm, exhaust fans – it can be other seemingly innocuous items like balustrades, fences, doorways. These can leave edges exposed and accessible, creating fall risks.
Construction and building sites are also hives of activity. Materials are being moved around, new parts of the building are being worked on, there is plant, equipment, people and more.
What can happen here is that one worker is focused solely on their one part of the project. This can happen to the exclusion of all others. Unfortunately, work on a construction site is very rarely of the type where having such directed focus is possible.
Along with falls through voids, down stairs and off unprotected edges that can occur when the work environment is not given adequate awareness, workers can also be exposed to the impacts of moving plant, equipment and materials that are being undertaken by others. Others who may also be focussed all too closely on their specific role to the exclusion of all others.
Single-storey and lower-height buildings
Although all construction and building sites bring with them substantive risks to workers, there are additional risks that are present when working on buildings that are around a single storey in height.
The big additional risk that exists in these construction projects is that even if a fall protection system is present – and a system that relies on fall arrest – it may not actually protect anyone.
Fall arrest systems are a protection system that will not stop a worker from being in a position where a fall is possible but instead work to protect the worker from injury in the event a fall does occur by stopping (arresting) it quickly.
On single-storey and other low-height buildings, however, the problem exists that in many circumstances in a fall situation the worker will have already hit the ground before the system is able to deploy. This, of course, would render it useless.
Fall arrest systems require a minimum clearance, that is a minimum distance between the top of the fall area and the ground or other obstruction, to effectively operate. That minimum distance is greater than what is typically found on sites where the building is only a single storey in height.
This is a contributing factor to why most fatal falls occur from heights of less than four metres.
Prioritising safety
Mitigating the risks associated with working in building and construction sites must be a conscious and deliberate choice.
Understanding the effects that choosing priorities and areas of focus on a job site has is important for contractors, managers and employers. Every time safety is looked past or not fully considered, workers are placed at increasing risk.
In building and construction work, with deadline pressure, multiple moving parts, machines, people and all the other things that go into them it can be all too easy to not realise a situation has become dangerous until it is too late.
Merely having a plan or saying that “we put safety first” is not enough. Real safety comes from ongoing vigilance and active participation in making sure that protection is always in place and prioritised.
Partners in protecting people
Height Safety Engineers are the experts in workplace safety. We specialise in the design, installation and ongoing compliance of fall protection systems for every environment – from simple roof access to complex abseil and rope work.
Start your safety journey today by contacting us about your height safety needs. Call us on 1300 884 978, email us enquiries@heightsafety.net or drop us a line through our website by clicking here.
