Construction safety practices in Batam, Indonesia

Abstract

The rate of accidents in Indonesian construction industry is considered very high compared to the neighbouring countries such as Malaysia and Singapore. Thus, this study focused on the safety practices in Indonesian construction industry and improvement programs which can be potentially implemented in Indonesia. The main methodologies adopted in this study were the case study and industry questionnaire survey. The case study involved three construction companies in Batam, Indonesia in order to determine the safety practices and the management system adopted by each company. The industry questionnaire survey was carried out to determine the respondents’ perception towards safety practices and its implementation in construction projects. Based on the case study conducted it was found that in general all the companies have developed their own system in managing safety practices. A comparison that was done between the companies to determine the different safety elements adopted by each company also revealed that despite the existence of elements of the safety practices planned, the actual implementation was quite limited compared to the standard adopted by each company. In addition to this, the survey results showed that the level of awareness among the stakeholders in the construction industry in Batam is quite high. However, although they have good perception of the importance of implementing safety elements for construction projects, in reality, the implementation of these safety elements in construction projects was quite limited. In conclusion, the study also identified various critical elements in safety practices such as providing safety support, work construction and planning, emergency support safety measuring devices that can be adopted to improves the current safety performances in Indonesia, specifically in Batam.