Contractor Management

Contractors are responsible for their own safety aren’t they?

It’s not really that simple, consider what the National Safety Council (NSC) has to say about keeping contractors safe:

“Contract workers are a vulnerable population. With contractors often performing higher risk jobs in work sites with little to no management supervision, one of the best practices in an employer’s safety and health program is to have a formal contractor management program.”

Having contracted work to another party does not relieve owners from ensuring the safety of all workers for conditions that are reasonably under their control.

What about having a General or Prime Contractor, in charge of safety?

The laws governing prime contractors vary substantially form jurisdiction to jurisdiction (some have no prime contractor designation) and establishing a prime contractor and their level of responsibility may depend on whether:

• The worksite can be physically separated from the owner’s facilities;
• The number of contractors meets the legislated thresholds;
• The type of work is eligible to have a prime contractor;
• There is shared responsibility for safety established by legislation;
• There is a written agreement designating the prime contractor.

Assigning overall safety responsibility to a prime contractor for a project may or may not be possible depending upon where you are and the nature of the project. Even then, from a due diligence perspective, you can’t assign away safety responsibilities that should logically be your own due to your specific knowledge or control of a project, property or process.

I’m not worried, I hire competent contractors

Competent, but in what way? Whenever we introduce other parties to our worksites, whose safety culture and programs are different than our own, our safety risks increase. The contractor(s) may be technically competent but their safety values and standards may not be equal to your own.
Before you extend safety responsibilities to another party you have a due diligence requirement to ensure that the party is up to the task. The contractor may not have:

• The required safety systems in-place;
• Individuals qualified to provide safety leadership;
• The expertise to protect themselves from the hazards at your worksite.

We should never have two sets of safety standards at our worksites.

So how do I have to manage these people?

Careful contractor management is critical for the safe and efficient execution of your project, whether large or small. A formal contractor management system guides you from hiring a contractor through execution of the work and handover. The safety elements of a contractor management system should include:

• A pre-qualifying assessment of the contractors safety system including any required 3rd party certifications;
• A review of the contractor’s safety record to include workers compensation insurance premiums and incident and accident records;
• Establishing insurance requirements based on the nature of the work and verifying the contractor’s limits;
• Verifying the safety training provided to employees and supervisors including the use of specialized PPE;
• Establishing the specific safety responsibilities of the contractor;
• Providing a comprehensive site specific orientation that includes hazards, controls, rules and emergency procedures;
• Effective contractor supervision and contractor reporting requirements;
• Performance evaluation during and after the work is completed.

In an independent study conducted by the NSC, contractors participating in contractor management programs were found to have better safety statistics.

Best Practices

Contractors should be chosen from a pre-qualified and approved list. We should work cooperatively with contractors on safety matters and integrate them into our own systems as far as reasonably possible.