2.2 Designer Duties and Principal Contractor Obligations

2.2 Designer Duties and Principal Contractor Obligations

Who Counts as a "Designer" (CR 1)

Under Construction Regulation 1, a designer is (a) a competent person who prepares a design, checks and approves a design, arranges for someone under their control to prepare a design, or designs temporary work and its components; (b) an architect or engineer contributing to, or having overall responsibility for, a design; (c) a building services engineer designing details for fixed plant; (d) a surveyor specifying articles or drawing up specifications; (e) a contractor carrying out design work as part of a design-and-build project; or (f) an interior designer, shop-fitter or landscape architect. The definition therefore reaches far beyond the structural engineer, including the temporary works designers who design falsework, formwork, shoring or scaffolds.

Construction Regulation 6 recognises that many construction-phase fatalities and serious injuries originate on the drawing board. Decisions about building geometry, materials, foundation depths and façade maintenance fix much of a project's hazard profile before a contractor arrives.

Duties of the Designer of a Structure (CR 6(1))

The designer of a structure must:

• (a) ensure that the safety standards incorporated into the Regulations under Section 44 of the Act are complied with in the design;
• (b) take into consideration the client's health and safety specification;
• (c) before the contract goes to tender, make available in a report to the client all relevant health and safety information about the design that may affect the pricing of the work, the geotechnical-science aspects where appropriate, and the loading the structure is designed to withstand (the 2017 guideline note confirms that designs must be accompanied by this report);
• (d) inform the client in writing of any known or anticipated dangers relating to the construction work, and make available the information needed to execute the work safely, including when the design is later altered;
• (e) refrain from including anything in the design that necessitates dangerous procedures or hazardous materials that could be avoided by modifying the design or substituting materials;
• (f) take into account hazards relating to subsequent maintenance of the structure and make provision in the design for that work to be performed with minimal risk;
• (g) when mandated by the client, carry out inspections at appropriate stages to verify that the structure is being built in accordance with the design (if the designer is not mandated, the client's appointed agent is responsible for those inspections);
• (h) when so mandated, stop any contractor executing work that is not in accordance with the design's health and safety aspects (otherwise the client's appointed agent must do so);
• (i) when so mandated, include the health and safety aspects in the final inspection of the completed structure under the National Building Regulations, declare the structure safe for use, and issue a completion certificate to the client with a copy to the contractor (the published text letters this paragraph "(j)", so you will see two paragraphs lettered (j)); and
• (j) during design, take cognisance of ergonomic design principles to minimise ergonomic hazards in all phases of the structure's life cycle.

A typical exam application of paragraph (e): rather than designing a low parapet that forces roof maintenance workers onto fall-arrest equipment, the designer specifies a permanent parapet or guardrail of adequate height, eliminating the hazard at design stage.

Duties of the Temporary Works Designer (CR 6(2))

The designer of temporary works must ensure that all temporary works are adequately designed to support all anticipated vertical and lateral loads; that the designs are prepared with close reference to the structural design drawings issued by the contractor, consulting the contractor where uncertain; that all drawings and calculations are kept at the temporary works designer's office and made available to an inspector on request; and that the loads caused by the temporary works and any imposed loads are clearly indicated in the design.

Duties of the Principal Contractor (CR 7(1))

The principal contractor (PC) holds primary operational responsibility on site. It must:

• (a) provide and demonstrate to the client a suitable, sufficiently documented and coherent site-specific health and safety plan based on the client's specification, applied from commencement for the duration of the work and reviewed and updated as work progresses;
• (b) open and keep on site a health and safety file containing all documentation required by the Act and Regulations, available on request to an inspector, the client, the client's agent or a contractor;
• (c) on appointing any other contractor:
  • (i) give contractors tendering for its work the relevant sections of the client's specification;
  • (ii) ensure potential contractors have made sufficient provision for health and safety measures;
  • (iii) appoint no contractor unless reasonably satisfied that it has the necessary competencies and resources;
  • (iv) ensure, before work starts, that every contractor is registered and in good standing with the Compensation Fund or a licensed compensation insurer;
  • (v) appoint each contractor in writing for its part of the project;
  • (vi) take reasonable steps to ensure each contractor's plan is implemented and maintained;
  • (vii) ensure periodic site audits and document verification at agreed intervals, but at least once every 30 days;
  • (viii) stop any contractor whose work is not in accordance with the specification and plan or threatens the health and safety of persons;
  • (ix) make sufficient information and resources available when design or construction changes; and
  • (x) discuss and negotiate each contractor's plan and then finally approve it for implementation;
• (d) make its own plan and the contractors' plans available on request to an employee, inspector, contractor, the client or the client's agent;
• (e) hand over a consolidated health and safety file to the client on completion, including a record of all drawings, designs, materials used and similar information about the completed structure;
• (f) keep in the file an updated list of all contractors on site accountable to it, the agreements between the parties and the type of work being done; and
• (g) ensure all its employees have a valid medical certificate of fitness in the form of Annexure 3.

Duties of Every Contractor (CR 7(2)–(8))

Before performing any construction work, a contractor must provide and demonstrate to the PC a suitable health and safety plan based on the relevant sections of the client's specification; open and keep its own health and safety file on site; be reasonably satisfied that any contractor it appoints is competent and resourced; co-operate with the PC; and promptly give the PC any information that might affect health and safety or justify reviewing the plan (CR 7(2)). Where a contractor appoints another contractor, the PC duties in CR 7(1)(b) to (g) apply to it as if it were the PC (CR 7(3)). The PC must take reasonable steps to ensure co-operation between all the contractors it appoints (CR 7(4)).

Induction and Medical Certificates

• CR 7(5): no contractor may allow any employee or other person to enter a site unless that person has undergone health and safety induction training on the hazards prevalent on the site at the time of entry.
• CR 7(6): all visitors must undergo induction on the prevalent hazards and have the necessary personal protective equipment.
• CR 7(7): induction records must be kept on site and made available to an inspector, the client, the client's agent or the PC.
• CR 7(8): every contractor must ensure all its employees have a valid medical certificate of fitness specific to the work, issued by an occupational health practitioner in the form of Annexure 3. Under Section 1 of the Act, that term covers an occupational medicine practitioner or a person with an occupational health qualification recognised by the medical or nursing council, such as an occupational health nurse. The regulation sets no fixed validity period; follow the expiry date on the certificate.

Designer vs Principal Contractor Statutory Matrix