An Analysis on the Different Mechanisms on Occupational Safety in the Construction Industry
The staggering number of deaths involved in the construction industry comparative to other health and safety risk levels in other laborious occupation entails a very high risk occupation. Additionally relevant information scant in established occupational safety practices has existed as a prevalent issue. Research by the International Labor Organization reveal the construction industry to experience at least 100,000 deaths a year, causing a factor from the outstanding number of fatalities as the growing concern for establishing structures in safety practices is imperative. The call for a globalized economy constitutes concern to a heightened level due to mortality rates climbing up to 40 percent occur associated to the rising demand for high rise building infrastructures (Walters, 2010,p.5).
Furthermore, aside the fatality levels prompting industry attention and action, occupational safety implements a persistent subcultural atmosphere decentralizing established standards for policy formation implementation. Casual labor practices and hostile employer orientations to organized labor in agency levels prevent to address resulting disorganized structures. The leverage to battle these deficiencies by limited trade union memberships from these environments is weakened without government support and public advocacy. Therefore, legislation should introduce enforcement initiatives to address these industry incompetency and malpractices (Walters, 2010,p.5).
Legislation should incorporate the following tenets to form established occupational safety practice in the construction industry as follows:
Worker Representation and Consultation: Social dialogue on occupational and safety practices industry wide should centralize towards an established policy structure. This should in particular emphasize the high levels of risks involved in daily industry practices in particular to procedural matters entailing high danger risk levels. For example, in circumstances when performing welding works in heightened areas of high rise structures, or dealing with heavy weighted materials in heightened levels. Resultant effects make it worse when circumstances permit external environment factors that risk stature imbalance and falls from the traditional positions of workers and with the procedures they follow Working through an approach is critical when taking into account industry wide feedback from workers pointing out high risk practices and customizing in them procedural standards to ensure complete safety. State and government levels should participate in industry forums to place resolutions into detail and succinct terms of standardized practices in pieces of legislation to ensure proper enforcement to deter agency noncompliance and industry deviation. Because of high human risk involved and to enforce the discipline required to deter hostile industry environments, criminal liability on the part of employers should be a normal tool attached to deviations and at worst cases, resulting death of construction workers.
Evaluation of Industry Practices and Public Awareness: Scant information on extensive and construed studies on a wide variety of industry practices call the evaluative study to establish standardized procedural practices (Walters, 2010, p.12) It is important to stress that there still exists a marginal amount of related literature misconstruing current practices implemented in the construction industry. The lack of related publications and industry standardization represent an unconverted attitude by the public, the academe and industry consultation industries to ingrain itself into awareness and solutions the deficiencies of industry practices and norms. Without supportive advocacy expressed through publicized literature will disable to prompt national policy to bring into reality. The persistence existent appropriate in grey areas on procedural practices and literature discourse not only public opinion and reverting back to evaluate the industry’s building blocks and cross referencing among the gaps, current practices implemented and recommended action but a conduct of professional evaluation study sifting between the lines should be the guiding determinant to revamp current undervalued practices in this light industry wide. National governmental organization should initiate and lobby industry reforms into the legislative levels to a standardized process. This approach enhances participation among trade union organizations and perpetuates lobby efforts into an organized structure towards a progressive regulation of the industry inspectors within national and international levels. Industry leaders who monitor worker representation and welfare for safety procedure should exercise in common areas subject to evaluations on industry safety practices not limited to general health and safety; discrimination of workers based on sex, race, culture and religion; conducting workplace inspections on periodic bases at the minimum if not daily; anticipating future hazards, workplace and environmental conditions; proper investigation of workers’ complaints; making representations in other industry-related employee matters; the right to consultation in implementing a safety guaranteed work environment and the right to access to national authorities on unresolved or delayed issues without employer-employee compromise whenever necessary (Walters, 2010,p).
Promoting Industry Related Safety Education through Streamlining the Distribution Process:
The decentralized nature of the policy structures and sound practices in the construction industry prompt the need to promulgate updated information and safety focused mechanisms to institutionalize safety procedures written into code for construction firms. To reckon this challenge requires an industry wide effective educational platform in laying out safety mechanisms and sound procedures in conducting activities facilitated by related industry associations on an international network basis. To address effectively specific needed procedures and methods commonly implemented in construction activities attribute to their technical nature requires a visual aid and intrinsic approach to delineate language fit for each activity or procedure spelled out into detail. Without putting these elements into layman terms induce a shortfall on precise comprehension among workers who commonly lack sufficient education and understanding of relative data complexity that at substantial times may serve critical to ensure their safety at all times.
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