Abstract
Considering its share in, and impact on national economies, the construction
industry receives additional attention in terms of its performance and
productivity, especially among small and medium contractors. However,
with the extensive workforce it employs, health and safety (H&S) issues have
become important, since the industry still has the reputation of being one of
those with the highest fatality and accident rates. It has been well established
from literature and previous studies (Fernandez-Muniz, Montes-Peon & Vazquez-
Ordas, 2007: 636; Rajendran & Gambatese, 2009: 1072) that managing H&S helps
to ensure that construction organisations are achieving their H&S objectives.
As such, H&S management practices constitute a vehicle to improve H&S
performance. Given the dominance of small and medium contractors in the
construction sector, the challenge is to determine what needs to be measured
and practised by these Small and Medium Construction Enterprises (SMCEs) at
project level. The objective of this article is to validate the H&S practices that
small and medium construction enterprises practise in order to improve H&S
performance at project level.