Negligent use of personal protective equipment by construction workers in Sri Lanka: Analysis of individual manifestations

Abstract

The construction industry can be identified as one of the main sectors in Sri Lanka where the majority of occupational accidents happen. When considering the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), occupational accidents have been significantly happened due to many reasons. Among those reasons, negligence of the use of PPE by construction workers has become prominent. Different factors can affect this situation. Among them, individual manifestations such as perceptions, beliefs, experiences and attitudes of the workers can make a significant impact. Hence, there is an emerging need to explore the reasons under these individual manifestations, which encourages the negligence use of PPE. This paper therefore aimed to analyse the individual manifestations to unveil the reasons behind the negligence of use of PPE by construction workers in Sri Lanka. A qualitative research approach was followed to achieve the aim of the study. Case studies were conducted using two SME construction projects. Fourteen semi structured interviews were conducted in both cases with managerial and worker level respondents. Collected data were analysed using code based content analysis. ‘Considering PPE as a disturbance’, ‘lack of experiences of the workers’, ‘poor education level of the workers’, ‘inadequate knowledge and skills of the workers’, ‘poor income level’, ‘age of the workers’, ‘number of dependencies’, ‘poor health condition’ and ‘different lifestyles of the workers’ were revealed through the empirical research findings as the key reasons under individual manifestations, which affect for the neglect usage of PPE by the workers. The knowledge generated through this study can be used in many ways by the industry practitioners to make safe working environment within the construction sites.