Safety values, attitudes and behaviours in workers of a waste collection and sanitation company

Abstract

The values, attitudes and safety behaviours expressed by workers are an important aspect when determining the success of a company's performance in the field of safety and health at work. The data compiled from a non-probabilistic random sample of 200 workers from a waste collection and sanitation company in northeastern Brazil played a role in portraying some of the organisation's cultural traits in terms of occupational safety and health conditions and organisational safety climate in this segment of workers. It can be concluded that the company has an overall positive safety climate, in particular how safety was considered an organisational value, and also workers’ perception about the general safety principles in the company is very positive. The only parameter that was negatively assessed concerns the quality of safety communications, presenting an opportunity for improvement. The research hypotheses formulated were only partially confirmed, yet it was possible to assess that factors such as safety training, the quality of safety communications, the control of the effects of work pace on safety, the perception of safety management values and practices in the organisation and the institutional strength of the internal safety services had a favourable bearing on determining the level of safety maturity and risk perception of workers.