Safety Champions: A Grass Roots Approach to Create a Culture of Care

Abstract

Abstract The challenge of developing a strong, competent, and safe construction labor workforce is not a new concern, but is more challenging in regions with a large percentage of third country nationals. The Gulf Region is characterised by a multi-cultural multi-national workforce, with over 85% of the population being South Asian, predominantly from low-income economies such as India, Pakistan or Bangladesh. A high proportion of these immigrants work as laborers in the oil and gas industry. Given that their education and skills are often limited due to low educational attainment and poor literacy levels, it is crucial to provide them with the knowledge required to work safely and contribute to a safe work environment. Third country nationals as the main source of labor in the Gulf Region provides increasing challenges to host countries. The need for effective, well-managed, competent, safe workforce is getting stronger at a national and international level. This paper summarizes one program that has successfully worked to build a solid workforce foundation and provided continued education in safety with multi-national labor-level workforce.