Workers In Construction Industry Research Articles

Strategies to Mitigate COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts on Health and Safety of Workers in Construction Projects

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory illness caused by a virus called SARS-CoV-2. With the global spread of COVID-19, there is a compelling need to improve the health and safety of workers employed in the construction projects (CP). Occupational characteristics, such as interfacing with the public and being in close quarters with other workers, not only put workers at high risk for disease, but also make them a nexus of disease transmission to the community. The objectives of this study are: (1) to evaluate the implications of COVID-19 pandemic on health and safety of workers in construction industry (CI), (2) to analyze the socio-economic-environmental impacts of the pandemic on construction, and (3) to recommend effective ten-point strategy to reduce COVID-19 impacts on the health of construction workers in CP. The required information is collected and analyzed based on the recently published literature, interviews, surveys, and industry experiences. The results reveal that hours of work, wages, workload and stress levels, access to paid leave, interactions with co-workers and supervisors, and health-promoting workplaces have major impacts on the well-being of workers, their families, and their communities. This study will be helpful for the owners, contractors, project managers and owners, and governmental authorities in adopting the effective strategies to improve the health and safety of workers as well as productivity and efficiency in construction projects.

The Influence of Personal Values on Organization Commitment among Foreign Workers in Malaysia's Construction Industry

The Influence of Personal Values on Organization Commitment among Foreign Workers in Malaysia's Construction Industry

Exploring the relationship between bodily pain and work-life balance among manual/non-managerial construction workers

ABSTRACT A qualitative investigation of the relationship between the experience of bodily pain and work-life balance was conducted in a sample of manual/non-managerial workers in the Australian construction industry. Participants were purposefully selected for the study on the basis that they reported experiencing ongoing bodily pain. Thematic analysis of the interview data revealed that participants perceive their pain to have substantial impacts on their ability to participate successfully in family life and in social and leisure activities, indicating that the experience of bodily pain has a negative impact on the work-life balance of these manual/non-managerial construction workers. Participants regularly seek remedial treatment outside of work and adapt their activities in order to cope with their pain. Results suggest that for workers in physically demanding jobs, work-life conflict may extend beyond a time-, strain- and behaviour-based model and include a physical capacity component. The research also proposes a new form of time-based work-life conflict which occurs through an indirect pathway through which pain negatively impacts time available for non-work activities. These findings suggest that organisational work-life balance initiatives should also consider the physicality of work, which can contribute, through musculoskeletal pain, to work-life conflict.

A motivational framework for women to work in the construction industry: An Indonesian case study

The poor level of women’s participation in the construction industry has been a concern for many years. In fact, women represent less than 3% of the total workers in the Indonesian construction industry. On the other hand, the industry is experiencing a worker shortage causing it to innovatively attract construction workers by increasing women’s participation in the industry. Thus, this paper aims to understand the motivating factors for women to work in the construction industry. It adopts multi-sequence research techniques including integrative literature review, expert interviews and questionnaire surveys to collect data for the study. The data was then analysed using relative importance index and factor analysis. The findings were discussed and synthesised to develop a motivational framework for women to work in the construction industry. While this framework was developed based on the Indonesian context, it can serve as a theoretical foundation for further research regarding women’s participation in the construction industry.

Practical Value and Development Prospect of Green Building Design in the New Period

<p>Relevant research points out that as one of the lifeblood industries of China’s economic development, the development of construction industry is related to the national economy and people’s livelihood. Therefore, in the new historical period, in order to further realize the rational development of China’s construction industry, a large number of construction industry practitioners have conducted in-depth analysis and exploration on the development direction of China. After analyzing, the researchers said that with the continuous improvement and strengthening of public awareness of environmental protection, in the future, China’s construction industry should focus on energy conservation and environmental protection. Based on this, relevant staff put forward the idea of “green building design”, aiming at effectively guiding China’s construction industry to achieve rational transformation. In this paper, the green building design work is taken as the breakthrough point, and the main problems existing in the green building design work in China in the new period are analyzed reasonably. At the same time, the corresponding optimization strategies are put forward, aiming to guide the construction industry workers to further realize the understanding and understanding of green building design, and then lay the foundation for the development of China’s construction industry.</p>

Safety performance & evaluation framework in Indian construction industry

IntroductionThis paper proposes a framework to evaluate the safety performance of workers in Indian construction industry. The key indicators to measure the safety and health conditions are identified and prioritized on the basis of the importance in the establishment of safe and healthy work environment. Design/methodology/approachFrom the literature review and inputs from the construction managers, key safety indicators were identified. The prioritization was accomplished using multi-criteria ranking method (MCRM). Dominance-based Rough Set (DRSA) is used for the ranking of indicators. It is based on Rough set theory which draws motivation from the indiscernibility relation be- tween the objects. The importance of each indicator is assessed by MCRM method in the contribution towards establishing a safe workplace environ- ment from different perspectives in a construction industry that includes management from top, middle and low-level management. FindingsThe role and involvement of management in the operations and con- stant interaction with workers were found to have a significant impact on the safety performance of the firms. Imparting necessary safety training to the employees and promoting a friendly atmosphere at the workplace aids in building the confidence of the workers that subsequently make them safety compliant. Dedicated staff to ensure that the workers are following safety protocols enlisted in safety manuals acquires an important place in the measurement of the safety performance of the firms. Practical implicationsThe findings of the current study will help the senior management in the small scale Indian construction industry to gain a perspective to- wards the assessment of safety condition in the firms and establishing an efficient and easy-to-use safety assessment framework. It will also be useful for middle and low-level management, since they should read the results as a positive effect of their constant interaction with workers. Management is suggested to design a well-organized and detailed manual that docu- ments the safety-related information including the proper use of safety equipment and emergency procedures. Originality/valueThis paper proposes a safety framework for small-scale Indian construction industry for calibration and benchmarking safety performance of the employees. The mathematical foundation of the framework is the multi-criteria ranking based on Dominance based Rough set approach.

A review of occupational exposure to heat stress, its health effects and controls among construction industry workers, A case of Jeddah, KSA

A review of occupational exposure to heat stress, its health effects and controls among construction industry workers, A case of Jeddah, KSA

Analyzing the Risk of Safety Accidents: The Relative Risks of Migrant Workers in Construction Industry

This study analyzed the relative risks of migrant workers, and identified risk factors based on quantitative data for the systematic safety management of migrant workers. Many studies have found that migrant workers are more vulnerable to safety accidents than non-migrant workers. Nevertheless, there are few quantitative studies of migrant workers’ accident-risk in the construction industry, where safety accidents are most frequent. In addition, safety management for the identified accident risk factors has not been implemented systematically. To fill the gap, this study uses safety accident data from construction sites, from the +, for the methodical safety management of migrant workers. The t-test and multiple regression analysis methods are used to define the variance in non-migrant and migrant workers, and the risk indicators, respectively. The two analyses show that the results for migrant construction workers were 2.2% higher in safety accident severity than non-migrant workers, and significant factors are also different. This study’s results will provide critical guidance for the safety management of migrant construction workers.

Preliminary modeling of Coronavirus (COVID-19) spread in construction industry.

The construction industry creates 1.3 trillion revenue each year in the United States. After Coronavirus (COVID-19) becoming a pandemic virus, many industries are shutting down and being on lockdown. This situation can lead to millions of people becoming unemployed and eventually causing a financial recession. Although the government and health organizations have issued guidelines to prevent the spread of the virus in the jobsites, there have not been any specific guidelines for construction industry workers. The contribution of this research is to develop a preliminary model and indicator of coronavirus (COVID-19) spread in the construction industry. This paper investigates the preliminary indexes, which can affect the spread of coronavirus in the construction industry. The developed model would act as a guide for stakeholders to take the most appropriate precautions in the jobsite with the available equipment and facilities.

Issues with Senior Workers in Hong Kong Construction Industry: Preliminary Observations and Intervention Opportunities

There is an increasingly larger proportion of workforce 50 years of age or older. This ageing trend is prevalent in the Hong Kong construction industry. The implications of this ageing trend for the construction industry are the decline in workforce productivity due to old age, compromised health, safety, and well-being; and the shortage of workforce. Coupled with various organisational and institutional shortcomings in the industry that lead to unfavourable working environment, these situations not only negatively affect the economic viability of the construction industry but also give rise to other psychosocial problems experienced by the older workers. Despite these situations, we know very little of the conditions older construction workers experience in the construction industry.There is therefore a need to investigate such issues and propose possible interventions to improve the working conditions of the senior workers. With these objectives, in this paper, we first report the findings of a small scale survey on the care of older workers in Hong Kong construction industry, and second propose potential intervention by combining the findings of the survey and our industry observations of the practices implemented by progressive contracting firms in Hong Kong. The findings reveal that despite the industry under appreciation of the ageing workforce, there are interventions implemented by progressive contracting firms that can potentially provide health and safety protection to the workforce of all ages although these firms are small in number. This article is an extended version of a conference paper that appeared as Koh et al. (2019).

Promotion of Vocational Education and Training Career Pathways in the Australian Construction Industry

This discussion paper considers the benefits of promotion of qualification pathways related to individual career pathways for new entrants and current workers in the Australian construction industry. Benefits are considered from an individual, organisational and social view accounting for licencing and health and safety obligations in the industry. The paper condones the promotion of training pathway programs, particularly those that increase in level and stimulate upskilling. Increases in uptake of pathways programs linked to career objectives can have a positive impact on recognised skill shortage occupations and enhance skills in younger workers in an industry subject to an aging workforce. Registered Training Organisations and government agencies are encouraged to develop innovative ways to increase the uptake of pathways and to ensure retention through the range of qualifications completed.

Personal ultraviolet radiation dosimetry and its relationship with environmental data: A longitudinal pilot study in Croatian construction workers

ObjectiveThis pilot study aimed to estimate annual occupational ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposures based on 5 consecutive months of dosimetry measurements in Croatian construction workers and assess its relationship with the environmental data collected during the same period. MethodsFour male construction industry workers from the vicinity of Zagreb (lat. 45.8° N, alt. 128 m) participated in the study. The study was a part of the GENESIS-UV project, attempting to collect long-term dosimetry data for outdoor occupations across Europe. Workers wore personal dosimeters (model X2012–10, Gigahertz, Tuerkenfeld, Germany) on the left upper arm during working hours in the period from June to October 2017. Median exposure assessment period was 57 working days. ResultsEstimates of annual occupational UVR exposure ranged from 76 SED to 976 SED per worker, reflecting large differences in patterns of workers' exposure. Daily UVR doses received by the workers were comparable to the values of other studies at similar latitudes, reaching up to 12 SED in summer months. Measurements of workers with high exposure values (estimated >600 SED/year) showed moderate to high associations with environmental UVR and insolation data (Spearman's correlation coefficient ranging from 0.57 to 0.73). ConclusionsThe results confirmed high occupational exposure of tested Croatian construction workers to solar UVR. However, more data are needed to explain the between-worker variability and develop prediction models with respect to specific work tasks. The use of environmental UVR for predicting long-term exposure should be considered, especially for high exposure tasks.

Ergonomic Assessment of Musculoskeletal Disorders' Risk Factors in Construction Workers Using Cornell Questionnaire and WERA Method

Introduction: With regard to high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in the construction industry workers, the aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and their relevant risk factors in workers of a construction factory.
 Methods: This descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was conducted in 2019. In this regard, 150 workers were selected from a construction factory located in Tehran City, Iran. The census sampling method was applied in the area under study. The data gathering tool were Cornell questionnaire and WERA ergonomic risk assessment method. The questionnaires were completed while the workers' postures were assessed in their work stations. Data were analyzed applying suitable descriptive and analytical tests in SPSS software version 22.
 Results: The analysis of questionnaires showed that the workers' lower back had the highest average score of pain. The wrist, knee, and shoulder had the highest pain average scores, respectively. The result of ergonomic assessment by WERA method indicated that the lower back had the highest risk score. Similarly, WERA assessment score was significantly related to the type of job (p-value < 0.001). Among the understudy occupations, masonry, concrete testing, and welding had the highest risk scores, respectively.
 Conclusion: The most ergonomic risk factors in activities of the extensive occupational groups are associated with multiple occupational tasks that endanger workers for serious risk factors in the lumbar and knee areas. Therefore, implementation of ergonomic interventions is necessary for improving the working conditions of construction occupations.

Occupational exposure to noise and cold environment and the risk of death due to myocardial infarction and stroke

PurposeThe present study examined a possible association between occupational exposure to noise, working and living in cold conditions, and the risk of mortality in myocardial infarction and stroke.MethodsThe present cohort study consists of 194,501 workers in the Swedish construction industry that participated in health examinations between 1971 and 1993. Noise exposure was defined on a job-exposure matrix based on a survey of the working conditions carried out during the mid 1970s. All workers were categorised into three main regions of Sweden, differing in temperature: Reference (Götaland), colder (Svealand), and coldest (Norrland). Relative risks (RR) were analysed by negative binomial regression adjusting for age, BMI, and smoking habits.ResultsModerate and high noise exposure was associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction (RR 1.10–1.13 with 95% CI over unit) and stroke mortality (RR 1.15 to 1.19 with 95% CI over unit). There was an increased risk for myocardial infarction (RR 1.10, 95% CI 1.01–1.20), but not for stroke mortality (RR 1.09, 95% CI 0.94–1.25) associated with living and working in the coldest region. There was an interaction on the risk of myocardial infarction mortality between different regions and noise exposure (p = 0.016), but not for stroke mortality (p = 0.88).ConclusionsThe study indicates an interaction between working at hazardous noise levels and living and working in cold conditions for increased mortality in myocardial infarction.

Occupational dermatitis among construction industry workers in 10th of Ramadan City

Occupational dermatitis among construction industry workers in 10th of Ramadan City

Mining Hidden Knowledge About Illegal Compensation for Occupational Injury: Topic Model Approach.

BackgroundAlthough injured employees are legally covered by workers’ compensation insurance in South Korea, some employers make agreements to prevent the injured employees from claiming their compensation. Thus, this leads to underreporting of occupational injury statistics. Illegal compensation (called gong-sang in Korean) is a critical method used to underreport or cover-up occupational injuries. However, gong-sang is not counted in the official occupational injury statistics; therefore, we cannot identify gong-sang–related issues.ObjectiveThis study aimed to analyze social media data using topic modeling to explore hidden knowledge about illegal compensation—gong-sang—for occupational injury in South Korea.MethodsWe collected 2210 documents from social media data by filtering the keyword, gong-sang. The study period was between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2017. After completing natural language processing of the Korean language, a morphological analyzer, we performed topic modeling using latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) in the Python library, Gensim. A 10-topic model was selected and run with 3000 Gibbs sampling iterations to fit the model.ResultsThe LDA model was used to classify gong-sang–related documents into 4 categories from a total of 10 topics. Topic 1 was the greatest concern (60.5%). Workers who suffered from industrial accidents seemed to be worried about illegal compensation and legal insurance claims, wherein keywords on the choice between illegal compensation and legal insurance claims were included. In topic 2, keywords were associated with claims for industrial accident insurance benefits. Topics 3 and 4, as the second highest concern (19%), contained keywords implying the monetary compensation of gong-sang. Topics 5 to 10 included keywords on vulnerable jobs (ie, workers in the construction and defense industry, delivery riders, and foreign workers) and body parts (ie, injuries to the hands, face, teeth, lower limbs, and back) to gong-sang.ConclusionsWe explored hidden knowledge to identify the salient issues surrounding gong-sang using the LDA model. These topics may provide valuable information to ensure the more efficient operation of South Korea’s occupational health and safety administration and protect vulnerable workers from illegal gong-sang compensation practices.

Health risk assessment for exposure to fine dust in production conditions

Introduction.The results of the study of the working area air during thermal insulation works are presented.The aim of the studywas to assess the health risk of workers in the construction industry and exposed to fine dust.Materials and methods.The number of dust particles of different dispersion in the air of the working area in the implementation of thermal insulation works is determined.Results.It is established that the working conditions during the thermal insulation works in accordance with the current regulatory documentation are classified as harmful 3 class 2 degree. Harmful factor of the production environment is dust (including PM10and fine PM2,5) in air of working zone (3.2). The air quality of the working area indicates a long stay of fine dust in the air over the territory of the construction site. Dust of different dispersed composition was found in the air of the working area during thermal insulation works. Th e dust concentration is more than 10 μm was 8.2±1.3 mg/m3, PM10and 1.8±0.4 mg/m3, PM2,5–1,25±0,2 mg/m3.Conclusions.The results obtained in the experiment make it possible to determine the safe duration of the working experience underthe influence of a harmful factor of the working environment (in terms of the permissible health risk) with different duration ofcontact with it during the day.

The Competency Level of Indonesian Migrant Workers in Malaysia

Poor competency of construction workers in the construction industry is considered one of the most discouraging human resource issues in developing countries. This paper reports an investigation into the competency level of Indonesian migrant workers in the Malaysian construction industry. Data from this research was collected from the survey questionnaires with 300 Indonesian migrant workers. Results indicated that the levels of knowledge, skill and attitude among Indonesian migrant workers towards the trades in the construction industry only showed moderate levels. Suggestions for ways to overcome skill gap among Indonesian migrant workers were given in order to enhance their competency level in the construction industry.

The Job Specification and Job Description for Indonesian Workers in Malaysian Construction Industry

The construction industry is one of the major industries contributing to the growth of Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP). Therefore, in order to overcome the shortage of local workers, Malaysia is highly dependent on the Indonesian workers to work in the construction industry. The aim of this paper is to identify the job specification and job description of the Indonesian workers in the Malaysian construction industry. A round-table discussion was carried out to obtain the valuable information. The results indicated that the most important job specification for each Indonesian worker who works in the construction industry is the need to have a Construction Personnel Card. In addition, a skilled Indonesian worker is needed to be certified and awarded a Foreign Workers Certificate (PKPA). However, in terms of job description, Indonesian workers are regulated by several sets of policies and laws.

건설현장의 보건관리를 위한 종합계획 수립 연구

Purpose: This study proposed the comprehensive construction occupational health management plan in Korea to listen to the opinions of occupational safety and health experts and practitioners, to grasp the current status and problems of construction site occupational health management, and to seek strategies for efficient construction health management. Methods: In this study, the improvement of the health level and quality of life of construction workers by eliminating the blind spots of construction occupational health management is suggested as the vision of construction occupational health management. And reducing the deaths from occupational diseases was set as the goal of construction occupational health management. Results: Four tasks were set for occupational health management in the construction industry; improvement of construction occupational health management system, establishment of construction occupational health management infrastructure, management of vulnerable workers in construction industry, development of construction occupational health management program. Conclusion: In order to implement this, it is necessary to actively conduct research on construction occupational health management, propose a system suitable for the characteristics of the construction industry, and reinforce the capacity of the occupational health manager to establish the occupational health management of construction sites. It is suggested to the government to establish a construction occupational health management policy based on the tasks proposed in this study