The designer's role in workplace health and safety in the construction industry: post-harmonized regulations in South Australia

Abstract

The federal government of Australia harmonized the Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) legislation from each jurisdiction in 2013. Nevertheless, little is known about its acceptance in the construction community. Thus, the aim of this study is to identify the views of industry stakeholders on safety design in the harmonized safety regulations of South Australia. A desk study on pre- and post-harmonized WHS regulations reveals that design for safety now constitutes a major theme in practice following the harmonization process. After that, a questionnaire survey is conducted to investigate the use of design for safety in the construction industry. The results show that the guidelines promote safety-related design requirements without significantly increasing designers' and contractors' workload. Designers are aware of the hazards on sites and design firms are willing to embrace the guidelines if they are protected from liability. However, the extent to which contracting and procurement systems encourage safety design is uncertain. Moreover, the problem of cost hinders designers in implementing it unless the client accepts it as part of the over-arching life cycle cost structure. There is great uncertainty on whether the concept will be promoted through regulation and subsequently lead to a reduction in hazardous risks and injury rates.