Safety Performance of the Construction Industry

Abstract

Introduction

The construction industry is a booming industry and remains so with the continuation of the development process. Yet, construction can be a hazardous business. This is widely recognized by everyone in the construction industry because there is a large number of work-related accidents and fatalities. With a highly mobile population of workers and different contractors working on dangerous construction sites at the same time, the construction industry continues to be a major cause of death and disabilities. One of the important areas that require improvement in site safety. Thus, the study aimed to assess the safety performance of the construction industry in Ilocos Norte based on the Occupational Safety and Health Standards (OSHS) in construction.

Methods

This study utilized the descriptive method of research to assess the level of the safety performance of the construction industry in Ilocos Norte. A total of 18 construction companies with on-going vertical projects and engaged in government and private projects responded to a set of site observational checklist adopted from the OSH Standards and a questionnaire adopted from the research of Mc Evoy (2007).

Results

Resultsof the study showed that 1) no construction site achieved total compliance with all required safety practices; 2) the majority of the respondents did not attend any safety training; 3) most of the safety non performance issues belonged to the self-protection category. This finding showed that the site workers themselves are either unaware of the importance of personnel safety practices and they do not want to wear personal protective equipment as they consider it as a hindrance in their work productivity; 4) all the companies have good construction safety and health program, however, these are not implemented in the work sites. Thus, safety knowledge, attitude, and habits at all levels of the project workforce are not promoted, maintained and enhanced by regular and continuing safety training and education. The results further showed that almost all of the companies had a low level of safety performance.

Discussions

The results show that the level of the construction industry as regards to site safety needs great improvement. Thus, there is a need for intervention measures to improve safety performance. It involves the active involvement of policymakers and enforcers in collaboration with the contractors and workers that play active roles in the effective implementation of safety in the work sites.