Why It’s Important for Home and Business Owners to Hire Contractors Who Use Safe Fall-Protection Practices

Roof fall protection is a crucial part of any design, or the steps and equipment used to avoid falling from height at a roofing worksite. Whether you are an independent contract roofer with your customer base, or a roofing business owner sending workers to work, drop coverage should be at the core of your security program. According to a survey it was found that in 2016 alone, 364 construction workers in the U.S. died in falls – that’s almost one per day.

Even with strict fall prevention laws and inspection programs in place, construction workers tend to get injured and even die as they work at height year after year. Sadly, height falls (including roofs) remain a leading cause. Federal guidelines allow the use of roofing equipment and/or structures to protect workers from roof drops while operating at height. Leading example can be of Canada, these rules are set out in Canada as part of the Canada Labor Code’s Occupational Health and Safety Regulations. For multiple reasons, health is a crucial element for all construction projects, including the security of welfare. However, the importance of safety as a cost-controlling measure is often overlooked by owners and contractors. Roofers face many hazards on the job, including hazards associated with working at heights and from ladders, power tools, electricity, noise, hazardous substances, and extreme temperatures, etc. Unless these hazards are controlled by the employer. Employers need to identify and take steps to address the hazards present to protect workers on roofing jobs.

Owners must recognize that all of the risks of the contractor, or even their hazard, will either add substantial costs to the project or reduce the potential gain that a contractor may make on any particular contract. Since every contractor is in business to deliver money to the bottom line, the “price of doing business” will be taken into account overhead. Expected losses should be considered and included in the estimate if the contractor wishes to remain in business. To take advantage of this security incentive, all the employer has to do is tell the contractor to report and enforce the appropriate safety measures that will protect the workplace employees.  Owners sometimes hesitate and feel that they are interfering with the contractor’s way of doing business if they express concerns over safety at a job site. In reality, owners have the absolute right to mandate that a quality safety program be an important part of the selected contractor’s culture.

Contractors are required to implement various safety procedures such as fall protection, hazard communication, respiratory protection, confined space entry, competent person and other programs that control the causes of injuries to avoid high-dollar losses caused by injuries. If the contractor succeeds in preventing such injuries, overhead insurance costs and hidden accident costs. Hidden Costs of an accident are 4 to 10 times more than the actual costs of the claim and account for items such as employee-replacement costs, loss of use, increased insurance costs, damaged product, etc.

The good news and easy way to solve such many of these accidents can be with proper roof fall safety systems and equipment.

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