Abstract
BackgroundThe agriculture sector consistently ranks among the most hazardous occupational industries globally with high risk of job-related injuries, illnesses, disability, and death. In 2015, the agricultural fatal work injury rate in the United States was 22.8 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers; seven times the all-worker fatal injury rate of 3.4 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers. In this study we identified the factors that are associated with workplace accident and injuries at the Goldtree (SL) Limited Company - a private international agro-industrial palm kernel oil company operating in eastern Sierra Leone.MethodsThis is a descriptive research that made use of both qualitative and quantitative research techniques to collect and analyse agro-industrial occupation-related accident and injuries of workers attached to the Goldtree (SL) Limited Company, an international palm kernel oil producing and marketing company in Sierra Leone. We analyzed the responses of 100 workers at the Goldtree (SL) Limited Company that are related to their work safety, adherence to work safety guidelines as well as working habit.ResultsThirty nine (39.0%) of the workers interviewed in this study said they had been involved in some forms of occupational accident; (33.3%) of those involved in some form of occupational-related accidents have been working in the company for 3–5 years, 22.0% have been working at the company for at least 2 years; 7.7% have been working for 6–8 years (X2 = 9.88, p-value = 0.02).ConclusionWorkers who have spent few years in the job, and those workers who have confidence that management is committed to addressing health and safety issues, believed that their working tools were in excellent condition, or agreed that they have the rights and responsibilities for an effective workplace health and safety system have decreased odds of experiencing occupational-related accidents or injury at the study site.
Highlights
The agriculture sector consistently ranks among the most hazardous occupational industries globally with high risk of job-related injuries, illnesses, disability, and death
Length of service of workers There was an inverse correlation between the duration spent working at Goldtree (SL) Limited Company and the number of workers for that duration of time spent at the company; 43% of the workers had spent 3–5 years at their various departments; 12% had spent 6–8 years, while 7% had spent more than 8 years at their department (Fig. 3)
Injuries and reporting Majority (92.0%) of the workers who encountered workplace accidents or injuries reported them immediately they occurred. Of those workers (n = 39, 39%) who encountered workplace accidents or injuries, 38.5% attributed their accident to the lack of adequate safety gears, 10.4% to inadequate training, 12.8% to ignorance about OHS matters, 10.3% to workers non-compliance to OHS regulations and carelessness, 2.6% to improper housekeeping of working tools, and 25.4% attributed their accidents or injuries to a combination of all of the above factors
Summary
The agriculture sector consistently ranks among the most hazardous occupational industries globally with high risk of job-related injuries, illnesses, disability, and death. In spite of being one of the most important sectors globally in terms of food supply and workforce, the agro-industry is considered as one of the most hazardous sectors in terms of its high work-related illnesses, accident and mortality rates [1, 2]. The Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) management system which was developed by the International Labour Organization (ILO) seeks to address amongst many issues to recognize employers and workers as important tools that can be used to eliminate occupational hazards and risk in the work place [3]. Until 2000, the agriculture sector was one of the largest labor force globally [7] and with its use of wide range of working tools, livestock, plants and human labor, the agriculture sector workers encounter high occupational risk
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