Since construction sites are temporary, the work environment and the risks are constantly changing. Often many people are involved when a construction project is carried out – both large and small contractors with various special functions, the client's staff, consultants and others who perform temporary tasks in the construction project.

The purpose of the role Bas-U is to prevent risks of accidents and ill health that may arise during the construction phase. Bas-U is thus tasked with coordinating the various contractors in a construction project, so that they do not expose each other's staff to work environment risks. Bas-U must also check that the contractors address the risks that their various activities may entail.

All contractors in the project – employers, self-employed and other contractors without employees – need to be coordinated. Others who carry out activities in the construction project may also need to be coordinated with the contractors, for example the client's staff, geologists, surveyors or people who perform temporary tasks on the construction site such as various consultants, drivers of transports or inspection engineers.

In order to succeed in this, Bas-U needs to be involved in the planning of when the contractors will carry out their work and how much time they will have to perform it.

When you, as a Bas-U executive officer, carry out your coordination well, this can contribute to the entire construction phase running more smoothly, with fewer production disturbances and disruptions. When you have ensured that the various work stages can be carried out without any work environment risks or time shortages, you can also avoid urgent measures and delays.

Bas-U´s responsibility for building work environment coordination and control does not diminish the work environment responsibility that the contractors have. Employers´ work environment responsibility for their employees and hired staff applies in the same way as in all other industries. Contractors without employees have a responsibility for their own work environment.

The responsibilities that the contractors and Bas-U have run in parallel and apply at the same time, independently of each other. The contractor is responsible for planning the work so that neither the own employees nor anyone else is exposed to work environment risks.

When the client appoints Bas-U, it can be a legal person or an actual person who is appointed. A legal person can be the company that is hired to carry out the construction work, or another company or organisation, while an actual person is an individual. The Bas-U assignment can be separated from the contract of conducting the construction work.

If a legal person is designated as Bas-U, that company must also assign the Bas-U tasks to a person. This person is called the executive officer for the health and safety coordination, ”Bas-U executive officer”.

The Bas-U executive officer can, for example, be employed or hired by the company that has been appointed as the Bas-U. Then it is considered that the company has the executive officer "at its disposal", which is required for executive officer the role.

In order to be able to have the role of Bas-U executive officer, you need to have sufficient education, competence and experience in relation to the construction project's size, complexity and risk level. This generally means that less competence and experience is required in a small, simple low-risk project than in a large, complex project with many and serious risks for health and safety.

Education and training

Your education and training must include work environment knowledge and work environment rules, but it can often be good to have a technical education in the field of construction or equivalent as a basis. How much knowledge you need to have about work environment regulations depends on which work environment risks will occur in the construction project in question.

Competence

Competence to lead people and manage projects can, for example, depend on personal qualities such as the ability to work systematically, have a holistic perspective, be solution-oriented and be able to communicate and collaborate with many different people. These are important qualities especially in larger construction projects, where a large part of the role consists of having personal contact with many contractors and at the same time daring to make demands in order to drive the work environment management forward in a structured way.

Experience

It is often suitable for a Bas-U executive officer to have experience of work in the construction phase in order to be able to more easily understand the risks for health and safety associated with the contractors' work and to coordinate them effectively. Previous experience in building work environment coordination is particularly important in large, complex or risky construction projects. The number of subcontractors is an example that can play a role in how much experience and competence is required, since many different contractors require significantly more work on coordination.

If there are many different work stages, or high-risk work, you will need to have more in-depth knowledge of more work environment regulations than in a small, simple low-risk project, to be able to check that the contractors are working in a safe manner.

Qualifications for the role

Since a company appointed as Bas-U must ensure that the executive officer has the right qualifications for the assignment, the company must ensure that each Bas-U executive officer has the right training, competence and experience for the specific construction project in which they will be working.

In addition, the client must be able to prove the qualifications of the Bas-U that is appointed and of the executive officer. Bas-U should therefore be able to show education or training certificates, a description of your competence and experience based on your current assignments or previous employers, or in another way be able to prove that you are the right person in the role of Bas-U executive officer in the construction project.

Enough time and staff must be set aside for building work environment coordination within the organisation appointed as Bas-U. The work effort must be based on the conditions in the unique construction project, which can vary greatly.

If the Bas-U executive officer also has another role in the construction project in addition to the executive officer role, it is particularly important to assess the scope of the assignment. It is common that far too few resources are set aside for the Bas-U work. The consequence can then be that work environment risks are not managed and that the risk of accidents and ill health during the construction phase increases.

It may be necessary for the executive officer to have support from more people, that is resources to the executive officer, who get certain limited tasks in the coordination work. In this case, they must have competence for their specific tasks.

Tip! Your employer must find out what your work situation is like. If the time you have in the construction project is not enough for the Bas-U tasks, you can talk to your employer about your tasks so that there is a balance between requirements and resources.

Bas-U should also talk to the client, who must ensure that Bas-U has the right prerequisites to be able to carry out the tasks in the building work environment coordination. The client is not released from responsibility for the tasks of the building work environment coordinator, even if another organisation that the client is appointed as Bas-U.

In addition to time planning, production planning also includes choosing materials and working methods for individual jobs. Work environment management on the construction site often needs to be co-planned with this planning.

It can sometimes be a good idea for you to also participate in planning at a more detailed level in work preparations where you together decide how an individual job is to be carried out. This can be appropriate for high-risk work in order to ensure that health and safety risks have been identified and will be addressed.

If the time planning schedule cannot be followed, you must make sure that the time distribution for various work stages is adjusted or that other measures are taken. The other parties in the construction project also have work environment responsibilities linked to time planning.

It is important that you get to see the construction documents and the work environment plan that Bas-P has established as early as possible. You could start the collaboration with Bas-P as early as possible before the start of production, for example when decisions are made about how much time will be set aside for the construction phase and the various work stages or when the work environment plan is drawn up.

It is also beneficial to agree at an early stage with the client and the contractors how you will collaborate. In order for you to be able to carry out the building work environment coordination in the best way, you need to have close collaboration with others who have influence over how the construction work is to be carried out.

If the executive officer does not belong to the company that is the main contractor and thus is not, for example, employed or hired by it, the main contractor is an important party to collaborate with. For example, you and the site manager need to have a good relationship and you need to participate in the production planning and the meetings where you can coordinate the contractors. You may also need to collaborate with other parties during the construction phase, for example designers if they can minimise a risk through their planning and design.

The order and safety rules must be included in the work environment plan. If Bas-P has drawn up a proposal for rules, you must develop them further. For example, there may be rules that the client has decided based on the conditions at the construction site. When a construction project is carried out in a permanent place of business, there are often limitations from the permanent operation that you need to take into account.

Tip! The rules can also make it clear how those working in the construction project should behave towards each other in order to create a social and organisational work environment in the construction project that is satisfactory. Examples of things that cannot be accepted are threatening behaviour, sexual harassment and violations such as insults.

When you, as an executive officer for Bas-U, organise joint safety activities with the contractors and their safety representatives, it is good to agree early on how you will collaborate on the work environment in the construction project. You can call regular safety meetings with contractors and safety representatives to ensure that the joint safety activities work in the best way.

Find out who the safety representatives are

You must give the safety representatives the opportunity to participate and consult with them. This means that you first of all need to find out who the contractors’ safety representatives are to be able to invite them to meetings and discuss how they should participate in the safety activities. It can also be important that safety representatives or other representatives from the contractors on the construction site are given the opportunity to cooperate with each other. This is facilitated through regular joint forums for health and safety issues.

How safety representatives can be involved in safety activities

You must give the contractors' safety representatives the opportunity to participate in the checks on the contractors' work environment management and consult with the safety representatives, for example about which checks are needed and how often they should be carried out. You can for example discuss the frequency of safety inspections and whether targeted safety inspections are to be made.

You can also discuss how often you need

• specific controls of contractors who carry out high-risk activities
• checks that technical devices are inspected or tested
• fire safety checks or evacuation drills etc.

There are many issues where safety representatives could contribute to a safe and healthy work environment, in addition to safety inspections and work environment meetings. Other issues that you may need to discuss in the safety activities include, for example

• how different contractors' work can best be coordinated
• how coordination with other ongoing activities at the construction site should be done
• location and need for access routes and transport routes
• selection and design of places for storage and handling of material
• how order and cleaning should be maintained
• how it is ensured that only authorised persons enter the construction site.

Bas-U must ensure that there are enough staff spaces, toilets and showers in the establishment area right from the start of the first building or civil engineering work. The workers that arrive at the site first also need to have this in place to the extent required at that stage, for example personnel involved in preparing or exposing the blast area.

The client and the designers also have a responsibility for planning so that the establishment area is large enough so that the staff huts, storerooms, staging areas and other things that are necessary to carry out the construction project can be accommodated.

The routines for Bas-U's work environment management must state how Bas-U ensures that only authorised persons are given access to the construction site. Bas-U must take the necessary measures to ensure this according to the Work Environment Act.

Decide who should have access and how

Bas-U should, together with the client, determine who will have access to the construction site and agree on measures to prevent unauthorised persons from getting in. It is good if you decide from the beginning what is required and what you will do to achieve it.

Usually, the main contractor is responsible for the practical application, such as erecting fences and issuing access cards. Your role is then to check that the contractor performs the task satisfactorily, i.e. that the agreed protective measures are implemented and that they are effective.

In addition to physical measures such as barriers, gates and access cards, organisational measures can also be included, for example that only contractors who have been given the go-ahead to start work or people who have had the introduction are allowed to enter the construction site.

Base the measures on the conditions in the specific construction project

The measures required depend on the specific construction project, location and surrounding environment. In some major construction projects, such as extended road construction, it may be unreasonable to fence off the entire work area. Then you need to make an assessment of where barriers are required.

Everyone who will be working on the construction site should undergo an introduction to the construction project that covers the most relevant parts of the work environment plan, for example

• order and safety rules
• relevant health and safety risks
• danger zones at the construction site.

It does not have to be the Bas-U executive officer who organises the introductions, but Bas-U needs to ensure the correct content and that the introductions are carried out.

Tip! As a Bas-U executive officer, you organise or ensure that introductory meetings are held a short time before the actual building or civil engineering work is to begin. Invite everyone who will be working on the construction site and then continue to hold introductions for new staff as needed throughout the construction phase. In the event of major changes to the workforce on the construction site, you should plan several introductions.

Everyone must be able to understand the introduction

Make sure that the introduction is carried out in such a way that it is comprehensible to the people to whom it is directed. If there is a need to hold introductions in several languages, those in the construction project must agree on how this can be solved in the best way. Each employer is also responsible for ensuring that their own staff receive comprehensible information about risks, so it is a shared responsibility.

Order and cleaning at the construction site affects everyone who is there. All contractors have a responsibility to take care of unnecessary material, tools, packaging and waste and to clean regularly. The role of Bas-U involves informing about what applies and making sure that the contractors actually clean continuously and after the work is finished, so that the construction site is kept in good order.

You should therefore ensure that there are enough storage places for materials and enough opportunities to throw away and sort waste, and make clear where these places are.

Tip! It is advisable to include what applies to order and cleaning in the order and safety rules that are part of the work environment plan. These rules must be covered in the introduction to the construction site.

You need to have insight into the contractors' choice of work methods and work equipment to ensure that they take into account the health and safety of others at the workplace. For example, you may need to make sure that areas where work entail serious risks of collapses, falling objects, electrical accidents or collision with vehicles are demarcated so that no one can enter the risk area.

Routines for coordination

The routines you must have for coordination and work environment management must, among other things, specify how, when and with which parties health and safety issues are handled during the construction phase. This is a good starting point for how you should conduct your coordination of the contractors' work. An example of a good routine is to call regular safety meetings with all employers, self-employed and other contractors on the construction site.

In larger and more complex high-risk projects, a well-thought-out meeting structure is often required to be able to coordinate the contractors. You also need a clear strategy for your checks on them to be sure that all remaining health and safety risks are identified and that actions are taken.

In small, low-risk projects, it may be enough for you to ensure that there are informal meetings and discussions between the various contractors. However, you need to check how the health and safety work is functioning even in small low-risk projects.

The routines may therefore need to be very different in extent depending on the conditions in the construction project. In a small project, the routines probably do not need to be written. In more complex projects and high-risk projects, however, it is a big advantage if the routines are written down. The work environment plan must always state the routines for coordination and work environment management, so parts of your routines may need to be included there.

It is important that everyone knows how the coordination should take place. You must therefore clarify how the contractors are to collaborate and what can affect the contractors' work, preferably before or in connection with the contractor arriving at the construction site for the first time. Something that might be good to bring up is, for example, that all employees need to have an introduction to the construction project and what is required for the contractor to get the go-ahead to start the work.

In order for Bas-U executive officer to be able to coordinate the various contractors and prevent health and safety risks, you need to know what they plan to do on the construction site and when they will be there.

As a Bas-U executive officer, you may need to receive information about risks continuously. The information could, for example, be about

• machines or chemical products that are used
• changes being made to scaffolding
• piercing that is carried out or planned
• changed scheduling of certain work.

A prerequisite for effective coordination is that you have access to inspection reports, inspection notices and similar documents that are important for coordination.

It is also important to ensure that you continuously receive information from the contractors about when they plan to have staff at the construction site.

In order for Bas-U to be able to coordinate the contractors' work and ensure that there are no health and safety risks for others on the construction site, contractors need to get a go-ahead to start work from you before they can start working on the construction site for the first time. This applies regardless of whether they are main contractors or subcontractors in one or more levels.

Tip! Connect the go-ahead for start with, for example, access to the workplace, or with the planning of the introduction to the construction site.

The contractors must submit information on health and safety risks

In order for you to give the go-ahead, the contractor needs to have submitted information about the health and safety risks that may arise due to the contractor's own activities. This is not about the contractor submitting their risk assessment based on the systematic work environment management that applies to their own staff, but the risks that you need to have information about in order to coordinate the different contractors.

However, you need to find out if there are risks that the contractor's own staff can be exposed to that can be prevented by you coordinating that work with another contractor's work. Regardless of this, contractors always have a responsibility for their own and their staff's work environment.

These are the work environment risks that you must request if the contractor has not provided you with information about them:

• certain high-risk work, whose measures must be described in the work environment plan
• health and safety risks that their own work may entail for others
• health and safety risks to which the contractor's own staff may be exposed and which can be prevented through coordination with others.

You must ensure that the health and safety risks are managed

Bas-U must also make sure that the risks that have to do with coordination are addressed by, for example, the contractor choosing a certain work method, or that there is a plan for measures. This could, for example, be a completed or planned work preparation.

Make sure that the contractor explains how they plan to prevent the health and safety risks. It is not always certain that the contractor can manage all risks themselves. Bas-U may need to contribute with measures that have to do with coordination. Regardless, you need to ensure that the risks are addressed, in order for you to be able to give the go-ahead.

Tip! It may be appropriate to note the go-ahead in writing in larger, more complex or high-risk projects to have control over which contractors are on site. However, you probably also need to communicate verbally with the contractors so that you can be sure that the health and safety risks are prevented, even though you give the go-ahead in writing. Signing the work preparation can be a way of giving the go-ahead for the start of work.

If there are rules in the Swedish Work Environment Authority's provisions that require a person with special competence to lead a work step and several different contractors are involved or affected by the work, you must ensure that such a person actually leads the work.

The reason is to prevent situations where it is unclear who is responsible for leading these dangerous work steps when there are many companies involved.

The work could, for example, be

• demolition work where load-bearing structures or substances hazardous to health are involved
• excavation where there are health-hazardous substances, installations or cables in the ground, or when supporting structures or a sloping gradient is required
• passing vehicle traffic where traffic control devices need to be used
• blasting
• lifting operations.

Temporary or composite structures

When a temporary structure or a composite structure is erected, you also have a responsibility to ensure that a person with competence about the structure ensures that it is safe during construction, use and eventual dismantling. This person must in turn ensure that the division of responsibilities between the parties involved is made clear. There are corresponding requirements for Bas-P.

The person with special competence must ensure that those involved in the construction phase receive the necessary information from planning and design.

Temporary and composite structures can cause serious accidents during the construction phase if they are not erected and used correctly. For this reason, there are specific regulations for them. If such a structure is part of the construction project, it may be good for you to follow up the planning and work with the structures so that the appointed competent person really performs the tasks properly.

When the Bas-U executive officer is not at the construction site while work is ongoing, Bas-U needs to ensure that there is information on who to contact if a question arises related to health and safety. This contact person should in turn be able to contact Bas-U if necessary.

As a Bas-U executive officer, you should normally be at the construction site when work is in progress to be able to coordinate the contractors and check that they are working safely. In some smaller, low-risk projects without major requirements for coordination, however, it might be sufficient if you as an executive officer are not on site all the time, but are present for part of the time that work is ongoing. Construction projects with only one contractor are an example.

In larger, complex or high-risk or projects, the need for coordination is greater, for example due to the number of contractors working on the construction site, that high-risk work is being carried out or that new contractors are to start their work in the construction project.

Bas-U does not necessarily have the task of checking that the work is carried out correctly. However, you must ensure that the checks are carried out and coordinated. This may not affect the checks in a small, simple construction project, where the executive officer has the possibility to participate in all the checks personally.

But in larger and more complex construction projects, the checks are so numerous and extensive that it becomes impossible for the executive officer to personally participate in all the checks.

Since Bas-U must ensure that checks are carried out on the health and safety work, and the routines for Bas-U's own work environment management must specify how Bas-U checks and follows up the contractors' health and safety work, you need to know that the checks work at an overall level. In addition to safety inspections, for example, random checks can help to give you an overview. Participating in work preparations for high-risk operations or arranging special meetings to verify measures prior to major work steps where several contractors must work together are other ways.

Tip! As early as when the contractor is about to start the work in the construction project, it is good to be clear about which checks will be carried out.

Initially, you should focus on coordinating the control measures that the contractors have themselves and then ensure that these checks are carried out effectively. You may see a need to monitor and review how the controls are working, for example that the contractors are working according to current work environment regulations. However, this does not mean that you are directly responsible for the way in which the work is carried out. This is still the contractors' responsibility.

Controls in high-risk projects

It is particularly important to ensure that checks are carried out on high-risk activities, including work with certain risks for which the measures must be described in the work environment plan. In these cases, it is important to follow up that the measures that the contractor has specified to prevent the risks have actually been carried out.

As Bas-U, you must ensure that technical devices are checked, inspected or tested and approved. You must also ensure that the operators of the technical devices have sufficient competence or a permit, if such is required.

It is important that technical devices used by several different contractors on the construction site are checked particularly carefully. Examples include

• scaffolding
• building hoists
• driving plates over excavations that many vehicles use.

Have a system for checks and follow-ups

As with the controls of health and safety work in general, it is not necessarily the Bas-U company that has to ensure that the devices are safe. For example, you can have some kind of system to make sure that the technical devices are checked, inspected or tested and approved according to current regulations.

It may be appropriate that the contractors have to show inspection certificates, permits or licences etc. in connection with the go-ahead for the start of work or the introduction to the construction site. Random checks, for example during safety inspections can be a good complement.

Responsibility for safety equipment

You must also ensure that the general safety equipment needed by several contractors are put in place and maintained.

Also make sure that you agree on how to deal with special safety equipment that is only needed for a certain job, so that the responsibility for them is not neglected. This may be included in the checks you attend.

If a situation arises where you, as a executive officer, do not have the prerequisites to make sure that actions are taken against a serious health and safety risk, you need to notify the client. In some cases, your authority or resources may be insufficient to make certain decisions and then the client needs to be involved in resolving the situation so that the risk can be prevented.

It does not matter what is written about, for example, responsibility in the agreement between the client and Bas-U: according to the work environment regulations, the client must be informed if serious, risky situations arise in order to be able to act for a good working environment in the construction project.

Like the client, you as the Bas-U executive officer must stop ongoing work that poses an immediate and serious danger to life or health. Alternatively, you can make sure that the work is modified as much as necessary to be safe to perform until further actions are taken on the risk.

The original work environment plan must be further developed throughout the construction project – Bas-U must not start from scratch and create your own. When Bas-P hands over the work environment plan and the work environment management to you, it is important that you ask questions about what has been done during the planning and design phase, so that you understand what risks have been taken actions on previously in the construction project.

However, you need to supplement the work environment plan regularly based on the real conditions in the construction phase. For example, the method that during planning and design has been assumed to be used in the construction phase can be replaced by another, or changes in the schedule or workforce can mean that the health and safety risks alter.

You should not just receive the work environment plan if there are serious work environment risks that the designers have not even tried to prevent or propose measures for. Then you should discuss the deficient work environment management with the Bas-P executive officer and the client to agree on how the construction project can be run in the construction phase with the right prerequisites for a good work environment.

You must ensure that the work environment plan is available to those working in the construction project and that it is regularly reviewed.

What is an accessible work environment plan?

An accessible work environment plan means that everyone who works on the construction site can take part of and understand the sections that are relevant to them. Parts of the work environment plan may need to be translated into several different languages. It is often appropriate that the work environment plan in its whole is available in at least both Swedish and English.

In order for the work environment plan to be considered accessible in digital format instead of paper format, everyone on the construction site needs to be able to access the digital version.

How often must the plan be updated?

You must decide how often you need to update the work environment plan based on the construction project's size, complexity and risk level. Sometimes it is obvious that a work environment plan no longer fulfils its purpose and then it needs to be updated.