Critical Elements for Contract Worker Risk: A Contractor Safety Initiative
Project Team: Wirth, Chaumont Menendez, Wassell, Biddle
Date: December 2008
Summary
Contract workers, who perform services for a client but are not employees of the host employer, experience occupational fatalities and serious injuries more frequently than non-contract employees. The purpose of this research effort is to identify and evaluate tools and methods that address three themes: risk identification, risk perception and risk communication.
The project comprised two parts. Part I (Literature Review and Synthesis of Methods and Tools for Risk Identification, Risk Perception and Risk Communication) described the results of a literature search on current state-of-the-art approaches for these three themes and identifies the various methods of risk identification, risk perception and risk communication that are currently used for contract workers. In addition, the report included an assessment of the methods presently used:
- To identify those methods that may be most effective in preventing occupational injuries and fatalities;
- To reveal the ways that current methods are failing to prevent occupational injuries and fatalities; and
- To find opportunities for improvement.
The literature search, the critical assessment of the current state-of-the-art, and the effectiveness assessment constitutes the first deliverable report (Part I) of this research effort.
A second document (Recommendations for a Method of Risk Identification, Risk Perception, and Risk Communication) constitutes Part II of this research project. The report details a best practice method that has the potential to improve on the current methods and more effectively identify risk, enhance risk perception and more effectively communicate risks to contract workers.
The second report and its recommendations are intended for safety professionals, safety staff, and management or owners of businesses who utilize contract workers for hazardous work. It describes the roles and responsibilities of key personnel associated with the contractor safety process, and how the process can be adapted for contract workers in different settings. It is intended to serve as a guide to help safety professionals, safety staff, and management or owners of businesses develop an effective safety program for contract workers. The report also includes a framework for identifying key roles in the safety process and assigning responsibility for important tasks.
To address the breakdown in the communication of information about hazards and risks to contract workers, the report describes an 8-step comprehensive safety process, the Contract Worker Safety Process. This method incorporates not only the critical elements of risk identification, risk perception, and risk communication, but it also incorporates additional process elements for ongoing safety monitoring and review to allow the safety process to adapt and respond to emerging safety problems.
Finally, the report recommends a methodology to assess the effectiveness of the newly developed method that may be conducted in future research. The research methodology for this evaluation will be based on a sound scientific approach that will yield a definitive assessment of the practicality and effectiveness of this new method that, hopefully, will contribute to the ultimate goal of reducing occupational fatalities and serious injuries among contract workers.
