What are the challenges of a construction site prevention officer?

What are the challenges of a construction site prevention officer?

For major works, the construction site prevention officer, also called a construction site safety officer, ensures the safety and health of site employees and the people who circulate on a daily basis. But what are the challenges it faces in carrying out its mission?

What the law says

The Construction Safety Code states that at least one safety officer must be assigned full-time and throughout the construction site to:

• Construction sites employing more than 150 simultaneously
• Projects over $8,000,000

The role of the construction site prevention officer

Placed in the organization chart directly under the responsibility of the project manager, the construction site prevention officer is responsible for ensuring the safety and health of people working on the site. He holds a certificate stating that he has successfully completed the security guard course approved by the AECQ or that he has equivalent technical knowledge.
To carry out its mission, it sets up, coordinates and controls actions relating to the prevention of accidents and occupational diseases. He is also the one who informs, advises and gives recommendations on occupational safety and health.

The challenges of the construction site prevention officer

Convince and rally those responsible to your cause:

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In order to perform his task correctly, the construction site prevention officer needs the collaboration of site managers at all levels: director, project managers, foremen, superintendents, etc.

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They must in fact be convinced of the validity of his mission and let him perform the necessary actions in the context of the execution of his task, even though this seems difficult to them to be compatible with the optimization of expenses and performance objectives.
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For example, the preventive agent participates in the management of the work schedule and the production of subcontractors. It also includes preventive actions that necessarily take time on the presence of employees at work.

Be omnipresent on the ground
In the field, the preventive agent is present to:

• Participate in meetings concerning health and safety at work and give recommendations by acting as a safety advisor to site managers
• Ensure that the instructions and safety measures specific to the site are applied
• Verify that the hygiene measures provided for in the Safety Code are respected
• Conduct daily inspections to ensure the safety and health of all; require the application of immediate corrective measures where appropriate; verify that they have been applied
• Cooperate with training organizations in the company
• Immediately notify the emergency service in the event of an accident or any situation that requires it
• Take the necessary measures in the event of a serious accident or incident, investigate and order the stopping of work if necessary.

• Assuming the administrative burden

Although very present in the field, the construction site prevention officer must also face a heavy administrative burden and in particular:

• Keep an accident register up to date
• Establishing a prevention guide
• Report to the corporate director in the event of a serious accident and incident
• Issue certificates of non-compliance, ensure their follow-up
• Gather data and compile it into statistics
• Report with recommendations to the site manager and the site committee concerning the effectiveness of the prevention program in force
  
  

It would seem that the preventive message carried out by site prevention agents has proved its effectiveness: the frequency rate of accidents at work on construction sites and the contribution rates in the construction industry have dropped significantly and continue to follow this trend.