Ergonomic analysis of working posture of gardeners engaged in selected gardening activities

Abstract

Manual labour are inevitable and common in gardening with repetitive movement in awkward posture for long duration and no frequent breaks. This overexertion leads to poor occupational health effect on workers such as postural discomfort. This study intended to analyze the work posture of workers engaged in gardening. The study was conducted in two educational institutes of Ludhiana city. A total of 30 male gardeners were selected purposively as respondents, 15 each from both the institutes. A self constructed interview schedule was used to collect the primary data regarding gardening activities and the drudgery experienced by respondents. Also, a detailed analysis of working posture was carried out by using REBA, OWAS, WERA worksheet. Results revealed that the respondents perceived high drudgery level while performing weeding (mean score=2.89), hedge cutting (mean score=2.55) and potting activity (mean score=2.26). Thus, these three activities were selected for postural analysis. REBA score inferred that risk was found to be high in all the selected gardening activities i.e., the score was greater than 7. In OWAS analysis,it was found that corrective measures is required for weeding (mean score=3.53), hedge cutting (mean score=3.36), and potting (mean score=1.73) activity. The WERA score analysis revealed that the risk was found to be medium for the selected gardening activitys.