The question we put to you last week was this: What can you do to protect workers who are safety conscious and responsible but who often must work at other sites that are dangerously littered with all kinds of debris left behind by other contractors? Short of them having to clean up others’ messes, how would you have your workers handle this?

Thanks to all of you who replied. Here are your suggestions:

Charge Contractor for the Clean-up

Well I work for a very large general contractor, so typically we would clean up the mess and back charge the company that left it behind, if they refused, and it was holding up other work. But if my workers had to go into an area where the housekeeping was so bad that it was a hazard, I would just refuse to work until that company, or the general contractor got it cleaned up. Not only contractually do other companies have to clean up, but if they don't, in Ontario, the constructor would then be on the hook to clean up before my men went into work.

If they still refused, then the Ministry of Labour would have to be called to force them to clean up. I wouldn't put my men at risk.

Corey Jones
EllisDon Corporation

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Clean Up or Pay Up

I would implement a standard that every contractor clean up their mess or be charged by the next crew.

Patrick J Burneson
Evening Supervisor
Facility Operations

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Make Housekeeping a Standard for Hiring Contractors

For the housekeeping issue, of the site being left a mess by other contractors, it doesn't have to be difficult. Every construction site has a main contractor who has to answer to the owner of the project. Once the billing for clean - up starts to affect the rising costs of the project, or injuries start to take place, because of housekeeping. Questions will have to be answered and solutions will have to be found. These solutions can be as minor as a memo to the offending sub-contractor, to as serious as ejection from the site.

Many large companies tie safety and performance together. If a company shows pride in itself it will work hard to keep a very low WCB claim record. If potential bids see your claim record as being high, they will investigate as to this, or will not even acknowledge your bids. If they do investigate, and the construction world is not that big, they will find out the root cause to your incidents. If housekeeping is a major problem that they find to be a concern, they will look at the cost of injuries, lost production, the chance of a serious incident being tied to their project and them being labelled.

For example, Site owner (Angel) has a subcontractor A slip on some plastic that was not picked up and falls to his death. It is found that subcontractor B left the plastic. It is not subcontractors A or B that feels the public out cry it is the site owner (Angel) that the accident will be tied too. Also it is subcontractor B that has the fatality on its record.

When the incident is in the papers, the headlines will read - Fatality at the Angel Construction Site. It won’t read - do poor housekeeping by Subcontractor A, was the root cause of Subcontractor B's fatality.

I hope this explains why it is necessary to look after housekeeping issues.

Darrell Katan cso
Site Safety
TIC Canada

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Form a Joint Safety Committee

This has to be handled by management, not by the workers. Have all contractors form a joint safety committee and do a on site walk about, taking responsibility for their messes that they left behind.

Terry L'hirondelle
Safety Supervisor, NCSO

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Set an Example

Over the years I’ve received several calls from one of my on site supervisors complaining about the lack of housekeeping at the site. When I arrived on site, the first thing I noticed was there was our debris mixed in with the other trades. I pulled our supervisor aside and instructed our people to knock off a few minutes early and pick up all of our debris and dispose of it. In nearly every case, the GC, seeing our efforts, had a clean up crew on site the next day. It almost seems the GC had a “if you don’t care – I don’t care attitude”.

Michael Cooper
Safety Director

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Insist on a Safe Site

Only work in areas where it is safe for your employees to work. Notify the controlling contractor in writing of the unsafe areas which they are requiring your employees to access. It is their responsibility as the controlling contractor to provide a safe and healthful workplace to all workers. Tell them you will be happy to perform your work in those areas when the safety hazards are eliminated or controlled and the areas are safe to return.

Ruth Fritts
McAlvain Management, Inc.

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