General contractors usually maintain a set of safety rules for all subcontractors and suppliers to follow while on site. As a contractor, establish the basic safety standards you require on site and do not accept less for your employees than a safe workplace, including other trades.
Sound
- Construction sites are noisy workplaces under the best of conditions. Hearing protection is often required.
- The added decibels from radios or music boxes increase risk: they make it harder to hear backup warnings, create distractions, and can raise tensions between crews.
Site sound controls
- Ban all radios and music boxes, or any other extraneous noise producer.
- Ban cell phone use, including texting, except for supervisors.
- Turn off unused generators.
Sight
- Everyone on site should wear safety eye wear. Allowing exceptions lets compliance slip.
- Workers should wear reflective vests or bright colors for easy identification and visibility.
Vision and visibility rules
- Everyone wears safety eye wear.
- Reflective vests or bright colored uniforms for easy location.
Smell
- Smoking on a job site can mask important warning odors such as gas leaks or electrical smoke.
- Careless cigarette disposal is a common cause of construction fires.
Smell and smoking rules
- Ban all smoking from the site.
Proper attire
- Loose clothing can catch on edges and rotating shafts; require work pants and no shorts where hazards exist.
- Require steel-toed shoes to protect legs and feet, plus hard hats and easy-to-spot clothing.
Safe work is productive work. Other issues that should be discussed before mobilizing on site include access and shared use of workspaces, adequate storage, and site security when two crews occupy the same area.
Address site-wide minimum expectations of safe practices for your crews and insist on protecting your employees. For contractors concerned about environmental or site-specific liability related to equipment or operations, consider reviewing options such as Machinery Construction Site-Specific Pollution Insurance and Contractors Pollution Liability & Occupational Exposure Risks to understand potential coverage gaps.
If you need help matching coverage to site exposures, talk to an agent who can review options for your operation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What basic safety items should every subcontractor bring to a site?
At minimum, subcontractors should have appropriate eye protection, hard hats, steel-toed footwear, and high-visibility clothing as required by the site contractor.
Can a general contractor set site-wide smoking rules?
Yes. A general contractor can prohibit smoking on site to reduce fire risk and preserve the ability to detect odors that signal hazards.
Who enforces rules like radio bans and cell phone restrictions?
Supervisors and site safety officers are typically responsible for enforcing site rules; contractors should communicate expectations before work begins.
How should multiple crews coordinate shared spaces safely?
Discuss access, storage, and staging areas in advance, set clear time windows for overlapping work, and assign a single point of contact for coordination.