The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 Construction Essay

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 Construction Essay The rapid technological development and industrialisation occurred in the second part of the 19th century alerted the need for improving the existing labour force in terms of operational performance and psychological underpinnings of individual activity. Applied psychology laid the ground for the emergence of the notion of occupational safety that covered basic worker compensation, factory legislation and incidence of workplace accidents (Hofmann, Burke and Zohar, 2017). Initially, academics and policy-makers focused on an individual employee to outline the work format and design basic protection measures. With the course of time, occupational safety research and practice switched its focus to the organisational structure. In line with the tendency, the framework of occupational safety gave priority to safety-related training delivered to workers within the organisational context. The gradual move from the individual employee to the organisation-wide management emphasised the role of leadership in setting up a safety climate underpinning development and practice of safety-oriented processes and systems. Continuing research in occupational safety led to the creation of a multidimensional model of the organisation’s safety culture (Hofmann, Burke and Zohar, 2017). Occupational safety legislation plays a vital role in the development and regular update of the workplace safety framework. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 is the key law that sets and enforces standards of workplace safety by outlining duties of employers, workers, suppliers, contractors and other stakeholders affecting implementation and malmanagement of workplace safety (Hughes and Ferrett, 2015). The Act evolved from the 1970 Employed Persons (Health and Safety) Bill that encompassed fundamental issues and regulatory activities concerning occupational safety. Though the debate around the relevance and efficiency of the Bill postponed its passage for four years, the adoption of the Occupational Safety and Health Act by the United States and the faced responsibility to align the national legislation with the corresponding European Union’s directives due to the UK’s accession to the EU forced the new Labour government to facilitate the Bill’s passage (Paterson, 2012). Since 1974, the HASA 1974 has been the fundamental law that defines the authority and structure for encouraging, enforcing and controlling workplace safety and risk management in the United Kingdom. Under the powers of the UK Parliament, the Act offers a sophisticated system of occupational safety policies, procedures and processes applicable to a wide array of industries and risks (Hughes and Ferrett, 2015). The Statutory Instrument introduced in 1974 enables government authorities to regulate occupational safety law and practice. Moreover, the Statutory Instrument attributes enforcement powers to Health and Safety Executive and Health and Safety Commission designated as components of the public supervision system. The Act objectives to secure individual employee safety and health, to protect workers against workplace risks and accidents, to control the use and storage of explosive or other dangerous substances and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere imply the use of fines and other punishment solutions to force organisations to comply their organisational culture and systems accordingly (Barrett, 2000). While regulating occupational safety at the national level, the Act aligns the UK law with the EU directives for workplace safety. Though occupational safety is importance for any industry, it is fundamental for dangerous businesses that are mostly vulnerable to workplace accidents and fatalities. The construction industry is one of such dangerous occupations with the incompatible rates of occupational trauma and death (Sherratt et al., 2015). The key reason for high unsafety concerns the fact that the industry does not set strict requirement for individual qualification and knowledge. Construction labour force typically comprises volunteers who lack technical skills and extensive training. Safety regulation in the construction industry in poor and inadequate without any specific framework in the international context. The dynamics of the industry and low value of workforce result in fast arrangement procedures when volunteers are exposed to unstructured interviews and a brief explanation of their duties without any provision of safety training that indicates the key risks and hazards, protective measures and te chnical issues (Sherratt et al., 2015). Therefore, the national occupational safety law requires a precise address of the construction industry to align its organisational culture and management with the Act provisions.