Suchergebnisse

Construction Workers, U.S.A. Herbert Applebaum. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999. 212 pp.

This study attempts to examine the conditions of construction workers and problems faced by them in Gandhinagar city. From the analysis, it is clear that economic condition of the workers has slightly improved, but demographic–social and working–living situations of the workers are extremely pathetic and vulnerable till now. The demand and supply of migrant workers is managed through the contract system. Contractors and sub-contractors play a crucial role in providing facilities and obtaining desired employment within a short time span. From the employment point of view, the industry is totally male dominant and preponderant and female workers are unskilled and remain unskilled during their entire life. Of the many theories of migration, the Harris–Todaro model of migration is partially applicable in the rural-to-urban migration process. Unlike government employees, a construction worker has no social security, no earned leave, no sick leave and no pension or gratuity. Finally, it is clear that the objective of decent work for migrant workers will remain a major challenge for years to come.

Objective: This study examines recent trends and patterns in fall fatalities in the U.S. construction industry to determine whether fatal falls among older workers are different from younger workers in this industry. Background: Falls are the leading cause of fatalities in the U.S. construction industry. Given the increasingly aging workforce in construction, it is important to assess the risk of falls among older construction workers. Methods: Fatality data were obtained from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries for the years 1992 through 2008. Denominators for death rates were estimated from the Current Population Survey. Stratified and multivariate analyses were performed to examine whether there are differences in fatal falls between older workers (≥55 years) and younger workers (16-54 years). Fatal falls in nonconstruction industries were excluded from this study. Results: Older workers had higher rates of fatal falls than younger workers; results were significant in 11 of 14 construction occupations. Regression analysis indicated that older decedents had a higher likelihood that work-related death was caused by a fall, after controlling for major demographic and employment factors (odds ratio = 1.50, confidence interval [1.30, 1.72]). Falls from roofs accounted for one third of construction fatal falls, but falls from ladders caused a larger proportion of deadly falls in older decedents than in younger decedents. Conclusion: Older workers have a higher likelihood of dying from a fall. Roofs and ladders are particularly risky for older construction workers. Application: As the construction workforce ages, there is an urgent need to enhance fall prevention efforts, provide work accommodations, and match work capabilities to job duties.

This paper examines climatic heat stress as a question of workplace health and safety in relation to at-risk and precarious labour. First, we argue that precarity is usefully understood as a phenomenon that is both generalised (all work is precarious given the function of labour under capitalism) and differentiated (experienced differently across geography, labour process and employment status). We frame climate change and labour relations as internally related and argue that climate change needs to be incorporated into the notion of precarity. Second, we explore the experience of construction workers in New South Wales, Australia, and consider the industry as a potential site of organising over both labour conditions and global warming. We conclude that climate change exacerbates precariousness, disrupting all work and intensifying and extending individual risk in various ways. Further, these experiences present a potential site to simultaneously act on both global warming and labour conditions.

Purpose
– Many researchers have investigated the determinants of workers' risk-taking/unsafe behaviours as a way to improve safety management and reduce accidents but there has been a general lack of research about workers' risk information seeking behaviours or their source preferences for risk information. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether occupational risk information source preference was risk independent (i.e. whether workers prefer to receive occupational risk information from proximal sources like supervisors and workmates regardless of the nature of the risk or the source's expertise regarding that risk, or if they discriminated between information sources based on the type of risk being considered).


Design/methodology/approach
– Data were collected from 106 frontline construction workers who were recruited from a single building site within the UK with the help of the safety officer on site. The source from which workers preferred to receive information about a range of risks was measured using a ranking exercise. Specifically, workers were asked to rank five occupational sources (HSE, safety manager, project manager, supervisor, workmates) according to how much they preferred each one to deliver information about eight different risks (asbestos, back pain, site transport, heights, slips/trips, housekeeping, and site-specific and job-specific risks).


Findings
– The paper found that supervisors and safety managers were the most preferred sources of risk information overall, but a correspondence analysis suggested that workers' risk information source preference is risk dependent and might be driven by source expertise.


Practical implications
– The findings have important practical implications for the role of safety managers in risk communication and for building trust within high-hazard organisations.


Originality/value
– To the author's knowledge, this is the first study to investigate risk information source preferences in an occupational setting.