Fatalities in the Nigerian Construction Industry: A Case of Poor Safety Culture

Abstract

The paper discussed fatalities in the Nigerian construction industry- a case of poor safety culture. It views safety culture as the set of beliefs, norms, attitudes, roles, social and technical practices that are concerned with minimizing the exposure of employees, managers, customers and members of the public to conditions considered dangerous or injurious. It assumes that incorporation of positive safety culture into investment in machines and technology (socio-technical investments) by Nigerian construction companies will result in better safety performance of employees (reduced rate of unsafe acts)and the company (reduced rate of fatalities). The research question addressed the extent of the relationship between poor safety culture and increased rate of unsafe acts/fatalities in the Nigerian construction industry. The place of study comprises of twelve construction companies, two from each of the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria while the duration of study is between August 2012 and July 2013.A descriptive research design was used in executing the study using 600(judgmentally determined) randomly selected respondents from twelve construction companies in the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria for questionnaire administration. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results from the data analysis indicated that significant relationship exists between poor safety culture and increased rate of unsafe acts/fatalities in the Nigerian construction industry and recommends among others: regular site safety audits to identify/eliminate potential workplace hazards, regular staff training to improve their hazard identification skills, involvement of management and workers in addressing safety matters, formation of safety committees to identify and eliminate potential  workplace hazards and making hazard identification/reporting everyone’s responsibility.