Occupational safety and health practice: a study at Infrastructure construction work

• Main Authors: Kamal, Muhammad Nabil Farhan, Mazlan, Muhammad Kamal Arif, Khalid, Amir, Jaat, Norrizam, Ngadiron, Zuraidah, Basharie, Siti Mariam, Noranai, Zamri
• Format: Book Section
• Language: English
• Published: Penerbit UTHM 2020
• Subjects: HD7260-7780.8 Industrial hygiene. Industrial welfare; T55-55.3 Industrial safety. Industrial accident prevention
• Online Access: http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/2894/1/Ch08.pdf; http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/2894/
• Institution: Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia

Safety is the state of being “safe”, the condition of being protected against physical, social, spiritual, financial, political, emotional, occupational, psychological, educational or other types of consequences of failure, damage, error, accidents, harm or any other event which could be considered non-desirable. Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. In that case, Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) is an act that ensure the well-being of workers in a broad scope of many specialized fields. This study is focused on the construction of a police headquarters located in Seriab, Perlis. A big number of construction companies in Malaysia might not perform safety practice for their workers, lack of safety appliances, and did not perform a regular safety check-up on their workers as the reason was they want to earn more profits and they took the safety measures of their foreign workers for granted. Note that most of construction workers in Malaysia are immigrants. The data collection was carried out through site investigation using Preliminary Hazard analysis (PHA), HIRARC form and interview session with a worker in the construction site. The objective of this study is to spread the awareness of the importance of safety among workers in the construction site based on the existing potential hazards. This report was initially to identify the hazard on the construction site and to analyse the occupational safety and health factor in the workplace. The results are to analyse and suggest recommendations for improving occupational safety and health act in the construction site. Practicing a good safety measures in the workplace will ensure the well-being of workers.