Safety Resources
The following resources are being provided to all construction firm leaders intent on creating a safer work environment:
How well is your construction firm maintaining its safety culture and climate? How is it possible to improve? This section provides a roadmap and food for thought to rethink and improve construction safety culture and climate. In addition, you can assess your firm's safety culture and climate through the confidential, free tools below.
Construction Safety Culture and Climate -The Relative Importance of Contributing Factors
Safety Culture + Climate Survey (S-Culture)
Asses your firm's S-Culture:
North Carolina Depart of Labor's The Labor Ledger - April 2020
This edition highlights the EMR research study. More information could be found here [PDF].
Experience Modification Rate as a Pre Qualification Criterion for Safety Performance: Shortcomings and Solutions – 2019
Experience Modification Rate (EMR) is commonly used as a prequalification criterion to assess the capabilities of bidders to perform work safely. The use of EMR as a safety pre-qualifier has substantially increased in recent years. This use raises a lot of questions since EMR has been designed as a tool for the insurance carriers to recoup costs on future premiums, not as a safety management tool. This research explored the factors that contribute to the EMR to evaluate its reliability and validity as a pre-qualifier.
A survey was designed and administrated by Dr. Al-Bayati and the North Carolina Department of Labor.Over138 firms that renewed their workers’ compensation policies with an EMR of 1.5 or higher were completed the survey. The study findings highlighted a lot of gray areas, which will help firms and safety personnel better utilizing EMR as a safety pre-qualifier. Overall, the study successfully bridges the gap of knowledge regarding the safety and non-safety factors that contribute to the EMR value.
Experience Modification Rate (EMR)
Using EMR as a Prequalification Criterion
Experience Modification Rate (EMR), also known as "MOD rate" and "Experience Modifier,” is commonly used as a pre-qualification criterion to assess the capabilities of bidders to perform work safely. Awarding contracts to firms with a subpar safety performance can lead to both fatal and non-fatal work-related injuries. Beyond the devastating human consequences of such incidents, these events can also have far-reaching effects on budget, project completion time, and the overall reputation of the contracting entity.
Learn more about whether EMR is the most effective tool in assessing firms and entities.
English Version
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Social Inequity in Construction Safety Research
The Hispanic Workforce Focus
The Hispanic construction workforce is the fastest-growing population in the United States. The construction industry has experienced significant growth in the Hispanic workforce, from 9% in the 1990s to over 32% in 2021. Hispanic workers often work as temporary laborers (i.e., independent contractors) due to their undocumented status, limited English, and potential lack of formal education. Hispanic workers face higher rates of fatal and nonfatal injuries when compared to other ethnic groups in the construction industry
The General Duty Clause was created under the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970 to protect workers in the absence of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard. It has been utilized by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to cite employers who are not necessarily violating a particular OSHA standard but still do not provide safe and healthful conditions to their employees.
The General Duty Clause’s primary goal is to assure healthy and safe working conditions for workers in the United States. The General Duty Clause poses a financial penalty (i.e., civil penalty) on those who violate it. However, these civil penalties are regulatory actions and not punitive measures, which means employers are not entitled to a trial by jury, proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and confrontation of witnesses.
Construction firms that employ more than ten employees are required to post an annual summary of job-related injuries and illnesses utilizing a form called OSHA 300-A. Here is an easy and practical tool to help construction and safety managers analyze OHSA 300-A forms. The tool provides a method for ranking the causes of work-related accidents in terms of frequency, which in turn assists practitioners in focusing on the causes of the most common occupational incidents.
