Fostering OSH in informal construction sector of Sri Lanka: challenges and approaches

Abstract

The informal construction sector plays a vital role in Sri Lankan economy by being the second highest informal sector after agriculture. Moreover, there are considerably higher amounts of hazards in informal construction sites when compared with other industries. Simultaneously, several challenges to eliminate those hazards were discovered under five key areas as financial, time, knowledge/skills, misconception and poor attitude, cultural, regulatory and industrial. Thus, this study was conducted with the aim of fostering Occupational Safety and Health in Sri Lankan informal construction sector by recommending the probable approaches to mitigate above identified challenges. Accordingly, a mixed research approach was adopted with questionnaire survey for 102 respondents while carrying out semi structured interviews with seven professionals. The findings were analyzed with descriptive analysis, one sample T-Test, factor analysis and code-based content analysis techniques. As the most common hazards in Sri Lankan informal construction sector, falling from height and ladder/scaffolding work with slippage and breakage were identified. Twelve critical challenges towards Occupational Safety and Health in Sri Lankan informal construction sector were extracted and they were further categorized under four specific factors as Knowledge and education, Safety attitude and culture, Government support and Nature of informal construction sector. Consequently, it was recommended to implement mandatory rules for both labours and clients, provide awareness and education, conduct site inspections and accident inquiries, empower relevant regulatory bodies to provide guidance and support, labour gatherings in community level to raise their problems, training and evaluation for individual labours and provide safety equipment for reasonable prices as few major approaches to mitigate the identified challenges and foster Occupational Safety and Health in informal construction sector of Sri Lanka.