An Appraisal of Health and Safety of Construction Sites Workforce within Jos, Plateau State

Abstract

The significance of producing harmless work environment has been recapped in several connected research articles owing to the inherent risk and hazard that lie beneath every work position and their undesirable effect on a firm’s general performance. It is against this scenario that this article evaluated the dangers and constraints of health and safety planning on construction sites in Jos. The paper identified some health and safety challenges inherent on such building sites. A total of 100 structured questionnaires were distributed among selected construction sites in Jos, Plateau State. The statistical tools employed for analysis are the percentage method, ranking method and computation of relative index. The results showed that the top three health and safety challenges inherent in construction sites in descending order are pain due to manual labour with relative index of 0.90, followed by stress experienced by site workers with relative index 0.86 and stepping or kicking abandoned objects with relative index 0.83 experienced by site workers. It also showed that the observance of health and safety practices on construction sites in Jos are very poor and hence leads to a very high occurrence of accidents. Similarly, the top three constraints to the adoption of health and safety plan are low level of literacy among the general population with relative index 0.90, lack of training of employee with relative index 0.86 and lack of funds for prompt treatment of sites workers with relative index 0.84. The study concluded that health and safety plan in construction activities should be propagated through sensitization programs at National level and other forums where professional bodies in partnership with government departments can enlighten contractors about the importance of health and safety culture in their work places in a bid to reduce risks and accidents.