Appraisal of the Challenges to Ensuring Occupational Health and Safety Compliance within the Nigerian Construction Industry

Abstract

The construction industry is known for the high number of accidents occurring within the industry. This is due to the hazardous working processes which have led to severe injuries, disabilities and fatalities. Towards reducing this hazards numerous health and safety regulations have been provided by construction firms in Nigeria. Despite the provision of the regulations hazards and accidents is still experienced on construction sites. Thus, this study appraised the challenges of ensuring compliance with health and safety regulations by construction workers in the Nigeria construction industry. Data were obtained from safety personnel and construction professionals using questionnaires through a convenience sampling method. One hundred and thirty-eight were used for the analysis out of one hundred and sixty-eight that was distributed to the respondents. The questionnaire was analysed using SPSS V 24 adopting Factor analysis and mean item score. The findings clearly show that construction workers compliance to health and safety requirements is below average while the factor analysis shows inadequate safety equipment, low awareness to occupational health and poor compliance to health and safety requirements are the major challenges hindering the compliance rate. The study recommends that implementation of the use of innovative measures and hi-tech devices such as radio frequency identification for effective monitoring of construction workers. It also recommends the involvement of construction workers when making the health and safety policies. This study contributes towards improving the occupational safety experienced on construction sites within the country.