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This Approach Works More Effectively Because Each Group Can Gather Experience ...

This approach works more effectively because each group can gather experience of their particular niche and develop expertise. The accrued expertise enables the specifications of the project to be met more swiftly and probably more cost effectively. This is perhaps a good abstracted explanation of the function and the purpose of a contractor. Contractors generally fill these niche roles and competencies.
However with this separation of competencies, in the face of competitive corporate pressures, can come a breakdown in communications between the various actors who are working together to achieve the ultimate purpose of the project.
In is this environment which exposes the modern day construction worker, arguably to the most danger. The construction worker enters an environment where they interact with these contractors and the operation of their niche expertise. The construction worker is often unfamiliar with the remit and the workings that are ongoing in these niche areas of other people's expertise. Because of this, the construction worker, and the safety of the construction worker will often be made contingent upon the quality of the work of other people and the ability of other people to supervise, and co-ordinate the processes safely and competently.
Sadly, this is where the difficulties lie. Operating within this alien environment can bring the construction worker into contact with dangers they are not aware of and are not prepared to encounter or experience. A classic example is exposure to asbestos, or other toxic substances at work. Sutherland supports these viewpoints by arguing: 'Building workers have seen the security and conditions of their employment undermined during the 1980s and 1990s. The re-organisation of production has served to intensify the labour process through the mechanism of self-employed sub-contracting, which places labour productivity at the centre of the labour-process. This affects self-employed workers in particular but has clear knock-on effects for all workers, with all the concomitant hazards. Hence the fatal exposure rate follows the wage-profit ratio in the period 1979-96(Sutherland E. (2007))'.
The construction worker is caught in an environment where the duty which modern day politics expounds as being owed to them is delegated and often not taken seriously. The delegation negates personal responsibilities, and often the construction workers interests are not protected within this system.
This system has an iterative effect within a modern corporate environment, and the delegation of the responsibilities which are owed ideologically to the construction worker are delegated through complex legal, corporate and industrial pathways. This process dissipates the interests of the construction workers; their interests are considered not personally but numerically as part of a wider system.


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