Health and Safety Perception of Construction Workers in Saudi Arabia

The construction industry continues to rank as one of the highest risk industries. This can be attributed to rising trends in industrialization and the increasing size and complexity of construction projects [1]. Consequently, the construction industry has the highest rate of fatal accidents as well as disabling injuries compared to other high-risk industries [2]. These accidents have serious economic and social consequences [3]. Besides the loss of life and property, financial losses could be attributed to medical bills for the treatment and rehabilitation of injured persons, downtime due to the suspension of production, workers’ compensation, cost of repair and/or replacement of damaged equipment, amongst others [4]. The risks are further increased when there is a general lack of awareness or the absence of strict implementation of safety rules and regulations predominate. The prevalence of such behaviors and attitudes impedes the progress and overall success of an organization. For instance, a study of 27 countries in the European Union showed that: for every 100,000 people employed in the construction industry, 3,000 people undergo accidents at work, while six people per each 100,000 of employees fall victim to fatal accidents [5].

Literature reveals that employees’ attitudes towards safety have been referred to as safety “culture” and “climate” [6]. The perceptions and beliefs of workers, their behavior and the established management systems are elements that combine to form the safety culture/climate of an organization [7]. Furthermore, Hale [8] defined safety culture as “the attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions shared by natural groups as defining norms and values, which determine how they react in relation to risks and risk control systems”. Also, an industry standard definition of safety culture has been proposed by a United Kingdom nuclear safety panel as follows: “the safety culture of an organization is the product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies, and patterns of behavior that determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of an organization’s health and safety management [9].

Though the subject of workers’ perception of the safety climate of their workplace has been on the discussion table for the past 25 years; this concept has only gained prominence in the recent years [10]. The construction industry generally falls short in its establishment of a good safety culture. The situation is further exacerbated in developing countries where there is a general lack of awareness and understanding of what a good safety culture entails. Saudi Arabia continues to develop rapidly despite the fall in oil prices. Numerous developmental projects spread across the country. Current and future developmental projects include investments worth $258.2bn in real estate; $151.5bn in petrochemicals; and $126.7bn in electricity, gas, and water [11]. By virtue of the number of mega projects going on in Saudi Arabia, the potential amount of safety risks is expected to increase in parallel to the level of development. Despite this fact, the overall level of construction safety in Saudi Arabia has been relatively low [12].

Though efforts have been made by the concerned stakeholders to address the increasing costs of accidents and ensure a safer workplace in the construction industry, little progress has been made so far. This may be due to little efforts in studying the root causes of most of the problems faced [13]. Berger [14] in his study suggested that the principles of safety are widely ignored by construction contractors in Saudi Arabia. The study highlighted that 25% of contractors did not provide new workers with a safety orientation; 25% did not provide personal protective equipment; 25% did not provide first-aid on site, and 38% had no trained safety personnel. Therefore, the causes of these problems may be identified through an investigation of the perception of workers on the inherent safety culture [15]. Thus this study aims to investigate the occupational HS perception of workers in Saudi Arabia’s construction sites. This is performed based on distributing a questionnaire for mid-level and low-level workers in various construction sites across the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The results of this study highlight critical areas that could be utilized for developing an effective safety management program, and also to implement, modify already existing programs in the construction industry in Saudi Arabia.

METHODOLOGY

The following activities were conducted to achieve the objective of this research:

Reviewing the published literature related to safety perception and culture in the construction industry of various regions.

Acquiring a standardized questionnaire available through the National Safety Council (NSC) [16].

Deploying the questionnaire to mid-level and low-level workers across 22 construction sites in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. A total of 250 questionnaires were administered, and 196 responses were received indicating a response rate of 78%.

Calculating percentile scores for the various items in the questionnaire based on the means of the responses, and further rating these percentile scores according to the NSC’s barometric scale, as follows: 0–24% implies “poor performance”; 25–49% implies “below average performance”; 50–75% implies “above average performance”; and 76–100% implies “high performance”.

PREVIOUS STUDIES

Numerous efforts have been made in recent years to investigate the HS perception in construction sites. Some of these studies have been conducted in countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Turkey, Portugal and the United States of America. Gyekye [17] studied the perception of workers concerning workplace safety in construction projects in Ghana. The study sought to correlate the rates of accidents with job satisfaction of workers. In the study, 320 workers in the Ghanaian construction industry were interviewed. The findings of the study established a positive relationship between the safety climate and job satisfaction, and consequently lower accident rates.

A study conducted in Nigeria by Kukoyi and Smallwood [18] explored the HS perceptions of construction workers including ironworkers, masons, carpenters, roofers, and electricians. The study employed a combination of interviews and observations. The main results show that lack of understanding of the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), inadequate training, socio-economic realities, cultural and religious beliefs are key factors influencing the construction safety climate.

Panuwatwanich et al. [12] studied the relationship between safety motivation, safety climate, safety behavior and safety outcomes within the context of the Saudi Arabian construction industry. A questionnaire survey was administered to 295 engineers and project managers. The study established a positive relationship between safety motivation, safety behavior, and safety climate.

Several studies have been conducted in the Malaysian construction industry. Zulkefli et al. [19] measured the efficiency of monetary and non-monetary incentives to the performance and behavior of construction workers in Malaysia. Another study in Malaysia was carried out by Hassan et al. [10]. The study presented the safety perception of workers of building construction projects in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A questionnaire of 36 factors was administered to 100 workers. The study suggested that the main factors influencing safety performance levels are organizational and management commitment, communication between workmates, roles of workers and supervisors and obstacles to safety.

Andi [15] measured the perception of workers towards safety culture in construction projects in Indonesia. The study employed a questionnaire survey distributed to 207 workers in three specific large construction projects. The questionnaire included three parts with multiple choice questions; general information about participants, safety culture factors and worker performance factor. The results of the study highlighted issues related to safety processes and rules, competency of workers, communication and management commitment.

A case study of the safety climate in Hong Kong’s construction industry was presented by Fang et al. [20]. The study established a significant relationship between safety climate and personal characteristics, including gender, marital status, and education level, number of family members to support, safety knowledge, drinking habits, direct employer, and individual safety behavior. Also, Suo and Zhang [21] investigated the factors influencing migrant peasant workers’ use of safety footwear in China. The study suggests that the most influencing factors were employee’s perception of the employers’ attitude towards safety, availability of free safety footwear, and comfortability of the safety footwear.

In Turkey, Ulubeyli et al. [22] surveyed 800 workers from 32 construction projects focusing on labor workforce. These included eight categories based on the potential levels of risk: unskilled workers, welders, concrete workers, forming workers, electricians, painters, reinforcement fixers and bricklayers. The key findings of the study suggested that there is a lack of commitment to the safety of the workers, lack of training on safety issues and lack of adequate use of PPEs.

Silva et al. [3] employed a questionnaire survey to assess the safety climate of the Portuguese construction industry. The questionnaire was administered to 213 workers. The study compared the results derived from five construction sites and highlighted the existence of safety sub-climates.

Thakur and Sawhney [23] presented a study to examine the influence of cultural factors on safety perception. The study proposed a conceptual model to analyze the perception of safety among Hispanic and non-Hispanic workers in the United States. The aim was to introduce a new method for construction fatality analysis by providing insight into cultural influences on safety perception. Furthermore, Cubides and Felipe [24] reviewed the literature to identify the factors leading to occupational injuries and illnesses among Hispanic construction workers in the United States. The most common factors identified by the study was the unavailability of PPE use, employees’ fear of demanding safer working conditions, lack of training, and management’s preference for productivity over safety. O’Toole [25] conducted an employee safety perception survey from a large ready-mix concrete producer in the United States. The results of the study suggest that management’s commitment was the major factor influencing employees’ perception of safety.

The above studies demonstrated the importance of studying construction workers’ perception of HS in various construction climates. These studies indicated that there is a direct relationship between the perception of construction workers and HS performance in the construction industry. Some of the studies presented have focused on the labor workforce due to high levels of risks among this group of workers. These studies showed that the major issues influencing workers’ perception of HS include job satisfaction; leadership’s commitment to workers’ safety; communication between workmates; roles and responsivities of all project’s stakeholders; safety rules and regulations; competency of workers; lack of training and lack of proper use of PPE.

AREA OF STUDY

The study was carried out in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, which hosts a significant number of the construction projects. Twenty-two construction sites have been surveyed in this study in the cities of Khobar, Dammam, Dhahran, and Jubail. These sites are composed of a variety of construction projects accessible to the investigators. They range from residential, educational, governmental, road and bridge projects. The workforce in these sites ranged from 40 to 600 workers.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results of the questionnaire survey are presented in Tables 1-5. The percentile scores for the various elements of the questionnaire survey are also illustrated in Figures 1-6. The overarching objective of this study was to examine the perception of mid-level and low-level construction workers in the safety culture, in the construction industry in Saudi Arabia. The elements of the questionnaire survey as presented by the NSC are categorized into six sections, and can be summarily described as follows [16]: