A Comparison study of occupational health and safety practices among permanent and outsourced contract employees in construction sites

Abstract

The accidents frequency in construction field is relatively high in Sri Lankan .construction industry is one of the significant sectors that need an effective and fast site safety practices. The most suffered category is outsourced labours in labour market as the permanent workers in this field are protected by law and their employers provide reasonable protection to them. Accidents are happened mainly unsafe condition and unsafe behaviors of the workers. In most occasions accident happened not only one reason but combination of other factors too. To increase the safety of he construction field real root causes must be identified. At the beginning reviewed past literature relevant o this issue . Then reported accidents and other information from twelve construction sites around the country were collected and investigated to find causes of accidents. Questionnaire forms and interviews were carried out to collect information both outsource contractors and permanent workers. Separate questionnaire form was prepared for the supervisors working in the construction industry. The results of this study says that accidents are the causes of many hidden factors. They are unsafe method, unsafe human behaviors, unsafe or inferior quality equipment, bad site conditions, poor Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) knowledge, ineffective supervision, poor safety culture. The causes of accidents in Sri Lanka were also very similar while reviewing past literature of the world. Finally it was revealed that main causes to accidents in construction industry are the workers’ risk taking behaviors , unable to follow safe work procedures, working at elevated area without proper precautions, unsafe electricity equipment and use them unsafely etc. In addition, work without proper training not using suitable and sufficient safety gear are other causes. The purpose of this study to take immediate actions by relevant managers in such industries in Sri Lanka to get rid of those issues to make their work sites safe and increases the productivity