Safety Practices of Foreign Workers at Construction Site: Challenges and Strategies for Improvement

Abstract

Construction sector is always associated with 3Ds industry (dangerous, dirty and difficult). Despite the significant contribution of the sector on Malaysia economic development, the statistics have shown that the sector has enormous impact on the increase number of fatality and accident rates at construction site. The employment of foreign workers with low construction skill into Malaysia has further deteriorated the site safety performance. To find improvement for this phenomenon, this research begin with investigating the current site safety approaches implemented by the foreign workers, the challenges faced by them and the strategies taken by the company to improve safety practices at construction site. In order to obtain a conclusive finding, in-depth interviews with foreign workers working with construction companies Grade 7 and their managers were carried out. Overall the findings reported that, first, although there are safety measures taken during construction operation (e.g. wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), following safety signs and housekeeping), the measures were only be implemented occasionally. Second, language barrier, lack of safety awareness, lack of safety training and do-not-care attitude of foreign workers are found to be the major challenge led to poor site safety practices. Third, proficient in local language, develop safety awareness and supportive site condition and monitoring effort by the Site Managers are reported as important aspect to improve site safety performance. These findings enhance the understanding about site safety practices of the foreign worker who work in Malaysia. It also provides valuable improvement measures that can be carried out by top management and other construction bodies to improve site safety condition in Malaysia.