Coordinator(s)

  • Billy Hare, Glasgow Caledonian University, UK
  • Fred Sherratt, University of Colorado, USA

Objectives and Scopes

‘Remember the dead, and fight like hell for the living’

The Commission is committed to the advancement of the safety, health and wellbeing (SHW) of the construction industry workforce across the world.  This includes both blue collar (e.g. site trades) and white collar (professional) workers, with due recognition that it is frontline construction-site workers who are most at risk of injury, illness and death on sites.

Not only does our research look to site-based fundamentals of good SHW management, but also to the wider industry factors that also have influence.  Thus our scope is broad, including but not limited to the research of design, procurement, planning, training, leadership and organisational culture, as they influence the SHW of the workforce as a whole.  Such upstream activities influence working practices in both professional offices and on sites, and thus there is little construction industry activity that is not relevant to our Commission when viewed through a SHW lens.

Construction SHW in ‘developing’ countries is significantly different to that in ‘developed’ countries.  The Commission is actively working towards bringing researchers together from across the world to explore shared learnings and research directions able to be of benefit to both contexts.

Current Work Programme

W099 has a very close relationship with W123 (People in Construction) due to our shared areas of interest, with many of the key themes of W123 impacting or influencing workforce SHW.  We therefore work together as a partnership in mutual support.

The Commission organizes an Annual International Conference jointly with W123, which are well attended by our membership, and are supplemented by formally published and indexed proceedings.  There is an ambition to host our conferences in each global region on a rotating basis to enable the widest possible attendance from amongst our membership.  From 2022, the Conferences operate on a hybrid model, facilitating attendance from members and interested participants who may not have the funding available for face to face conferencing, but who can attend and participate in an online mode.  Our conferences are also often affiliated with a CIB encouraged journal, and we aim to publish a Conference Special Issue alongside the formal conference proceedings.

Every third year, the Commission manages a number of parallel sessions within the triennial World Building Congress, usually in partnership with W123. W099 is keen to work with other Commissions, and as such a number of joint webinars and workshop sessions are planned for the future, looking to find areas of synergy and mutual benefit in our work.

Planned Output

Internal Structure

Activities and events are facilitated by its joint-coordinators, Profs Billy Hare and Fred Sherratt, and in partnership with Prof Fidelis Emuze, coordinator of W123.

W099 has many long-serving members, some of whom are themselves past coordinators.  Billy and Fred are therefore supported by a highly engaged membership and all members are welcome to become as active within the Commission as they wish, for example in the organisation and delivery of workshops or webinars.

Membership

Members of this Working Commission have to be either a Representative of a CIB Member Organization or an Individual CIB Member. Student members are also encouraged and welcomed, to join this commission, please contact [email protected]

Publications

cib_proceedings_W099-TG59-2020-final