Safety Science 83 (2016) 1–11

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Safety Science
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ssci

Construction safety practices and challenges in a Middle Eastern

developing country
Rita Awwad ⇑, Omar El Souki, Melanie Jabbour
Department of Civil Engineering, Lebanese American University, P.O. Box 36, Byblos, Lebanon

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The construction industry remains one of the most dangerous industries in the world accounting for a
Received 29 April 2015 high percentage of work-related injuries and fatalities despite the establishment and implementation
Received in revised form 27 October 2015 of safety programs in several developed countries. In developing countries where safety and health pro-
Accepted 29 October 2015
grams are still at their infancy or lack proper implementation, the situation is more critical. Lebanon, a
small developing country in the Middle East region, has been witnessing a substantial growth in its con-
struction market. However, achieving a safe work environment has been an ongoing challenge. This study
Keywords:
aims at assessing current safety practices in the Lebanese construction industry through conducting one-
Construction safety
Contractors
to-one interviews with the different parties concerned including contractors, consultants, owners, insur-
Consultants ance companies and governmental authorities. The study revealed the existence of construction labor
Insurance companies safety law but the absence of its enforcement, the initiation of safety programs but the lack of any mon-
Middle East itoring or follow-up, and a lack of safety education and commitment from all parties involved. The paper
Lebanon concludes with highlighting potential venues for enhancing safety awareness and adoption in Lebanon,
which may be of insight to other developing countries in the region.
Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction injuries and accidents. Unlike developed countries which have

To complement the exponential increase in the world popula-
tion, the construction industry has exhibited extensive growth in
the past years. The need for more shelters, workspaces, infrastruc-
tures, and facilities continues to expand the construction market
which has become a substantial sector of every economy. In the
United States, the construction industry alone contributed to
3.8% of the total GDP in 2009 (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis,
2011). However, construction work has been associated with high
numbers of work related injuries and fatalities which reached 50%
higher than any other industry in the U.S. (Huang and Hinze, 2006).
The situation is not any better in China and Australia where inci-
dents related to construction work have exceeded in number those
resulting from other industries (Zou, 2011). Such high injury rates
may be attributed to the characteristics of construction work
which greatly depends on the use of heavy machinery and neces-
sitates work under unfavorable conditions (Hallowell and
Gambatese, 2009).
As construction risks are high and worker-hazard interactions
are inevitable, safety systems have been developed to prevent
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +961 71404095.
E-mail addresses: rita.awwad@lau.edu.lb (R. Awwad), omar.elsouki@lau.edu
(O. El Souki), melanie.jabbour@lau.edu (M. Jabbour).
invested significant efforts to devise extensive safety standards
aiming at zero injury policies (e.g., OSHA in the US), construction
safety in developing countries is still at its infancy (Bust and
Gibb, 2006; Koehn and Reddy, 1999; Aires et al., 2010). Poor safety
performance in these countries can be attributed to uncooperative
clients, improper enforcement of regulations, and inadequate work
procedures (Bust and Gibb, 2006). The case in Middle Eastern
countries has not been any better (Alkilani et al., 2013;
Hassanein and Hanna, 2008; Kartam et al., 2000). In particular,
Lebanon, a small developing country in the Middle East region
exhibiting an exponentially growing construction sector in the
aftermath of a long civil war, has not shown any major leap
towards safety adoption despite the high costs associated with
work-related accidents. The country’s construction industry con-
stitutes 4% of its total GDP (United Nations Development
Programme, 2014), and employs about 9% of the total labor force
managed by the Lebanese Ministry of labor (Central
Administration of Statistics, 2011). The industry consists mostly
of unskilled foreign workers mainly of Syrian origins working at
low wages. Unemployment rates have always been high in Leba-
non (8.9% in 2012) and moreover, a recent study released by the
World Bank expects these rates to double due to the impact of
the Syrian political conflict on the country (World Bank, 2013).
Thus, with limited employment opportunities, low wage workers

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2015.10.016
0925-7535/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 R. Awwad et al. / Safety Science 83 (2016) 1–11
are willing to take unacceptable risks to keep their jobs (Koehn and
Reddy, 1999; Guldenmund et al., 2013).
Despite the high levels of accidents and the lack of awareness
about the ramifications of an unsafe workplace, there have been
no research studies pertaining to the safety awareness and prac-
tices in the Lebanese construction industry except for one study
by Fayad et al. (2003) which rather aimed at estimating the cost
of work-related injuries in insured workplaces. The former study
gathered and analyzed data about medical and compensation costs
per work injury in several employment sectors with the highest
percent of data (43%) coming from the construction industry. The
conducted analysis showed that the average cost per injury exclud-
ing human value cost was around $189 in the construction sector
in 1998 which is a considerable amount for such a small-scale mar-
ket like Lebanon characterized by a constantly fluctuating econ-
omy. This sole study about workplace safety in Lebanon
highlighted the economic burden occupational injuries inflict on
the country; nonetheless, it did not give the construction commu-
nity enough impetus to call for further action or research in order
to raise awareness about the importance of safety and take the
necessary measures. In fact, the absence of any governmental
efforts to keep record of accident injuries and fatalities on con-
struction sites makes safety the least of a contractor’s or devel-
oper’s concerns (International Labor Organization, 2010). Thus,
there is an urgent need to assess the current safety practices in
the Lebanese construction market, to understand the perceptions
of different constituents about safety, and to devise improvement
channels. This paper is the first to evaluate the status quo of safety
awareness and implementation in the Lebanese construction sec-
tor and to present a comprehensive assessment and interpretation
of the relevant weaknesses, challenges, and improvement poten-
tials. Data about the current working conditions, obstacles and
primitive initiatives were gathered through a series of one-to-one
interviews with key players in this field including contractors,
owners, consultants, insurance companies, and key governmental
bodies.
This paper first provides an extensive literature review about
construction safety adoption and weaknesses in some developing
countries and sheds light on the gap in safety performance with
developed countries. Then, the adopted research methodology is
explained including developed questionnaires used in the inter-
views with the different construction entities and conducted sta-
tistical analysis to test the significance of the survey results. This
is followed by a presentation and discussion of obtained responses
by contractors, consultants, owners and insurance companies.
Then, findings from semi-structured interviews with key govern-
mental entities are included along with an overview of Lebanese
safety regulations and their limitations in comparison with OSHA
standards. Finally, the paper concludes by summarizing the
Table 1
Causes of poor construction safety performance in developing countries as per the literature.
Poor safety performance caused by Reported in
Extensive subcontracting Hong Kong, Kuwait, Uganda
Absence of adequate safety training China, Saudi Arabia, South
Africa
Absence of safety officers on site China, Saudi Arabia, Uganda
Ineffective laws and lack of enforcement Honduras, India, Malawi,
Jordan
Extensive use of foreign workers Kuwait
Lack of workers’ self-protection and awareness Pakistan, China, Jordan
Uncooperative clients and inadequate work Botswana, Egypt, Nigeria,
procedures South Africa
Poor accident record keeping Kuwait
Lack of management commitment to safety Kuwait, South Africa, Malawi
budget allocation
obstacles towards a safe work environment in the Lebanese con-
struction market, devising recommendations and identifying
potentials to enhance the country’s safety practice and commit-
ment, which may be enlightening for other developing countries
in the surrounding region.
2. Construction safety in developing countries
The construction industry is one of the most dangerous indus-
tries which has resulted in the highest number of occupational
injuries and fatalities in the past years (Rosenfeld et al., 2006).
Although construction work shares the same high risk nature all
over the world, King and Hudson (1985) revealed that fatalities
in developing countries are three times as many as in developed
countries. A study by Hamalainen et al. (2006) further affirmed
that developing countries witness the most cases of accidents
and fatalities. For instance, the study reported that occupational
accident and fatality rates in the Middle Eastern Crescent (14,218
and 18.6 per 100,000 workers) exceed by far rates in established
market economies (3240 and 4.2 per 100,000 workers).
Many studies have been conducted in developing countries that
aimed at evaluating current safety practices and investigating the
causes behind poor safety performance. The main causes for the
high injury and fatality rates reported in most of the reviewed lit-
erature are extensive subcontracting, absence of safety training,
lack of safety awareness, inefficiency of safety regulations and leg-
islations, and unsupportive top management. Because subcontrac-
tors are simple in structure and lack safety commitment due to
resource limitations, extensive subcontracting can be a major rea-
son for poor safety performance (Wong and So, 2002). Moreover,
the absence of adequate safety training for workers and top man-
agement is also reported as a main reason for poor safety climate
in Saudi Arabia, China and Pakistan, beside other factors such as
lack of awareness, absence of personal protective equipment, first
aid and safety officers (Berger, 2008; Tam et al., 2004; Farooqui
et al., 2008). Inefficacy of regulations and policies is also mentioned
among main causes of poor safety environment (Alkilani et al.,
2013). For example, Koehn et al. (1995) attributed the bad safety
records in India to the improper enforcement of laws and regula-
tions and to corruption that is caused by bureaucratic controls
where accidents are not reported and in case reported, they are
settled through cash payments. Table 1 provides an extensive list
of the above causes among others as identified in prior articles
on the subject.
Further studies were conducted in the literature to investigate
the causes of the disparity in accident rates between developed
and developing countries. Two of the latter focused on comparing
safety and health systems in South Africa versus Singapore, and
According to
Wong and So (2002), Al Humaidi and Tan (2010), Irumba (2014)
Tam et al. (2004), Berger (2008), Teo et al. (2008), Zou and Zhang (2009)
Tam et al. (2004), Berger (2008), Irumba (2014)
Recarte Suazo and Jaselskis (1993), Koehn et al. (1995), Chiocha et al. (2011),
Alkilani et al. (2013)
Kartam et al. (2000)
Farooqui et al. (2008), Zou and Zhang (2009), Alkilani et al. (2013)
Bust and Gibb (2006), Teo et al. (2008)
Kartam et al. (2000)
Kartam et al. (2000), Teo et al. (2008), Chiocha et al. (2011)
 R. Awwad et al. / Safety Science 83 (2016) 1–11 3

Table 2
Comparison of construction safety behavior between developing and developed countries.

Safety performance gap Developing countries Developed countries

Training, competence and awareness of
workers
Top management commitment
Safety regulations and enforcement
Workers are not aware of their rights, do not understand
the necessity of safety, and receive little or no training
(Zou and Zhang, 2009)
Extensive subcontracting and unsupportive top
management (Wong and So, 2002)
Labor safety laws are either non-existent, or enacted but
not enforced, or implemented to a limited extent and
coverage (King and Hudson, 1985; Recarte Suazo and
Jaselskis, 1993)
Higher worker competence level and adequate training for all
workers (Teo et al., 2008; Zou and Zhang, 2009)
Management commitment to safety through regular
supervision, proper safety budget allocation and initiation of
comprehensive safety programs (Brabazon et al., 2000)
Health and safety regulations enacted, monitored and firmly
enforced such as OSHA standards in the U.S. (Hinze et al.,
2013)

China versus Australia (Teo et al., 2008; Zou and Zhang, 2009). Both
studies related the safety performance gap to (1) lack of manage-
ment commitment, (2) lack of supervision, and (3) difference in
training and competence levels on construction sites. On the other
hand, King and Hudson (1985) attributed the difference in safety
performance to the weak regulatory systems in developing coun-
tries. Table 2 summarizes the three main features of safety perfor-
mance gap between developed and developing countries as
identified in the literature.
3. Research methodology
An extensive search of the literature on safety practices and
issues in developing countries was conducted as shown in the pre-
vious section. The authors summarized the main aspects and chal-
lenges of establishing health and safety programs from prior
empirical studies in several developing countries and used them
as basis for designing survey questionnaires, which were then
altered and improved based on feedback of experts in the field.
In order to achieve a detailed and comprehensive evaluation of
the status quo of safety practice and commitment in the Lebanese
construction industry, this paper solicited input from all concerned
parties including contractors, consultants, owners, insurance com-
panies and governmental entities.
Multiple questionnaires were prepared and tailored to capture
each entity’s role and impact on safety awareness and implemen-
tation. The questionnaires were filled by the authors while con-
ducting face-to-face interviews with respondents from all
categories. Specifically, four separate questionnaires were devel-
oped where quantitative data was obtained through interviewing
contractors, consultants, owners, and insurance companies. A
common section across all questionnaires gathered information
about the company profile such as company size, number of ser-
vice years, scope of operation and annual work volume. The con-
tractors’ questionnaire was based on nine main safety areas
identified by the Construction Industry Institute (2002). It
included questions about the company profile, its management
commitment, staffing for safety, safety education, workers’
involvement, evaluation and recognition, subcontract manage-
ment, accident investigations, and drug and alcohol testing. As
for the consultants’ and owners’ questionnaires, they investigated
whether contractors are bound by contract to apply safety mea-
sures, if regular inspections are conducted and safety officers
assigned, if accidents are recorded and investigated, and whether
the contractor selection process takes safety behavior into consid-
eration. On the other hand, the questionnaire targeting insurance
companies identified the most commonly adopted insurance poli-
cies in the Lebanese market, and determined whether insurance
premiums are set based on the safety records of contractors
and whether accidents are investigated by insurance
representatives.
All of the questions had short answers or Yes/No answer. There
was no question that measured variables on a rank or interval scale
which does not allow any judgment about the data distribution
type. Thus, the results were statistically analyzed to draw conclu-
sions about the significance of the findings and to check for corre-
lation between variables. For this purpose, the one sample chi-
square and the chi-square methods were used (Foster and Parker,
1995).
Furthermore, two qualitative and semi-structured interviews
were conducted with main related governmental entities where
interviewers sat for one hour with each inquiring about Lebanese
safety regulations and obstacles without following a strict ques-
tionnaire format. The two interviewed parties are the Council for
Reconstruction and Development (CDR) which is the executive
arm of the council of ministers and is responsible for all public pro-
jects from inception to completion, and the supervisory board at
the Ministry of Labor that is in charge of inspecting and enforcing
labor safety regulations. These interviews were conducted after the
authors had formed a keen understanding of the weaknesses and
challenges of developing a Lebanese safe workplace from the for-
mer interviews with all other stakeholders. To have a complete pic-
ture about the government’s role in promoting a safe workplace,
the former interviews were complemented with a description of
the Lebanese labor safety regulations, decree # 11958, and com-
parison against OSHA requirements in order to point out the limi-
tations of local laws and to spot potential room for improvement.
4. Contractors’ survey results
For the purpose of assessing current safety practices by Leba-
nese contractors, a quantitative survey was conducted through
questionnaire-based interviews with fifteen contracting compa-
nies. The interviewees occupied the position of either a project
manager or safety manager in their companies. All respondents
operate in Lebanon; 33% of them have projects abroad as well.
The fifteen interviewed companies have their headquarters based
within the Lebanese territories. All firms are specialized in residen-
tial and commercial buildings with only three of them executing
transportation projects as well. Table 3 describes the profile of
interviewed companies including size, service years, number of
ongoing projects, area of operation, and presence of a safety and
health management system (SHMS).
Only eight out of the fifteen interviewed companies (53%) had a
Safety and Health Management System (SHMS) in place. The main
characteristics of an occupational safety health system, as identi-
fied by these respondents, included PPE provision, onsite safety
signage, toolbox meetings, workers’ training, regular site inspec-
tion by dedicated safety personnel, accident documentation and
investigation, penalizing safety violations and worksite analysis.
Some other items were not considered equally by all contractors
who adopted a SHMS. For example, workers’ participation in
4 R. Awwad et al. / Safety Science 83 (2016) 1–11

Table 3 Table 4
Profile of interviewed contractors. Relation between size of a contracting company and SHMS adoption.

Size of the company

Large Medium Small Total
Presence of a SHMS in action – observed (O)
No 0 3 4 7
Yes 6 2 0 8
Total 6 5 4 15
Presence of a SHMS in action – expected (E)
No 2.8 2.3 1.9 7
Yes 3.2 2.7 2.1 8
Total 6 5 4 15
(O E)2/E
No 2.8 0.19 2.44 5.43
Yes 2.45 0.17 2.13 4.75
Total 5.25 0.36 4.57 10.18
Chi value 10.18 Significant
Critical value 3.79

setting safety standards and accident investigation, creating safety

compliance incentives, presence of a nurse onsite, testing for drug
and alcohol abuse, subcontractor selection based on safety perfor-
mance were applied in varying degrees by contractors. This may be
due to the absence of a unified national safety and health manage-
ment system since respondents indicated that their safety systems
were based on a random combination of international standards
such as US standards (OSHA), international British standards (BS
OHSAS 18001), and ISO (14001) beside their experience on prior
projects.
Table 3 shows that all of the interviewed large companies (more
than 250 employees) had their own developed SHMS whereas
none of the small contractors (less than 50 employees) did. In addi-
tion, 85% of the companies with no SHMS reported working on less
than two projects per year while 62% of the companies with a
SHMS had more than five projects yearly. Therefore, a main obser-
vation that can be inferred from this survey is that there exists a
direct relation between the size of a contracting company and its
commitment to safety programs and measures. This may be
explained by the fact that small contractors would have to spend
on safety a higher proportion of their profits than medium and
large size contractors do (Zou, 2011). In order to test if the
observed effect of company size on its safety behavior is significant
in the Lebanese construction industry, the chi-square test was con-
ducted to verify the following hypotheses:
 Null hypothesis H0: There exists no relation between the size of a
contracting company and its implementation of a safety program.
 Alternate hypothesis H1: There exists a relation between the size of
a contracting company and its implementation of a safety program.
As shown in Table 4, the computed chi square value is higher
than its critical value which implies that the null hypothesis H0
shall be rejected. Thus, it can be concluded that the size of a con-
tracting firm affects its commitment to developing and adopting
a safety and health management system as expressed in the alter-
nate hypothesis H1.
4.1. Companies without SHMS
As mentioned previously, seven out of the fifteen interviewed
companies did not invest into developing a comprehensive safety
plan. As shown in Table 5, the most recurrent reason behind this
lack of commitment to a safe workplace was the absence of laws
or regulations enforcing safe practices. Other reported causes were
the perceived extensive time needed and high cost associated with
Table 5
Causes reported by contractors for not having SHMS.
safety implementation. The one sample chi-square test was used
here to evaluate whether the observed frequency scores for the
displayed answers happened by chance (null hypothesis) or fol-
lowed a certain distribution (alternate hypothesis). In this case,
the null hypothesis is rejected and the test turned out to be signif-
icant, as reflected in Table 5. This means that the observed results
are indicative that not enforcing safety by law is a major reason
behind not adopting safe practices by contractors. It is also worth
mentioning that when asked about the main incentive that would
push them to develop and implement a safety program, all respon-
dents indicated that to be a strict legislative action by the
government.
4.2. Companies with SHMS
This section summarizes the important findings about safety
practices of contractors who claimed to have their own developed
SHMS. Table 6 shows the answer frequencies to all questions under
this category and their significance. First, respondents indicated
that developing and adopting a safety health and management sys-
tem is an integral part of the company policy and not just a
requirement by the owner or consultant; this implies that these
companies would apply safety procedures even if not bound by
contract to do so. As for the safety budget allocation, no significant
pattern can be inferred from the survey results but it can only be
noted that three out of the eight respondents assigned less than
1% of the project cost to safety implementation. In this regard,
Table 6 reflects that only seven respondents revealed their bud-
get allocation to site safety while the eighth one did not disclose
any related information. All interviewees organized regular site
visits by top management, and seven out of eight companies
appointed health and safety officers who conducted frequent
 R. Awwad et al. / Safety Science 83 (2016) 1–11
Table 6
Survey results for contractors adopting SHMS.
inspections and provided training for workers as well as corre-
sponding resources such as meeting time, offices and tools for
safety purposes. Also, they all explained that their SHMS is often
updated based on project changes such as on site accidents, differ-
ent project phases, updates in reference standards or new site
requirements. Based on the aforementioned, it can be deduced that
project managers in general are willing to commit to safe work
practices in terms of invested time and effort yet within limited
budgets.
One of the most effective elements to reduce the risks of a cer-
tain activity is the safety and health training of all labor resources
in a project (Tam et al., 2004). Training falls within the safety edu-
cation along with safety meetings and safety signs and regulations.
The main aim of safety education is to make sure the workers are
aware of the site hazards and to train them to effectively deal with
those hazards. According to the survey results, safety meetings
were held on site and safety signage posted by almost all respon-
dents. Safety training covered mainly work procedures, use of
PPE, safe handling of equipment, and was provided by safety offi-
cers or site engineers who depended on their experience rather
than safety manuals. This suggests the necessity of having national
safety standards or guidelines according to which companies can
Table 7
Comparison between contractors with and without SHMS.
5
design their training programs rather than resorting to their own
experience or to a random collection of international standards.
The questionnaire further assessed tradesmen involvement in a
contractor’s SHMS through participation in setting safety rules,
accident investigation, and safety training. As shown in Table 6,
the interviewed companies showed different practices regarding
these matters and thus no major generalization about contractors
with SHMS can be made in this regard.
4.3. Comparison between contractors with and without SHMS
This section shows the answers to a set of questions that were
asked to both categories of contractors, with and without SHMS, in
order to assess the difference in their attitudes towards safety
regarding simple measures such as posting safety signs and regu-
lations and more sophisticated ones such as assigning a nurse on
site or conducting work site analysis. Table 7 shows for which
aspects the two categories showed significant difference in their
performance and for which others they exhibited similar behavior.
For example, it was observed that all companies with SHMS posted
safety regulations and signs in their job sites to raise awareness
towards potential site hazards, however, none of the firms without
6 R. Awwad et al. / Safety Science 83 (2016) 1–11
SHMS did. On the other hand, and as part of accident management,
contractors were asked whether they ensured the presence of a
nurse or physician on site or at a nearby location. The survey
highlighted the lack of awareness about the importance of having
primitive medical care on site regardless of the existence of a
SHMS.
One important aspect of safety education is reinforcement of
safe practices among workers through creating a relevant reward-
ing system. This survey revealed that half of the companies with
SHMS recognized the safe performance of their employees through
either monetary or verbal rewards, which was not the case in com-
panies with no SHMS. As for safety related misconduct, all contrac-
tors with SHMS took measures up to termination of work. Even
contractors without SHMS took measures against unsafe behavior
as well; five of which reached job termination, one adopted
decrease in monthly pay, and the last used verbal warning. This
shows strict compliance to safety when it comes to punishment
of unsafe behavior but also highlights the necessity to enhance
the safety adherence rewarding system in both categories of
companies.
Testing for drug and alcohol abuse is another aspect intervie-
wees were asked about in order to assess their strictness about
workers’ behavioral conduct. Although none of the interviewed
companies tested its employees for drug or alcohol abuse neither
upon employment nor during work, a written document banning
substance abuse existed in workers’ contracts in just 50% of the
companies with SHMS. This shows the lack of awareness among
Lebanese contractors about the importance of drug and alcohol
testing for employees.
Hallowell and Gambatese (2009) affirm that subcontract man-
agement is among the most effective tiers of SHMS. This is partic-
ularly true in the construction industry where most of the work is
usually subcontracted. For instance, 93% of the surveyed contrac-
tors in this study indicated that they had portions of their pro-
jects subcontracted. Therefore, contractors were asked if they
selected subcontractors based on their safety performance and
if proper provisions were included in their contracts. As indicated
in Table 6, only three out of the eight companies with SHMS con-
sidered safety performance of subcontractors during the bid
selection process. Nevertheless, they all indicated that once
awarded the project, a subcontractor is bound by contract to
comply with the contractor’s SHMS (Table 7). Respondents indi-
cated that safety practices were diffused to subcontractors during
safety meetings and proper implementation was monitored by
the contractor’s administrative personnel. In case of any breach
of the safety subcontract terms, a subcontractor received a verbal
or written warning, or a monetary penalty and rarely termination
of contract. As for companies with no SHMS, none of the compa-
nies considered safety neither in choosing the subcontractor nor
in contract with the latter.
Fig. 1. Consultants’ survey results regarding safety implementation, standards, and inspection frequency.
Finally, accident/incident record keeping is essential to identify
and solve for deficiencies in the current safety program which
allows for continuous improvement in the safety performance of
a contracting firm. All companies with SHMS kept record of acci-
dents and incidents, whereas only three out of the seven firms
without SHMS did. The survey identified further the parties
responsible for accident investigation to be the insurance repre-
sentative (in companies with no SHMS) or the SO (in companies
with SHMS), both being assisted by the PM. On another hand,
seven out of eight companies with SHMS reported conducting
work site analysis and updating their safety programs accordingly
to deal with job specific hazards. However, only four out of seven
contractors with no SHMS did. Based on the aforementioned, it
can be noted that contractors who adopted a SHMS showed more
seriousness about accident data collection, analysis and safety pro-
gram update.
5. Consultants’ perspective
Consultants play a key role in monitoring safety provisions on
construction sites and therefore, a questionnaire was developed
in this study to measure the impact they may have on the adoption
of safety in the Lebanese construction sector. In this survey, six
consultants were interviewed with five being large consultants
and the remaining one being a small sized one. Four of them oper-
ate both locally and internationally. All interviewed consultants
have more than ten years of experience and work collectively on
an average total contract volume exceeding 390 Million dollars
per year. This makes the group of interviewed firms a relatively
good representative sample of the Lebanese construction consult-
ing market.
As shown in Fig. 1, one third of consultants developed their own
SHMS and made sure these systems are implemented on site pro-
vided they are more stringent than the contractor’s own safety
standards. Another 33% of the companies implemented safety
requirements following the owner’s directive which implies that
these consultants endorsed safety only if requested to do so by
the owner. The remaining 33% reported applying the minimum
safety standards mentioned in the contract which are typically
set by the insurance company or the contractor. Based on the sur-
vey findings, the main role of consultants in a project safety
scheme entailed inspecting if safety measures specified in the con-
tract by owner, contractor or insurance company are properly
implemented on site, conducting regular inspections, and partici-
pating in accident investigations along with the insurance repre-
sentative, the safety officer and the concerned worker or
foreman. Respondents provided varying answers when asked
about their followed safety standards and inspection frequencies
as reflected in Fig. 1. Based on the aforementioned, we can
 R. Awwad et al. / Safety Science 83 (2016) 1–11
Table 8
Contract management by consultants.
conclude that the majority of the interviewed consultants cared
only to implement the minimum safety requirements set in con-
tract by owner or contractor, and did not take any initiative to
develop and enforce their own safety policies. This implies that
consultants are still not aware of or not willing to exert the vital
role they can have in enhancing safe practices in the Lebanese con-
struction sector.
Another statistically significant pattern inferred from the inter-
views with consultants, reflected in Table 8, is that none of them
provided incentives for contractors to adopt safety but only few
had taken some penalizing measures in case of safety breaches.
Besides, consultants reported that they were not always given
the unconditional right by owners to stop the work in case of safety
violation. To further assess their role in contract management, con-
sultants were asked whether previous safety records of contractors
are taken into consideration when awarding contracts. Half of the
interviewed firms stated that safety does not have any role in the
contractor selection process, and the other half claimed that it
slightly influences their choice. This again reflects the unawareness
of consultants about the importance of safety behavior in the ten-
dering process as they tend to disregard or minimize safety perfor-
mance weight which could jeopardize safety standards and quality
expectations in projects (Wanberg et al., 2013).
6. Owners’ survey analysis
Six owners were interviewed during this survey, with five out of
six having more than ten years of experience in their domain and
the remaining one having less than five years of experience. All
of these owners work on residential/commercial projects with only
one of them working on infrastructure and wastewater treatment
plant projects as well. Three of these owners reported working
on two projects or less per year, two of them work on three to five
projects per year and the last one has more than five ongoing pro-
jects each year.
Five out of the six surveyed owners considered that they have
moral obligation and duty towards their employees and thus
required safety implementation on their projects, as shown in
Table 9. These companies were either affiliated internationally or
Table 9
Contract management by owners.
7
owners that have been in the business for more than ten years.
However, only two of these firms had appointed dedicated admin-
istrative personnel in charge of visiting and inspecting the
worksite.
When requiring safety measures on site, it is important to keep
track of accidents so that adherence to safety can be checked and
performance gaps identified. Four out of the six interviewed com-
panies cared to keep records of accidents which were either inves-
tigated by the safety officer or the project manager. The survey also
addressed the issue of whether corrective measures were adminis-
tered after the occurrence of accidents. Only two firms responded
that they would usually organize an urgent safety meeting
between the owner’s and the contractor’s safety representatives
following accidents in order to update the existing safety program.
Table 9 shows also the answers to questions about the role of
owners in enhancing safety commitment of contractors through
taking into account their prior safety records in the contract award
procedure and including incentives in contract for safety adoption.
Similarly to the consultants’ feedback about these matters, none of
the interviewed owners offered any reward for implementing
safety measures except one which indicated that a contractor fol-
lowing a SHMS is usually given priority when bidding on future
projects. Furthermore, only two of the six respondents prequalified
contractors based on their safety reputation.
7. Survey findings for insurance companies
A total of nine insurance companies participated in the survey,
all of which have been operating for more than ten years in the
market and mostly providing all types of insurances. All companies
insured all types of construction work and stated that risks associ-
ated with the nature of the contractor’s work primarily dictated
premium values. Respondents indicated that workmen’s compen-
sation and third party liability insurances were more commonly
requested than the all-risk insurance in the Lebanese sector. All
surveyed contractors reported obtaining a combination of these
except few of the companies with SHMS who purchased all three
types simultaneously.
7.1. Effect of a contractor’s safety performance on its insurance
premium
Based on the survey results, it was observed that five out of the
nine interviewed companies considered contractors’ safety perfor-
mance when setting their premium rates. Three of these firms
mainly rely on contractors’ accident records on prior projects that
they have insured, while the remaining two organize site inspec-
tions. However, none of the companies considered reviewing and
evaluating the complete SHMS of a contracting firm prior to deter-
mining its insurance rate; and only 33% of them conducted onsite
inspections during the project execution afterwards, as shown in
Table 10. This indicates that insurance companies still do not rec-
ognize or emphasize the necessity of developing and implementing
8 R. Awwad et al. / Safety Science 83 (2016) 1–11
Table 10
Role of insurance companies in enhancing contractor’s safety.
a comprehensive safety program by the contractor, but rather
depend on their accident records on previous projects with him.
This is also supported through the statistically significant pattern
shown in Table 10 where all companies reported keeping previous
accident records of their insured contractors. In addition, premium
rates are determined based on previous safety records without
constantly monitoring whether declared safety measures in con-
tracts are being implemented correctly and well maintained
throughout the project timeline.
Furthermore, insurance companies were asked whether the
safety performance of a contractor during the course of a project
alters his initially obtained premium. Seven out of nine firms
responded that, upon a policy extension request for an unfinished
project, they varied their rates based on ongoing accident records.
The different approaches followed by the nine interviewees
regarding this matter are reflected in Fig. 2. It was noted that the
increase in premiums reached as high as 200% while the decrease
was limited to a maximum of 20%.
7.2. Feedback of insurance companies
The last part of the questionnaire was concerned with obtaining
feedback of insurance companies regarding the missing factors and
the potential incentives that can improve safety implementation
on Lebanese construction sites. Respondents listed some of the
weaknesses observed on site to be deficient equipment, low qual-
ity material, lack of safety education and training for workers, and
lack of awareness of contractors. When asked about potential
venues for improving safety implementation onsite, some insur-
ance firms recommended law enforcement and investigation, reg-
ular inspections, rewarding zero-accident performance, increasing
safety awareness through seminars and campaigns, and enhancing
insurance policy requirements to account for the safety feature.
However, the latter remain mere suggestions as long as insurance
firms do not take a serious and firm stand towards improving
safety through making the contractor’s comprehensive SHMS a pri-
Fig. 2. Effect of safety performance of contractors on their insurance premiums
during project execution.
mary factor in determining his insurance premium. This should
also apply in the case where an insurance company is insuring a
contractor for the first time through inquiring about his safety
records from his previous insurance providers. However, this is
not the current practice as only two of the nine companies con-
firmed that contractors’ loss ratio is obtained from other compa-
nies if no specific records are present (Table 10). This allows
contractors to change current insurer whenever premium is high
due to high accident frequency and start again at base levels. The
questionnaire concluded by suggesting the creation of a national
database that stores information about safety practices and acci-
dent records of all contractors in the market, and that can be made
available to all insurance companies. Although all interviewees
were positive about the effect of such tool on the adoption of con-
struction safety, only six out of nine showed willingness to provide
and use data from such a database.
8. The government role
After interviewing the different constituents in the construction
sector (contractors, consultants, owners and insurance companies)
that may have a potential impact on the enhancement of safety in
construction sites, this study would have not been comprehensive
without assessing the government’s role and initiatives in this
regard. Thus, this section summarizes the feedback obtained
through interviewing two governmental bodies: the Council for
Reconstruction and Development (CDR) and the supervisory board
at the Ministry of Labor.
The Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR) is a
Lebanese governmental organization established in 1977 as an
independent entity taking direct orders from the council of minis-
ters and responsible for all public projects’ phases from planning to
completion. In order to assess safety adoption and implementation
on public projects, an interview was conducted with a senior trans-
portation engineer in the CDR. It was found that safety is of main
concern on projects under CDR authority. While having its own
safety standards enforced on their sites by the project consultant,
the CDR does not appoint a safety officer or a safety inspector to
conduct further inspections. It was also found that contractors
are bound by contract to follow CDR safety regulations; however,
the pre-qualification process during bid award phase does not take
into account the contractor’s safety performance which converges
with the observed practice by consultants and owners. The inter-
viewee stated that no reward is offered in case of good safety per-
formance; however, if a safety violation occurs, punishments can
range from a warning by the consultant, to monetary punishment,
then direct warning from the CDR and ultimately to a breach of
contract.
As for the government role in promoting and monitoring safety,
the Lebanese Government has released decree #11958 in 2004 to
regulate protective actions, preventive methods and safety in con-
struction. The decree applies to all work which incorporates con-
struction and civil activities including renovations, finishes,
residential/commercial facilities, transportation projects, dams
and wastewater networks among other types of work. A branch
of the Ministry of Labor, the supervisory board, is responsible for
the enforcement of the law on all the Lebanese territories. How-
ever, the conducted interview at the ministry reflected that the
law is poorly enforced due to a number of limitations. The supervi-
sory board is understaffed, lacks resources and is limited to a cen-
tral office in the capital Beirut making inspections in remote areas
nearly absent. Also, most construction workers are of Syrian origins
working under unfavorable conditions on daily-basis contracts and
are usually not registered in the ministry of Labor. This makes
tracking all work injuries and following up on health and safety
of the labor force a hardship.
 R. Awwad et al. / Safety Science 83 (2016) 1–11
9. Lebanese safety regulations versus OSHA
A key factor in motivating construction contractors to develop
their own safety programs with the necessary budget and
resources allocation is having enforceable and strict safety legisla-
tions. In order to assess the effectiveness of the existing Lebanese
safety regulations, the aforementioned Lebanese safety decree
11958, consisting of 52 articles, was extensively studied by the
authors and compared against its American counterpart, namely
the US OSHA 1926 requirements (Mancomm, 2014). The decree
provides general guidelines to mitigate for various hazardous con-
ditions that may occur on construction sites and impose risk on
workers’ health and life. Scaffolds and walkways, excavation and
demolition works, working on roofs, operation of equipment, train-
ing and unconventional works, firefighting and explosives are
some of the topics covered under this decree among others. It
was observed that this decree is very general and lacks the speci-
ficity found in OSHA requirements. Two of many other examples
of discrepancies found between the two regulations are listed
below:
 Unlike the extensive OSHA scaffold design guidelines where
each scaffold component is required to be able to support its
own load in addition to at least four times the maximum
intended load applied to it, the Lebanese law does not define
required strength of scaffolds and planks but rather indicates
that materials should be of good quality.
 The Lebanese law does not provide maximum wall slopes rela-
tive to soil type for excavations nor specifies the conditions
where protective systems are required. Moreover, it states that
excavated soils should be stored at a distance from excavations
without specifying any value. On the contrary, OSHA guidelines
specify that excavations shall be sloped at an angle not steeper
than 1.5H:1V, and that excavated soils should be stored at least
0.6 m back from the edge of the excavation.
It can be concluded that Lebanese construction safety regula-
tions lack the needed specificity to be adequately implemented
and the required proactive inspection efforts to be properly
enforced. This leaves the extent of law implementation up to the
contractor’s subjective interpretation of the regulations, his
responsibility towards his employees, and his professional ethics,
especially in the absence of enforcing and monitoring bodies.
10. Study limitations
This paper aimed at presenting a comprehensive picture of con-
struction safety awareness in the Lebanese industry through solic-
iting the perspective of various stakeholders including contractors,
consultants, owners, insurance companies and governmental enti-
ties. However, the authors recognize the following limitations of
the present study that may affect the reliability of the results:
(1) A relatively limited sample size of contractors, consultants,
insurance companies, owners and governmental entities
that confines our ability to generalize the results to the
entire construction industry. This is due to the fact that
the Lebanese market is relatively a small market within its
region with a lot of political and economic instability which
shortens the entry-exit cycle of a company and results in a
low number of well-established permanent firms. Besides,
some of the contacted parties were reluctant to disclose
information that they deemed sensitive (e.g. insurance com-
panies) or were not completely transparent in revealing real
safety practices on their construction sites (e.g. contractors).
9
For instance, the authors noted that few interviewed con-
tractors mentioned providing and enforcing the use of PPE
on their sites nonetheless, it was observed that some of their
workers did not wear any. These interviews were discarded
from the results.
(2) The study did not include the perspective of workers on
safety importance, existence and efficiency of training, as
well as fairness of injury compensation. As mentioned previ-
ously, most of construction workers in Lebanon are of for-
eign countries, work on daily-basis contracts and do not
belong to any labor unions. Thus, in the fear of losing their
jobs, these workers are mostly expected to be biased when
asked about their wellbeing on the jobsite.
11. Discussion
Survey findings revealed that all construction constituents in
the Lebanese industry share the responsibility of poor safety per-
formance observed at construction sites. First, owners and consul-
tants do not play an active role in encouraging contractors to
effectively plan for and enhance their safety programs. Interviews
with these entities indicated that the safety performance of con-
tractors is rarely taken into consideration during the project bid
award phase and most contracts do not include safety compliance
incentives to reward safe work procedures during the construction
phase. As the project progresses, owners and consultants become
more focused on meeting schedule milestones and keeping the
project within budget and eventually pay less attention to main-
taining a safe workplace.
Moreover, the study showed that large contracting firms tend to
invest into designing their own safety programs, whereas small
size companies, which constitute the majority in the market and
which typically operate on a tight budget, do not even meet the
minimum safety requirements on their jobsites. Subcontractors
and workers, who are the main entities performing the work under
the supervision of contractors, can have a main contribution to a
safe workplace. However, subcontractors are not selected based
on their safety behavior and workers are not always involved in
setting the contractor’s safety management system though they
are the most knowledgeable about the site hazards.
On another hand, contractors reported varying features of their
safety and health management systems which demonstrates the
necessity to develop standardized national safety assessment and
management systems. These systems can form the basis of con-
tractors’ safety programs and ultimately facilitate the job of safety
inspectors. The labor inspection structure in the country lacks suf-
ficient resources and proper planning of inspection visits at the
national level. Despite the existence of the Lebanese labor law
and a specific decree pertaining to safety of construction opera-
tions, survey findings revealed that most stakeholders are not
aware of its presence. Moreover, the lack of any official documen-
tation of accidents and fatalities by the Ministry of Labor or any
other governmental institution renders safety the least of owners’
and contractors’ concerns. This calls for an urgent reform of the
Lebanese labor law and construction safety legislations to comply
with international standards and conventions and to include provi-
sions for wide national inspection schedules and accident data reg-
istries. At this point, it is mandatory to involve construction
workers in this reformative action who may provide a valuable
feedback about common dangerous site conditions and recurring
accidents. In the same context, studies about the workers’ condi-
tions at Lebanese construction sites shall be conducted to better
address weaknesses in the current safety regulations. And most
importantly, the government must work on allocating the ade-
quate inspection resources (human and capital) and decentralizing
the supervisory board through the establishment of branches in
10 R. Awwad et al. / Safety Science 83 (2016) 1–11
each of the six Lebanese governorates enabling more frequent
inspections in remote sites. Moreover, the construction labor safety
decree shall be revised to include more specificity in design and
implementation approaches, and shall be extended to include
proper provisions for inspections and citations. Such efforts can
have a great influence on increasing the awareness about safety
among all key players and enforcing its implementation.
In their turn, none of the interviewed insurance companies
evaluated whether a contractor has a comprehensive safety and
health management system in place when assessing policy premi-
ums. Rather, some insurance companies reported referring to prior
accident records of contractors on previously insured projects with
them or conducting onsite inspections in order to determine their
premiums for new projects. Furthermore, when dealing with a new
contractor, most insurance companies in Lebanon do not investi-
gate about the contractor’s loss ratio or accident levels in previous
projects prior to setting his premium. Thus, contractors can easily
shift between insurance companies when accident levels are high
in order to avoid any increase in policy rate. This distorts any rela-
tion between adopting safety measures and saving on insurance
fees in the eyes of contractors. To remedy for the latter, it is recom-
mended that a national database be established where all insur-
ance companies are required to provide accident records of their
insured contractors. Such a database can limit the capability of
contractors to save on insurance premiums by shifting between
insurance companies. As a result, a contractor may consider devel-
oping a safety and health management system as a less costly
approach when compared to increasing premiums rates. Also,
insurance companies shall motivate contractors to adopt safe prac-
tices through constant monitoring of their performance and
adjustment of their premiums.
12. Conclusion
This study provides a broad perspective of the constraints hin-
dering the development of safe work practices in the Lebanese con-
struction sector. Not all contractors show the same commitment to
a safe workplace and almost half of them have zero interest in the
topic. In the case where a SHMS exists, it is subjectively based on a
combination of international standards or sometimes on the con-
tractor’s expertise in the absence of unified national occupational
safety and health guidelines. By not considering previous safety
performance in awarding contracts, owners and consultants in
their majority are not playing an influential role in motivating con-
tractors to develop safety programs. Insurance companies also
practice little inspection of construction sites and do not conduct
a comprehensive evaluation of a contractor’s SHMS when deter-
mining his insurance premium. Furthermore, accident records of
contractors are not shared between insurance companies. This
allows contractors with bad safety records to easily switch
between insurance companies seeking lower premium rates
within a fiercely competitive market. On top of the aforemen-
tioned, the study reveals a lack of governmental commitment to
safety manifested through the absence of legislation enforcement,
shortage in inspection resources, and lack of occupational injuries
databases.
These findings call attention to the need for development of
national construction safety standards, policies, inspection sys-
tems, and databases where commitment and collaboration
between all construction stakeholders is of utmost importance to
achieve the desired safety climate on construction sites. This study
presents insightful observations about the Lebanese construction
sector which can constitute the basis for further academic research
about potential policies and strategies that may reduce unsafe
practices and that could be of significance to other developing
countries.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank all participants including contracting
firms, owners, consultants, insurance companies and governmen-
tal authorities for their valuable input into this study.
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