An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Health and Safety Induction Practices in the Zambian Construction Industry

Authors: Josephine Mutwale-Ziko, Nonde Lushinga, Inonge Akakandelwa

Abstract:

The study discusses the effectiveness of health and safety induction practices on construction sites against the background of the Zambian construction industry experience. The research design included the literature review of relevant literature. Questionnaires and interviews were administered to regulatory bodies, health, and safety personnel. Observation was also employed on construction sites to assess the health and safety practices being used. Health and safety in the construction industry are not something to be ignored or overlooked. The construction industry needs to take heed of the serious consequences of inadequate health and safety induction practices. The implications of inadequate health and safety induction procedures included among others threats to profitability, corporate social responsibility and increased turnover of the workforce leading to poor productivity. Adequate health and safety practices can improve the health and wellbeing of employees, reduce financial implications on firms and encourage productivity on construction sites. Despite this, accidents are still prevalent on construction sites in Zambia. The overall result of this research denotes that the implementation of health and safety induction practices is inadequate, as indicated by the negligent and non-adherent attitude to health and safety induction aspects on the sites by most stakeholders on construction sites. Therefore, health and safety induction practices are ineffective as preventive measures for reduction of accidents on construction sites in Zambia.

Keywords: Accidents, employees, health and safety, inadequate induction.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1129265

References:

[1] Australian Government, The Management of Occupational Health and Safety in Commonwealth Agencies; Induction into workplace, Commonwealth of Australia. Australia, 2007.
[2] Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) Listserv University of Nebraska-Lincoln 20 June 2014.
[3] A. Thompson, Most Common Cause of Accidents At Construction Sites. April 2014 San Diego: California.
[4] V.J. Davison, and K. Tomasin, "Construction Safety Handbook," 2nd Ed. American Society of civil Engineers, USA, 1996.
[5] C.F. Chi, and M.L. Wu, Fatal Occupational Injuries in Taiwan: Relationship between Fatality Rate and Age. Journal of Safety Science, 1997, Vol. 27. Pp 1-7.
[6] S. Phoya, Health and Safety Risk Management on Building Construction Sites in Tanzania: The Practice of Risk Assessment, Communication and Control, Phd thesis, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden, 2012.
[7] G. Taylor, K. Easter, and R. Hegney, Enhancing Occupational Safety and Health, Elsevier. Butterworth-Heinemann. Oxford, 2004.
[8] H. Lubega, B.M. Kiggundu, and D. Tindiwensi, An Investigation into the Causes of Accident in the Construction Industry in Uganda, 2001.
[9] T. Dejus, Accidents on construction Sites and their reasons, 2007.
[10] A. Rahim, M. Zaimi, and B. Singh, Causes of Accidents at Construction Sites. Malayasian. Journal of Civil engineering. Vol. 20. Issue 2. pp 242-267, 2008.
[11] S. Siziya, A.S. Muula, A. Ryan, and E. Rudatsikira, “Occupational Illnesses in Zambia: Results from the Zambian Labour force survey.” International Archives of medicine, 2010.
[12] A. Mohamed, Improving Safety Performance in Construction Projects In Libya (Case Study. Thesis), Tripoli. Libya, 2011.
[13] Comcare, 1st Safe Training CPCCOHSIOO1. Work Safely in Construction Industry. White Card. Construction Induction Manual. Australia, 2014.
[14] A. Thompson, Most Common Cause of Accidents at Construction Sites. Construction Accidents, 2014.
[15] Health and Safety Executive (HSE), “Reporting accidents and Incidents at work,” October 2013.
[16] H. Lingard, and S. Rowlinson, Occupational Health and Safety in Construction Project Management, Spon Press, 2005.
[17] National Council for Construction. Construction News, June, 2007, Volume 8 (6), pp. 1-9, 2007.