Contractor access control on a construction site

A construction site has many employers working at once. Greece’s Labour Code requires that, when several businesses share a workplace, their employers cooperate and coordinate, with coordination falling on the employer who controls the site (article 533 §9). The access list is the simplest tool of that coordination: one party sets it, everyone knows it.

• Subcontractors through the main contractor: every subcontractor, and every sub-subcontractor, goes onto the list only via the main contractor — not because “the electrician brought him”.
• What it shows: company, names, trade, working days, vehicles, and one contact with a phone number per company.
• When it arrives: the day before, with a cut-off time; same-day changes in writing, from a named person.
• When someone finishes: they come off the list the same day and hand back their card and keys.

For why the list protects against theft, and for the site perimeter, see the guide to construction site theft. For cards, codes and access zones, see the access control guide.

Greece’s Labour Code requires health and safety training for every worker, among other times on hiring and on transfer or change of duties (article 538 §1), and obliges the employer to ensure that workers of external businesses working on its premises have received appropriate instructions (article 538 §3). Only people who have received instructions may enter zones of serious and specific danger (article 533 §8δ).

• The content: set by the project’s safety team, based on the written risk assessment (article 534 §1) — not by the security company.
• The proof: a mark on the list, a card or a helmet sticker showing the worker was inducted, and when.
• At the gate: anyone without the proof does not go onto the site; they go to the safety lead or wait.
• Danger zones: if the project has restricted areas, the list says who is allowed there.

The guard is not the project’s safety technician. They check that the proof of induction exists; what the induction says is decided by the people responsible for safety at work.

• Details: name, company, time in, time out, vehicle if any.
• Headcount: the number of people inside, available to the project manager during an evacuation.
• Closing the day: anyone who came in and did not sign out is checked before the site is locked — they may have left by another gate, or not.
• Accidents: the employer reports every work accident within 24 hours to the Labour Inspectorate and e-EFKA (article 534 §2). The gate record shows who was on site and when.

Paper or app, the rule is the same: one entry per arrival and one per departure. The details are personal data, so agree from the start who manages them and how long they are kept.

1. The contractor asks the project manager for an exit and receives a pass with a description, quantity and vehicle.
2. At the gate the guard compares the pass, the vehicle and the load.
3. For plant — skid steers, generators, scaffolding, hired equipment — the serial number or plate is logged too.
4. If something does not match, the vehicle waits and the person in charge is called; the decision is logged with a name and a time.

Deliveries arriving and how to log them are covered in the guide to construction site theft. Exits are the other half: a machine that left without a pass is far harder to trace than one that never came in.

• Their own tools: declared on first entry (type, make, serial or marking) and allowed out freely when they match the register.
• Project tools: signed out to a name with a time and signed back in with a time; anything not returned shows up when the day is closed.
• Marking: a colour or sticker per company turns the gate check into a matter of seconds.
• Disputes: the guard does not decide who owns a tool; they keep the record and call the person in charge.

• Planned work: an evening concrete pour, an early-morning delivery — approved in advance, with a list of names and vehicles.
• Emergencies: a leak, a pump failure, a fence down — the guard calls the project contact from the call list and logs who approved.
• No approval: the gate stays shut, even for someone the guard knows from the day shift. The person in charge is informed.
• Closing up: once they leave, the guard checks the site is as it was and that everyone who came in has gone.

Remote projects follow the same logic as solar parks, where maintenance crews enter on a scheduled approval. OVIT logs entries, exits and exceptions in the Guardly platform, so the project manager can see who came in overnight without having to ask (construction site security).