Safety performance of construction industry in Sri Lanka

Abstract

A safe and healthy work environment is the basic right of every worker. However, the global situation falls far short from this right. The ILO estimates that more than 125 million workers are victims of occupational accidents and disease in single year. Of these, approximately 220,000 workers die and about 10 million are seriously injured. Due to the ever changing environment and temporary nature of the construction industry, it contributes major component of aforementioned accidents. It is common in Sri Lanka, under privileged community has involved in construction industry. This leads to labour exploitation. Contractors always try to maximize the profit. Hence they always try to allocate lesser amount for health and safety resulting under resources and poor trained labour force at the site. Top management, middle management and even site personal are much aware of the benefits that can be gained through good health and safety practices. However it is sad to say that poor safety performance of the construction industry continues. This may be due to the poor safety culture, low education, lack of resources, poor commitment etc. Hence this research tries to find the reasons for poor health and safety conditions of construction sites and find the ways and means to mitigate the risk.