Construction work environment coordinator - how can their efficiency increase, and the work environment become safer?
At construction sites, there are often many different occupational groups and the work environment is complex. For more than ten years now, the Swedish Work Environment Authority has been requiring special coordinators to be responsible for the work environment when planning and carrying out the work. Researchers at IVL Swedish Environmental Institute will now evaluate these roles to increase understanding of how a functioning work environment can contribute to reducing the risk of incidents and injuries.
The construction industry is one of the industries with the most occupational injuries. Fparticipants that contribute to the complexity of the work environment are that many participants are involved, that workplaces are constantly changing and that there are often long chains of contrparticipants and subcontrparticipants who only work temporarily in the workplace. The work environment risks are also complex in themselves, such as working with chemicals, exposure to different types of dust and ergonomic risks.
In order to strengthen work environment, there have been legal requirements for ten years for there to be special work environment coordinators, Bas-P and Bas-U, who are responsible for the work environment when planning and carrying out the work on construction sites. Now, after ten years, it is interesting to examine how these roles work.
The project will map and evaluate these roles from a so-called MTO perspective, the interaction between people, technology and organization. Data will be collected, among other things, through interviews and visits to workplaces. Results and proposals will then be discussed with safety representatives, managers, HR employees and representatives from the Swedish Work Environment Authority.
The project is ongoing until 2021 and is expected to result in solid advice and recommendations for how to enable a good working environment in the construction industry with the help of the work environment coordinator roles. SEK 3.480 million has been granted in support from AFA Insurance.