CRITICAL FACTORS AFFECTING SAFETY IN THE SINGAPORE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

Construction is one of the most hazardous industries due to its unique nature. Recent occurrences of highly publicised and criticized construction site accidents have highlighted the immediate need for the construction industry to address safety hazards. Safety used to be addressed as an isolated issue in the past, but the problem of safety is an emergent property of a system. In general, it seems that both industrial practitioners and government officials have tended to address safety by focusing on technical aspects and looking for immediate causes of accidents after they have taken place. The objective of this paper is to examine issues and critical factors that affect the safety standards from a holistic point of view. The job of making worksites safe should not just fall squarely on the contractors but should be shared by all parties in the value chain of construction activities.