Interview with ACHASM on construction health and safety

Interview with ACHASM on construction health and safety

Association of Construction Health and Safety Management (ACHASM) executive director Anton Krause speaks on emerging professionalisation in the practice.

Sheqafrica.com; What is ACHASM’s role in organised industry and registration?

Krause; We are provisionally recognised by the SACPCMP as a voluntary association, that focuses only on construction health and safety, and serves members who believe in shaping and sharing best practice in construction HS risk management.

We offer a neutral platform and a single voice for members to communicate with other built environment professional voluntary associations, built environment councils, state departments and other bodies, to help educate the built environment in construction health and safety.

Construction health and safety exams

Sheqafrica.com; What is your view on SACPCMP registration mechanisms, and exams?

Krause; The registration mechanisms are tried and tested in the existing registration of the SACPCMP professional Construction Project Managers (CPMs) and Construction Managers (CMs), as they have been registering these two categories for a number of years now and have fine-tuned their processes.

The construction HS categories will be the first of the registration categories to go live on their new website and this should speed up the registration process and will allow for a quicker response time to applicants.

Professional exams are proposed as a second stage of the assessment process for both the Construction Health and Safety Officer and Construction Health and Safety Manager registration, while professional Construction Health and Safety Agents will undergo an interview as the second stage of the SACPCMP assessment process.

Construction HS registration fees

Sheqafrica.com; What is your view of SACPCMP construction health and safety professional registration fees?

Krause; Registration fees are determined by the SACPCMP as they have certain overheads and costs in order to register an applicant in one of the three construction HS practitioner categories. This covers the initial assessment for all applicants and a professional exam or a professional interview depending on the category registering for. We believe that the registration fees are reasonable.

An expensive extra, is the travel costs added to this figure for out-of-town applicants travelling from further afield. The SACPCMP will be looking at regionalising the professional exam and interview process in the near future.

As for the SACPCMP registration process for the three health and safety categories, we are happy with what has transpired so far, and support the SACPCMP in their development of this important task.

Many construction health and safety bodies

Sheqafrica.com; What is your view on SACPCMP partnerships, other health and safety registrars IOSH SA and IOSM, emergent bodies such as DASH, and the great number of bodies already serving constuction health and safety?

Krause; SACPCMP is a government council and they should be neutral and recognise voluntary associations that meet their stipulated criteria.

Concerning professional designations for safety alone, granted by SAQA to IOSM, ACHASM focuses only in the built environment, not across other industry sectors, where IOSH SA and IOSM operate. We cannot comment on their dealings with SAQA and the potential outcomes of their discussions.

I want to believe that both health and safety should be focused on across all industry sectors, as health incidents cost South African taxpayers much more than safety related incidents.

About the proposed unification of IOSH SA and IOSM, we cannot comment on whether this is a good or bad initiative between the two parties. Any move to unite to improve health and safety in South Africa could be positive, if the unity is not for self-serving purposes, and if we could all share in the benefit it brings.

About DASH and other emerging bodies, there is no stopping anybody from starting an institute or association, as long as they can comfortably say that they can serve the best interests of the public and their membership, through discipline and the display of genuine professionalism.

About the multiplicity of organisations serving construction health and safety, construction safety performance has not had a good name over the years, due to lack of guidance, policing, discipline and poor professionalism in industry. This combination is manifest in the unrecognisable marketplace in which we serve.

I believe there should be more coherent interaction among the various organisations serving construction H&S, where long, medium and short term goals are set in collaboration with the Department of Labour, and where one day we can work as a collective whole in ensuring that the public and workers are protected from poor practices that often leads to unnecessary incidents and losses. I believe that most of these organisations want the same thing in the long run.

• Anton Krause is a specialist construction client HS risk advisor, MA (Bus Studies Organ Psych), BCom Hons Dip (Paralegal), Tech Dip TQM (Sheq). He is registered as Pr CHSA, UK RMaps (CDM and DRM) and ANALP. His memberships are Machasm, IOSM, and UK RMaps AIIRSM MNalp.

Source: http://sheqafrica.com/construction-health-and-safety/