Cost of compliance with health and safety management system among contractor in construction industry

Abstract

Accidents and injury statistic in construction industry were among the highest compared to the other sector every year. One of the main reasons that contribute to this problem was due to the insufficient amount allocated for occupational health and safety management. The aim of this study was to identify the contractors approach towards safety and health management system compliance by investigating the cost and benefit of that approach. This study was conducted using questionnaire surveys around the District of Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia. The respondents were made of supervisor, engineer and project manager that work with main contractor which the project values worth from RM 1 to 25 million. The data were collected using questionnaire forms and frequency analysis was being used to analyze the data gathered. Overall, this study had identified the different approaches taken by contractor in implementing health and safety management system within organization such as recorded work-related accidents but few for illhealth and most of contractors undertook basic elements but very few of them implemented performance measurement. Cost implication was still is the biggest barrier to implement formal OHSMS. Thus, such implementation was legally driven. This study also manages to highlight what are the nature of expenditure and impact of the implementation to the organization. The cost of compliance varies from minimum 0.15% to 1.08% with average of 0.41% from project value. Most respondents perceived benefits outweighed cost compare to those who thought cost outweighed benefits.