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WorkSafeBC

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Initiatives for Construction

Construction High-Risk Strategy

Why is there a Construction High-Risk Strategy?

WorkSafeBC has reviewed historical incidents and claims statistics and has identified four industries that have a greater risk of injuries and fatalities, as compared to other industry sectors. These higher hazard industries include: construction, forestry, healthcare and manufacturing.

The Construction High-Risk Strategy is WorkSafeBC's multi-year prevention program, focusing time and resources to identified areas within the industry. The overall goal is to effect change and reduce injury, illness, disease and death within the construction industry. This includes an increased focus on serious injuries, return to work, claims management and duration reduction.

To see the overview of the construction high-risk strategy, click on the link below:
Overview of Construction High-Risk Strategy 2009 (PDF 97 KB)

Who does this involve?

The 2009 Construction High-Risk Strategy (CHRS) involves the entire construction industry including owners, prime contractors, subcontractors, supervisors and workers employed on worksites across BC.

The Construction HRS focuses injury prevention activities on a specific group of classification units (CUs) within the overall construction sector where 80% of all construction-related lost time injuries occur. The Strategy concentrates on initiatives that target the three most common accident types in construction, namely: falls, struck by/struck against and musculoskeletal injuries (overexertion). Success of WorkSafeBC's Construction High-Risk Strategy will take increased leadership and commitment from BC's construction industry to provide an environment where a safe and healthy culture can succeed.

"Prime Contractors: How Do You Measure Up?" Campaign

The "Prime Contractor: How do you measure up?" Campaign was designed to provide a structured and consistent method to measure if Prime Contractors are reasonably fulfilling their legal duties and responsibilities across seven key areas.

This measurement took place at 253 multi-employer worksites across the province in 2007. A series of 24 prescribed questions were asked of each Prime Contractor. Prevention Officers probed for answers and collected evidence to support the responses. In addition, Subcontractors working in the site were asked a series of 11 questions to validate and verify the Prime's response.

Results of the campaign have been summarized and communicated to the industry. Actions flowing from this effort continue in 2009.

Click on the links below for additional information on the "How do you Measure up?" campaign.

Resources
The following links list tools, publications, and other resources to help prevent injuries from the top three types of accidents
  1. Falls
  2. Struck by/Struck against object
  3. Overexertion
Young worker safety in construction

About 31,700* young people work in B.C.'s construction industry. Most help build houses, though some work on larger buildings.

Any job in construction involves some risk. For young workers these are the top injury types:

  • 30% from being struck by objects
  • 19% from overexertion
  • 16% from falls

Over the five-year period from 2003 to 2007 there were over 9,000 young worker injuries in construction representing nearly 20% of young workers claims in all industries. 2,171 of these claims were serious, life changing injuries.

The OH&S Regulation aimed at improving young and new worker safety was introduced in 2007. Click on the link below to learn more about how to protect young worker at your worksite:

* Numbers of young workers in different industries taken from Labour Force Historical Review, Statistics Canada, 2007, CD-ROM, No. 71F0004XCB.



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