Assessment Of Occupational Safety And Health Management In Building Construction Site: In The Case Of Agaro Town

Abstract

The construction industry in Ethiopia is growing rapidly. While the way to manage occupational safety and health performance in construction projects has predominantly been recorded as unfair and very poor, for a construction project to be successful, ensuring the safety and health of workers is of the utmost importance. But it has been seen as one of the most hazardous industries because of its poor health and safety performance record compared to other industries. The objective of this research study was to assess the current practices of occupational health and safety management, identify the main causes of occupational accidents related to OSH, and determine the damage and accidents that occur related to the workplace in building construction projects at Agaro Town. Consequently, the survey research design was used to accomplish the objective of the study. Mainly, the questionnaire was distributed to contractors, consultants, clients, and other related employees of the companies that were working under construction on nine building construction projects in Agaro town. The survey questionnaire was distributed to 45 respondents who were selected purposefully; among them, 41 responded, which represented a response rate of 91.11%. The data gathered through the questionnaire and an interview was analyzed by Microsoft Excel, the Statistical Package for Social Science, and the Relative Impotence Index. Descriptive analysis is used to summarize and interpret the data. The research result indicated that the current practice of occupational safety and health management was assessed workers related to training, communication and company safety culture are ranked individually and in detail from that training on proper use of scaffoldings, going lift load capacity operation and the Culture of the company considers occupational safety and health during planning and execution of projects ranked as first rank for each scenario with relative importance index value of 0.537, 0.502 and 0.498 respectively with causes of work-related accident with related to Occupational Safety and Healthy management erection and dismantle of scaffoldings by unskilled labor from causes of work-related accident with related to falling from height, lack of training on key issues pertaining health and safety consciousness from causes of safety problems related to the human element, engaging incompetent safety personnel from causes of safety difficulty related to management, and failing to report unsafe methods from causes related to unsafe working methods were first ranked with relative importance index values of 0.741, 0.644, 0.678, and 0.605, respectively. Which leads to damage and accidents related to the workplace through the dismantling of formwork? According to the study, to have a safety increment in the construction industry, implementation of occupational health and safety management by controlling factors and applying mitigation methods is the best option. The study also recommended that training needs to be provided frequently to all levels of workers on construction; during the bid, the contractor should have incorporated a safety audit report for their qualification; and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs should implement the labor proclamations on health and safety to reduce their occurrence.