Preventive methods used for health and safety hazards in hotel industry in Sri Lanka

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.