KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE OF OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AMONG WORKERS

1.1 Introduction

Safety management techniques are employed in an organisation to manage occupational safety performance (Ladewski and Al-Bayati, 2019). Organisations may lower the likelihood of mishaps, injuries, and near misses among their workforce by putting safety management practices into practice (Vinodkumar et al., 2010). According to Christian et al. (2009), the safety performance plan employs a number of measures to preserve workplace safety. When participating in tasks connected to work with colleagues, these interventions are often seen as safe behaviours (Huang et al. 2016).

This chapter will address the background information that motivated this study, the challenges that prompted it, its aim, and its objectives as a preface to subsequent sections of the study. Additional factors include the study's significance, scope, limitations, research questions and hypotheses, and the definition of technical terms.

1.2 Background of Study

The 1986 Chernobyl disaster brought attention to the organisational and human factors that contribute to the dangerous functioning of technology systems, leading to the development of the idea of safety culture (Pidgeon, 2011). Establishing a standard where workers are aware of the dangers at work and are always alert for potential hazards is the aim of a safety culture (Ostrom et al., 2003). By emphasising employee behaviours and accomplishments, a safety culture encourages and rewards safe behaviour. It is a process rather than a programme; its numerous elements must be implemented collaboratively and take time to develop (Ban, 2008).

Occupational safety workers have emerged as one of the key resources required for high productivity at the organisational and national levels in recent years. Without labour, other production-related resources like capital, machinery, and land may go idle. Labour efficiently uses other components, which makes this statement valid. This might assist to explain why problems that occur throughout the production process are usually attributed to workers. To sum up, it may not be possible to achieve high productivity levels without effective workers, particularly in the industrial sector. An workplace that is secure and well-maintained is necessary for having a workforce that is productive, efficient, and capable of accomplishing the organization's business objectives.

Large-scale technical system failures are becoming more and more obvious to be limited to talking about them from a technology perspective. When designing, building, operating, and maintaining technical systems, people as well as their organisations, groups, and cultures are crucial components. The prevalence of harm is rising. However, only a small percentage of accidents (10%) are caused by dangerous mechanical or physical circumstances. Conventional safety efforts have concentrated on the engineering components of safety. Even while it seems that employee misconduct is the primary cause of most workplace accidents and injuries, most incidents are really the consequence of a series of interrelated variables working at several system levels, rather than the fault of a single operator (Wilpert, 2004). While there are a lot of dangerous activities carried out, very few will get past an organization's defences and cause an accident or harm (Reason, 2004).

Effective safety management and good management practices have many characteristics and are supported by those who value quality control, environmental preservation, and improved corporate operations. Because they manage these issues with the same efficient economic acumen as the rest of their operations, companies that enjoy commercial success frequently flourish in the safety and health domain. Although the principles of health and safety are universal, the extent to which they must be implemented varies depending on the organization's size, the risks associated with its operations, the physical attributes of its goods and services, and the suitability of its current setup.

This problem has been discussed in the error-related literature up until recently. Although accidents are partially caused by human mistake, behavioural explanations of failure are frequently discovered to is significantly more nuanced when occurrences involve technical systems (Pidgeon, 2011). The existing Nigerian health and safety legislation lays forth a number of requirements for managers and employees in relation to safe work practices. If there is a favourable cultural attitude towards safety, then these assumptions are more likely to be realized. There is a growing cost associated with not living up to these expectations.

Growing public awareness of safety and the environment has made people more inclined to criticize corporations that they believe are doing irresponsibly, and educated workers are more likely to demand safer working conditions. When American consumers boycotted Exxon petrol after the Valdez oil spill, it was clear that this public censure was occurring (Turner, 2001). Researchers have discovered that an organization's socially transmitted attitudes and ideas about safety have an impact on safety performance (Ostrom et al., 2009).

It is crucial that all workers receive training to recognize the risks connected to their job since Vredenburgh and Cohen (2005) discovered that the perceived degree of danger boosted obedience to warnings and directions. Lastly, a deeper understanding of the relationship between safety management and employees' devotion to their jobs has resulted from experience and awareness of worker protection concerns. Vredenburgh and Cohen (2005) found that the level of perceived danger increased compliance to warnings and instructions; therefore, it is critical that all employees are trained to identify the hazards associated with their workplace. Subsequently, experience and knowledge of issues in workers protection have led to a greater appreciation of how safety management is directly related to employee's job commitment.

Therefore, the activities that were undertaken in Nigeria, the country where the research was conducted, were to ascertain the Knowledge and Practice of Occupational Safety among Workers.

1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that the capacity of an organisation to run efficiently depends on the use of safety management. Across all economic sectors, occupational dangers are surprisingly common, as has been documented many times. Previous studies have shown that businesses only partially or never give their workers' well-being much concern, which has reduced worker commitment. This is usually caused by a lack of personal protective equipment, insufficient safety measures implemented in companies, and the fact that injured workers have never been compensated.

Furthermore, there have never been any safety training programmes that would have allowed workers or individual employees to be aware of any occupational hazards associated to their job activities. The long-term effects of work-related injuries affect employees, their families, and friends in addition to the financial loss to the company. Rather, they were concentrating on or looking for higher profit margins at the very least expense. Workers would not be able to put in more effort or be frivolously engaged to their occupations if they knew that their safety and well-being were not guaranteed.

1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to assess the knowledge and practice of occupational safety among workers. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To examine the various factors that may affect/influence employee health and safety hazard in the workplace;
2. To investigate the extent to which workers comply to the laid down occupational safety and health measures;
3. To examine the extent of awareness of workers about the knowledge and practice of occupational safety; and
4. To examine the factors that influence workers poor compliance to occupational safety and health measures.

1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• To what extent is the awareness of workers about the knowledge and practice of occupational safety?
• To what extent do workers comply to the laid down occupational safety and health measures?
• What are the factors that influence workers poor compliance to occupational safety and health measures?
• What are the various factors that may affect/influence workers health and safety hazard in the workplace?

1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There are no significant factors that influence workers poor compliance to occupational safety and health measures
• H1: There are significant factors that influence workers poor compliance to occupational safety and health measures

1.7 Significance of Study

The significance of this research is to empower organisations to ingrain values in a way that would lessen the numerous instances of catastrophic and tragic accidents and incidents that happen in the construction industry every year. Numerous companies employ a large number of people, yet often pay little or no attention to their safety programmes. Without taking into account the potential financial consequences of such a view, they could regard the programme as a useless endeavour. The results of this research showed that maintaining an efficient safety management system accounts for a higher proportion of organisational performance.

Additionally, it would help both employers and workers understand their responsibilities and rights regarding safety management at work.

Accordingly, recommendations will be made in this study to assist management in developing a safe place of work and an effective safety policy, as well as ensuring that policy is implemented within the organisation, in order to enable management to reduce hazards, accidents, and the effects of disasters in the workplace and to reduce costs associated with unsafe work environments in organisations.

Consequently, policy makers, particularly those in government and its agencies responsible for labour administration and productivity in Nigeria, would find great value in the study's conclusions. Furthermore, the study will be helpful to organization development and change agents who could carry out related research on safety management and best practices in the future.

1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Knowledge and Practice of Occupational Safety among Workers using Oyato Bread Bakery, Alagbaka, Akure South Local Government Area Ondo State as a case study.

1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, there were some problems encountered which stood as limitations to the research work. Some of the limitations include:

1. Time Constraint:The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research Material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
4. Initial Cooperation Delay from Respondents: A particular limitation of this work came as a result of the respondent refusal to offer their cooperation at the initial time they were contacted. This contributed in making the success of this research study difficult.

1.10 Operational Definition of Terms

Occupational Health:

It is the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well­being of workers in all occupations.

Occupational Safety:

It is a state of being free from harm, injuring, death, loss, damage and pollution.

Productivity:

It is ratio or proportion of output of the commodity to the input of the factor of production.

Employee Productivity:

It is the volume of goods and services produced per employee within some specified unit of the year, month, week, day or hour.

Knowledge:

It is the facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.