CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.0
Introduction
Construction industry always has the reputation of being among the most
dangerous industries. In Malaysia, safety and health of workers have been became great
focus in construction industry since the OSHA implemented in year 1994. The laws and
regulations were enacted to minimize the hazards of safety and health risks. There are
several factors in the construction industry that become the barrier of safety improvement
(Anderson: 1998).
The factors are shortcoming in the present general level of health and safety
education; general apathy and complacency towards health and safety issues; lack of
quality and commitment of site management to give site safety issues the priority they
need and deserve; lack of sufficient resources allocated to health and safety; over
emphasis at site level on production objectives to the obvious at site level on production
objectives to the obvious detriment of good safe working practices; failure of government
to put sufficient resources into safety enforcement and the lack of focus on the part of
some construction professionals in health and safety issues.
1.1
Statement of the Problem
Accidents caused injuries and died are relatively common in construction sites in
Malaysia. The accidents statistics shown it is increasing and is getting serious.
According to Socso Report 2003, total death cases of all the industry is 822 cases and
construction industry is one of the highest death cases which scored 95 cases, equivalents
to 11.56 % of the overall industry death cases reported. We are facing the construction
site workers safety requirements as stated in Occupational Safety & Health Act 1994.
The majority of the contractors especially the sub contractors are reluctant to implement
occupational safety and health program at construction site. Thus, hopefully this study
results can find out the factors that influences the implementation of occupational safety
and health program and it could benefit the contractors, employers and the construction
industry as a whole. Besides, there are some others problems statement as following: 
The construction industry has a poor safety and health record

There are good reasons to improve the safety and health performance

Accident causation is complex but important

It is important to measure safety and health performance

Existing safety measurement systems are limited in scope and effectiveness

Concentrating on proactive measures instead of reactive measures should
improve safety and health performance

1.2
There is a need to develop a single standardized measurement technique
Objective of Study
This study is targeted to study the factors that influence the implementation of
occupational safety and health program for the construction firm in Penang state. The
study will be conducted through questionnaire survey that to be distributed to 120
contractors in Penang state as the study sample.
1.3
Research Questions

What is the employer commitment to construction occupational
safety and health?

How well is the safety and health program implemented?

How do the government enforcement influence the implementation
of safety and health program?

What is the employee concern regards to the implementation of
occupational safety and health program?

Is the safety & health committee important in implementing the
safety and health program?
1.4
Scope of Study
The scope of study is targeted to the contractors G7 and G6 in Penang state. Due
to the time constraint, the study only involved contractors G6 and G7 in Penang state.
Contractor G6 is meant for contractor registered as Grade 6 under Construction Industry
Development Board (CIDB) whereby the tender capacity is not exceeding 10 millions
and Grade 7 contractor tender capacity is no limit. There are 52 contractors G7 and 53
contractors G6 response to the questionnaire distributed.
1.5
Limitation of Study
The limitation of this study mainly is not enough time given to collect more
samples. Besides, it is facing difficulties of getting details project information from the
construction site. The sample was drawn mainly from the state of Penang. Hence, the
results of this study might not reflect the actual situation in Malaysia as a whole.
1.6
Research Hypotheses
The major purpose of this study is to educated guess the factors influencing the
implementation of safety and health programs for construction firms in Penang state.
Factors to be studied are the employer commitment, government regulations and
enforcement, employees concern and safety and health committee’s role.
1.7
Significance Of Study
The study regarded to the importance of safety at work place has been
investigated by numerous researchers especially in construction industry. The findings
concluded that safety health is important to the people at a workplace. The employers
shall ensure that their employees work safely and go home safely.
Lin and Mills found that larger contractors tend to perform better in safety
implementation compared to smaller companies generally because they have greater
resources to do so. Large firms are associated with larger projects containing more risks
and so are typically required to implement Occupational Safety and Health procedures.
Small contractors tend no to include the safety and health costs in their tenders, reducing
their ability to deal with potential problems. In their research also shown that small firms
do not seems to have the ability or motivation to achieve high levels of Occupational
Safety and Health when benchmarked against larger firms (Lin and Mills : 2001).
According to Holmes research, he found that small construction firms in
Australian may not manage Occupational Safety and Health risks as effectively as larger
firms. The majority of Australian construction firms were small business and small
businesses did not feel the need to focus on Occupational Safety and Heath in their
management system instead they often believe that the control of risks is the
responsibility of employees. This idea is contrast with the attitude of large companies
emphasized that Occupational Safety and Health should be integrated into their entire
management system in all the projects within the company (Holmes : 1999).
Wilson study shown that safety attitudes varied by the size of company. He
questioned that whether the small companies can benefit from higher standards of
Occupational Safety and Health practice due to the costs of implementation safety and
health programs (Wilson : 2000).
Kartam conducted a study found that, in order to achieve safe site operations,
construction practitioners need effective monitoring and controlling of safety during post
construction and set safety plans as one of the criteria to select contractor. Contractors
also need a management system in order to monitor their site operations and measure
their implementation in order to eliminate unsafe acts and practices (Kartam : 1997).
According to Stephenson and Conheeney , the requirements for development for a
multimedia system have been illustrated and the important factors considered for
successful implementation. The system shall suitable for construction site use and also
the design process and must enable the integration of text, graphics, sound and also
animation of practical situations to demonstrate best method and safe practice. This
system should be easily accessible to designers and site management team providing the
opportunity for effective communication of safety and health issues (Stephenson & at el. :
1999)
In conclusion, larger companies would have better awareness regards the
important in implementing the safety and health management system, compared to
smaller companies in general. Thus, the scope of study will tend to study the factors
influencing the implementation of safety and health program in the larger company such
G6 and G7 contractors in construction industry who have the better awareness according
to the literature review found.