Responsibility of the operator - the contractor
Mar 31, 2026
The Construction Executor’s Responsibility: Full Operational Accountability on Site
By: Itzick Simon
The construction executor—effectively the contractor—bears direct responsibility for managing the works on site and ensuring their execution in accordance with safety requirements.
The regulations do not change the central role of the construction executor on site, but they do sharpen and significantly tighten the obligations imposed upon them, setting clear conditions under which work may not commence or continue.
Condition for Site Operation
The construction executor may not start or continue work unless the following conditions are actually met:
A site manager registered in the official registry of construction site managers has been appointed and properly reported
On sites with a permitted area of at least 15,000 square meters, a site director has also been appointed and duly reported
A safety plan has been prepared by the executor, approved by their signature, and submitted to the relevant parties
Written approval has been received from the project owner to commence work, where required
In the absence of any of these conditions, this is not a technical defect but a lack of legal authority to operate the site. Responsibility for compliance with these conditions is shared between the project owner and the construction executor, each according to their respective role.
Responsibility for preparing and implementing the safety plan
The construction executor is responsible for preparing the safety plan, approving it, and implementing it in practice.
The plan must be adapted to the nature of the project, the stages of execution, and the risks present on site. It is not a document submitted merely to satisfy a formal requirement, but a binding framework for managing the work on site.
The appointment of role-holders or the signing of the plan does not complete the obligation—it merely initiates it.
Responsibility for Actual Site Management
The responsibility of the construction executor is not limited to formal compliance with regulatory requirements, but extends to how the work is actually carried out on site.
The construction executor is responsible for ensuring that the works are performed in accordance with safety instructions, in particular:
Execution of the work under the presence and supervision of the site manager
Ensuring that the site manager is not assigned duties incompatible with their role
Strict enforcement of the safety plan on site, not merely its existence
The responsibility is not limited to the appointment of role-holders, but to the actual manner in which the site is managed and operated in practice.
Website management as a must, not a choice
The construction operator is not only the one who performs the work, but also the one who manages it.
He is responsible for managing the work on site and coordinating the actions required to actually perform the work. Even when other parties are involved in the project, the responsibility for managing the work on site remains his.
In practice, most failures do not stem from a lack of procedures, but from a gap between procedures and execution. Tight schedules, manpower shortages, design changes, and concurrent work create situations in which safety instructions are not fully implemented. In these situations, responsibility is not softened but sharpened.
Functional continuity as a condition for continued work
If the foreman or site manager has ceased to serve in their position, the construction operator is obligated to report this immediately.
In the case of termination of the foreman's term of office, this is not a defect that can be corrected retrospectively, but rather a situation in which it is not possible to continue work until a new foreman is appointed.
Continuity of roles is not an administrative matter, but a condition for operating the site.
Duty to implement and provide resources in practice
The construction operator is responsible for actually providing the means and resources necessary to implement safety, and for using them in accordance with the requirements of the regulations and the safety plan.
The allocation of resources is the responsibility of the client, but the construction operator is responsible for ensuring that the resources exist on site and are actually used to implement safety.
In practice, claims of lack of budget, schedules, or operational constraints cannot be relied upon to justify failure to comply with safety instructions.
The relationship between management, documentation and accountability
The construction executor operates within a system that includes reporting, documentation, and control mechanisms.
Decisions, actions, and instructions given on site are assessed not only by their outcome, but also by how they were documented, reported, and implemented.
In practice, the ability to demonstrate how the site was managed in real time becomes an integral part of responsibility.
Typical Failures in the Construction Executor’s Conduct
Formal appointment of a site manager without actual on-site presence
Gaps between the safety plan and actual execution
Use of the site manager for additional, unrelated roles
Lack of continuous operational functioning on site
Misalignment between actual resources and safety requirements
In one line: The construction executor is not only the party performing the work, but the one responsible for ensuring it is carried out safely, continuously, and in accordance with legal requirements. The practical implementation of this responsibility is carried out through the role-holders operating on site, who translate the requirements into day-to-day execution.
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