Throw the book at developers and safety officers

No better education can be provided to people in the construction industry than by never excusing any non-compliance, even for the smallest offence.

FMT LETTERS

from: Ravinder Singh, via email

After decades existence, it has not dawned on DOSH (the department of occupational safety and health) that strict enforcement is the best form of education about the law. So long as loss of limb and life does not affect the profits, jobs and liberty of the people responsible, so long will the carnage continue, as it may be cheaper to pay out compensation than to spend on ensuring a high standard of safety.

There should never be a set time-table for rotational safety inspections. This modus operandi produces unreliable, even false, results. Inspections should at all times be random and unannounced. Any non compliance with safety laws can only be discovered by genuine, truly surprise checks.

Any discoveries of non-compliance must be followed by throwing the book at the developers and their safety officers, not by “giving advice”, “requesting” compliance or by slap-on-the-wrist penalties that do not bite into the profits and liberty of the wrongdoers, but which only produce statistics of enforcement action.

No better education can be provided to people in the construction industry than by never excusing any non-compliance, even for the smallest offence. The penalties imposed should always be the maximum, without compromise. Lessons are taught through firmness, not through compromise.

What should DOSH do? Inspect for compliance by forewarning the developers of their coming inspections, or to go unannounced to uncover recalcitrant developers and punish them severely so that the fear of the law is put in the industry?

Ravinder Singh is an FMT reader.