Occupational safety in the construction industry.

BACKGROUND: The paper is a research review focusing on occupational safety in the construction industry. OBJECTIVE: The purpose is to present research that highlights the areas of occupational safety and risks and to identify areas where research is lacking. METHODS: 146 articles from scientific journals, mainly covering the construction industry in Europe, Canada, USA, Australia and Japan have been studied. The findings are presented under 11 categories: accident statistics; individual factors; legislation and regulations; ethical considerations; risk management; leadership, management, organization; competence; safety design; cost-benefit calculations; programs and models; and technical solutions. RESULTS: The research is dominated by initiatives from researchers and government authorities, while the construction industry only appears as the object for the research. There is a scarcity of research on integrated systems encompassing subcontractors, as well as a lack of research with sociological perspectives on accidents. Furthermore, only a few studies have applied a gender perspective on safety in construction, i.e. there is a need of further research in this particular area. CONCLUSIONS: A range of initiatives have been taken to increase safety in the construction industry and the initiatives are mainly reported to be successful. There are some cultural differences, but basically researchers present similar results regardless of country.

Piece rates and their effects on health and safety - a literature review.

The purpose of this study was to carry out a broad survey and analysis of relevant research articles about piece rate wages and their effects on health and safety that were published internationally until the fall of 2008. The aim was to summarize and describe the state of the art of the research in this field and if possible draw conclusions from the accumulated research results. A total of 75 research articles were examined extensively and 31 of these were found relevant and had sufficient quality to serve the purpose of this study. The findings of these relevant articles are summarized and analyzed in the survey. Since the late 1980s, there has been a change of research focus regarding piece rates and their effects on health and safety. More recent research shows a clear interest for health, musculoskeletal injuries, physical workload, pains and occupational injuries. The previous interest in risk behavior, security and accidents is still there, but no longer dominates the research scene. Although research is still sparse and fragmented, much of the accumulated knowledge about the effects of piece rate work tells us that piece rates in many situations have a negative effect on health and safety. The fact that 27 of the 31 studied articles found negative effects of piece rates on different aspects of health and safety does not prove causality, but together they give very strong support for the hypothesis that in most situations piece rates have negative effects on health and safety. In order to achieve better knowledge about the effects of piece rates in branches where piece rates are regarded problematic, further research is needed and such research has to be designed to meet the specific questions that are to be answered.