Occupational Health and Safety Shortcomings in the Australian Construction Industry

The paper discusses key research project findings concerning essential overall occupational health and safety measures that are required in large organisations in the Australian construction industry. The project comprised a preliminary evaluation of the role of managers, employees and governments in occupational health and safety enforcement in large Australian construction operations. Interview questions concerned procedures in place to resolve occupational health and safety conflicts on the construction sites, responsibility for occupational health and safety, levels of government and industry cooperation, balancing the principles of self-regulation government regulation, efforts by the Federal Government to improve occupational health and safety in the industry, mechanisms of enforcement of occupational health and safety and encouragement of occupational health and safety by the government, determination and application of safety performance for the industry, a comparison of the Australian construction industry's safety record compared to other countries and the relationship of improved occupational health and safety performance to increased competitive advantage in Australian firms.