Impact of Occupational Health and Safety in Construction

Impact of Occupational Health and Safety in ConstructionAbstractThe main aim of the query is to breeding the impact of occupational health and preventative in verbal expression attention. It give also aim at identifying the attitude of twisting organisations as well as employees towards occupational health and base hit in India. To support the research, visual modality questionnaire and a teleph adept interview was conducted. It helped it achieving objectives of the research.The pull exertion is a very dangerous industry. The effect of the industry in occupational health and golosh is very myopic. The standard of occupational health and sentry go is even worse in exploitation countries. In Indian plait industry OHS has never been given prime importance. Even though in India turn industry is evidentially booming, there atomic number 18 no proper initiatives undertaken by the government to implement OHS rules and regulations. There are several initiatives taken by Government of India but they are still in their sign stages and need to be enforced.The employers are concerned about completion of project rather than focussing on improving OHS of their employees. The industry has bigger number of keen and speciality size of it firms and very few numbers of larger firms. Sm tot every last(predicate)yer firms lack resources to comply with proper OHS procedures. The workers are not provided with proper training and data about occupational health and safety hazards. Lack of awareness on OHS, sub-contracting system, use of traditional methods in construction, lack of proper personal protective equipments, wretched wages and labour-driven industry are nearly of the eventful factors that have their impact on occupational health and safety in Indian construction.The construction industry in developing as well as developed countries is one of the most significant industries in relation to the contribution to the GDP (Rantanen et al., 2004). Also i t is having a significant impact on the health and safety of the people working in it. fit to Haupt as cited in Rowlinson (2004), the construction industry has a poor record in relation to the health and safety of its worker. It is a known fact that workplace accidents are linked basically with unsafe behaviour. There is a positive correlation between safety climate on construction sites and workers safe behaviour. The attitudes of workers on construction sites toward health and safety are widely mouldd by their perception towards risk, health and safety rules and procedures management (Mohamed and Ali, 2005). According to Larcher and Sohail (1999), occupational health and safety is a highly important area of concern in developing countries where Acts related to safety rarely exist with weak regulatory authorities that finds it difficult to implement it effectively. Also awareness towards occupational hazards is not at all or rarely perceived. The other factors that affect occupat ional health and safety in developing countries are lack of statutory regulations and legislations to protect workers in construction sector, standards maintained in corporate and government systems are low, inadequate infrastructure and high labour intensity (Mohamed and Ali, 2005).Every year hundreds of accidents take place on construction sites resulting in severe injuries or even deaths. It is matter of concern that the same type of work related deaths, injuries and illnesses occur in the construction industries all over the world. The working life of construction workers is curtailed by several years receivable to the exposure to occupational health and safety hazards. The process of construction involves some(prenominal) hazardous activities such as working at height, manual handling, exposure to hazardous materials, frame erection, lifting operations, scaffolding, demolition works and groundworks. Falls and manual handlings are the important risks associated with injuries a nd long term disability in the construction industry (Gillen et al.1997).1.1 Background studyAccording to study conducted by Holmes et al., (1999), that the occupational health and safety risks are mainly related to the nature of work, low standard of individual work practices, lack of knowledge, work pressure callable to cost and period constraints. Rechenthin (2004) stated that, for a construction company to be consistently profitable, all its project must complete on time and within budget. But at the same time due to the nature of the high risk works undertaken by the construction companies results in high accident rates. Eakins (1992) stated that international research confirms that as compared to larger construction firms, smaller firms are poor in the implementation of occupational health and safety programmes. Henceforth, the rate of occupational injury is inversely proportional with the size of the organisation, i.e. smaller firm having higher injury frequency rates (McVi tte et al. 1997).As per Lingard and Rowlinson (2005), the construction industry consists of several SMEs and small amount of large firms. These small and medium size firms lack professional occupational health and safety advisors in staff. They also lack knowledge and resources required to implement occupational health and safety management activities for example training, performing risk assessments, routine inspections and audits. Moreover the expense due to involvement of expensive occupational health and safety advice and services whitethorn be considered as unnecessary. Due to high competitive construction industry with cost cutting pressures, the priorities related to occupational health and safety is likely to be low with small size construction firms.According to Rantanen et al., (2004), nearly 2.4 billion people in the developing countries have to bear employment conditions, that dont even pick up the basic occupational health and safety standards. promote more(prenominal ) due to lack of work safety, excessive amount of work pressures, exposure to occupational physical, biological and chemic environment results to occupational diseases and injuries to an extent of 1.2 million mordantities per year.1.2 Rationale for ResearchThis research studies the attitude of organisations in India, a developing country towards occupational health and safety. As per state of The Economic Times as cited in (Shenoy et al., 2000), size of the Indian construction industry is more than USD 25 billion. Due to large investment make in roads, railways, nuclear and other infrastructure areas, the construction sector of India is witnessing a high growth. After agriculture sector, construction sector is the largest employer in India, with more than 18 million people employed in it. In spite of all these advancement, the construction sector is still dependant largely on labour intense operations as they are easily available at low cost. Also occupational health and safety of people working in construction are not given due attention by the organisations (Shenoy et al., 2005). According to a report published by Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC) India (2010), safety in the construction industry is a matter of concern all over the world. With an unorganised workforce, issues related to construction safety become the most threatened segment in India. With 18 million people employed in the construction sector within India, the issues related to safety are considerably important. The industry is highly labour intensive with a large amount of workers exposed to the risks of occupational health and workplace safety problems.In construction industry the fatal accidents rate is comparatively four to five times higher than the manufacturing sector. In India 165 per 1,000 workers get injured while working on construction sites. Further the report states that the workers are exposed to several hazardous substances having the potential to cause ser ious occupational health diseases such as asbestosis, silicosis, poisoning etc. According to International Labour Organisation (2005), the rate of accident among industrial workers is highest with 4 per 1000 and the major contributor for this is the construction industry. International Labour Organisation (2005) report also estimated the number of deaths in India due to accidents at work as 40,000 in 2001 and 2,62,000 dying from work related diseases. Thus if construction is held responsible for one sixth of the total, then the death of the Indian construction workers can be estimated up to 60,000 each year.According to Damodaran (2006) safety in construction is in the fuck of list of priorities of builders, contractors and engineers. While the monetary loss heads the list, loss of man-hours and material progress are equally irreparable when scaffolding fails, a roof collapses or a fatal accident takes place at site of work, the human life is irreplaceable. The construction compani es in India have experienced that when a worker loses his life due to an accident on the site, there is a sudden downturn in the morale of the working force. It affects the spirit of working and the progress of work. It is only after some accidents takes place, the company begins to take safeguards. As labour is very cheap and unorganised, having little or no knowledge of their rights, the companies find it convenient as well as profitable using manpower rather than machineries. Though getting a job in the construction industry helps poor labours to get out of poverty, due to presence of high occupational health and safety risk it can drive them back into insolvency.1.3 Research aim and objectives1.3.1 Aim of the researchThe aim of this research is to study the impact of occupational health and safety in construction industry, whilst exploring the attitude of organisations and employees toward occupational health and safety in Indian construction industry.1.3.2 ObjectivesThe above mentioned aim will be achieved with the help of the following objectives1. To explore the issues impacting health and safety with the focus on occupational health and safety in the construction industry.2. To investigate occupational health and safety hazards and its impact in construction industry3. To investigate the implementation of occupational health and safety in the Indian construction industry whilstExploring the attitude of employees and construction organisations toward occupational health and safety in India.Investigating the impact of existing occupational health and safety rules and regulations on the Indian construction industry.1.4 Research methodologyThe adopted research methodology will be divided into primary and subsidiary research. In primary research, questionnaires survey and a telephone will be conducted. This will help in understanding and identifying the perception of the management and the employees toward occupational health and safety in Indian construc tion industry. In secondary research, literature review will be carried out in order to understand the factors affecting occupational health and safety such organisational culture, climate and government policies. It will also help in identifying different occupational health and safety hazards and its effect on construction projects.1.4.1 prime researchPrimary research such as questionnaires survey and telephone interview will help in achieving the main objectives of the research. Data will be lay in from clients, contractors, managers, site engineers and supervisors who play an important role in the construction industry. The data collected done the telephone interview will help in supporting the findings from survey questionnaire.1.4.2 Secondary researchSecondary research will be carried out through literature review. The data will be collected through electronic databases, journals, websites, magazines, books and conference papers. These data will help in identifying the issu es and factors influencing occupational health and safety in the construction industry.1.5 Limitations of the researchThe most significant limitation to this research is the time constraint. Due to limited availability of time, the research cannot be conducted in depth.Provided more time, it could be possible to visit India and collect more data available on occupational health and safety in the Indian construction industry.As the research is carried out from United Kingdom, the collection of secondary data is limited to the information available on websites.Limited research has been carried out in India related to occupational health and safety in the construction industry. As such, there is less availability of data to support this research.The other constraints can be that some companies may not be reluctant in providing the right information. During telephone interview there may be possibilities that the interviewee give diplomatic or misleading answers. Also the size of the com pany can influence the answers of the interviewee.Also the answers provided by the respondents may be influenced by the size and location of the company.1.6 Structure of dissertationThe dissertation will be divided into various chapters. Chapter 2, 3 and 4 will be part of literature review. An overview of the chapters included in this research thesis is as shown below.Chapter 1 Background study and rationale for researchThis chapter will provide an overall of overview of the research. It will consist of background study, aim and objectives and also the rationale for the research. It will also give an overview of the research methodology to be conducted in order achieve the desired aim and objectives.Chapter 2 Factors affecting health and safety on construction sitesThis chapter narrates the factors influencing health and safety on construction such as sub-contracting systems, organisations structure, size, location, personnel and incentive factors.Chapter 3 Introduction to OHS an d detail description of OHS hazardsThis chapter will provide detail description of occupational health and safety including safety culture, human behaviours and different OHS hazards.Chapter 4 OHS in the Indian construction industryThis chapter will investigate the current scenario of OHS in the Indian construction industry. It will also explore the government rules and regulations related to OHS and their influence on the construction industry.Chapter 5 Research methodologyThis chapter will provide a brief draught of the different research methods available and the adopted research methodology.Chapter 6 Analysis and interpretation of the surveyThis chapter will include analysis of data collected through questionnaires survey and the telephone interview with help of charts, figures and tables.Chapter 7 Conclusion and recommendationsThis chapter will include the summary of the research findings as well as recommendations related to the research.