Abstract:
Occupational safety and health is a discipline which aims at the promotion and maintenance of the
highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers. It involves the protection of
workers in their employment from risks resulting factors, which are adverse to their safety and health
condition. If there is a safety and health issue in an organisation, it will lead to various problems and
puts the worker, their families, other people in the community, and the physical environment around the
work place at a risk. Literature reveals that health and safety matter in hotel industry is a very broad
and critical concept that should be taken in to consideration. However, a study which has been carried
on health and safety hazards in hotel industry is hardly found in Sri Lanka. Therefore, in order to
address the above gap, this research aims at identifying the health and safety hazards, causes of those
hazards and the preventive measures that can be adopted to minimise these hazards in hotel industry of
Sri Lanka.
A three step approach; a literature survey, a preliminary study and a detailed questionnaire survey,
was carried out in achieving the aim of this research. The study identified ‘Cuts and Burns’ and
‘Electrical Hazards’ as the most critical health and safety hazards in hotel industry. According to the
study the most critical causes for those hazards are ‘Open Flames’ and ‘Contact with Electricity from
Machines’ respectively. Further, ‘Inadequate Instructions’ and ‘Inadequate Safety Education’ could be
identified as the most critical factors that affect the overall health and safety hazards in hotel industry.
As the findings revealed, the usage of preventive methods to mitigate health and safety hazards in hotel
industry in Sri Lanka, is at a very low level and using PPE and fire protection methods and
maintaining a good housekeeping procedure are the mostly practiced preventive methods. Further,
there are lot more to implement in order to minimise/eliminate health and safety hazards.
