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Construction Incentivization pp 197–214Cite as

Means to Incentivize Safety Compliance at Work

Part of the Digital Innovations in Architecture, Engineering and Construction book series (DIAEC)

Abstract

Construction is one of the most dangerous sectors to work in; governments from various countries enact health and safety regulations to cultivate good health habits and impose stakeholders’ duties to ensure the work environment is safe. However, these regulations always impose penalties on the stakeholders of construction organizations in attaining their objectives. This chapter gives an overview of these regulations in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore and discusses the effectiveness of these penalties that Deterrence Theory underpins. In addition, alternative means to incentivize safety compliance at work from literature are discussed. Recommendations are then given for further research on incentivizing safety compliance in the construction sector. These include developing incentive and penalty provisions in construction contracts, revisiting the applicability of Deterrence Theory and reinforcing the link between safety incentives and compliance at construction sites.

Keywords

  • Safety compliance
  • Construction health and safety
  • Incentives
  • Penalty

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Mr. Zechen Guan for collecting and reviewing literature for this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Built Environment, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Tak Wing Yiu

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  1. Tak Wing Yiu
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Correspondence to Tak Wing Yiu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Construction Dispute Resolution Research Unit, Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Sai On Cheung

  2. School of Management, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China

    Liuying Zhu

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Yiu, T.W. (2023). Means to Incentivize Safety Compliance at Work. In: Cheung, S.O., Zhu, L. (eds) Construction Incentivization. Digital Innovations in Architecture, Engineering and Construction. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28959-0_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28959-0_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-28958-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-28959-0

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