Site 'skimping' causing deaths

By PAUL YANDALL

Construction firms are skimping on safety and health costs, leading to an increase in deaths and injuries on hazardous worksites, say industry experts.

The claim comes after another serious accident at a building site yesterday in which a 20-year-old builder fell up to 15m after a floor above him collapsed in Wellington.

Eight people have died on construction sites since the beginning of July, compared with a total of eight deaths for the whole of the previous year.

The latest death was in Auckland last week, when a man was crushed at a building site.

Iris Clanachan, executive director for Site Safe, a construction industry safety body, said the industry had become so fragmented and cost driven that safety standards had begun to suffer.

"It's a cost-driven industry with very slim margins and we have a plethora of project management teams with little or no experience of health and safety issues."

The health and safety manager for Fletcher Construction, Kevin Lockley, said New Zealand's safety record in the construction industry was disgraceful.

"It's Third World standards. We can get up to 17 or 18 deaths a year here and that's not good enough."

He said large construction firms usually employed a manager to help ensure standards were met, but many businesses tried to cut safety costs.

The fragmented nature of modern building sites, where dozens of different contractors could be working, also affected safety.

"There's a lot of passing the buck, where it's all care and no responsibility."

The Northern Amalgamated Workers Union spokesman on the construction industry, Ray Bianchi, said tendering for work had become so competitive that firms were taking out the safety costs.

"This sort of thing is what happens when you skimp on safety. It's no surprise at all and it's not going to get any better until we get better enforcement."

The general manager for Occupational Safety and Health, Bill Hill, said the latest construction accidents had added to an already bad spate of workplace deaths this year.

"Fatalities are occurring over all sectors, including construction, manufacturing and agriculture."

OSH had investigated 43 deaths since last July, compared with 39 for the entire previous year.

This year's deaths include 18 in industrial and commercial businesses, 14 in agriculture, eight in construction, two in mines and quarries, and one in forestry.

The accident in Wellington yesterday happened to a workman on the third floor of an apartment block.

A frame holding the floor above him collapsed while concrete was being poured. The man was covered in wet concrete before the floor he was standing on also collapsed, plunging him to the ground. There were no first or second floors.

He was taken to Wellington Hospital with serious leg, chest and shoulder injuries.