Perspectives of Consultants on Health and Safety Provisions in the Labour Act: A Study into Theory and Practicals

The construction industry has been seen as one of the hazardous industries. This is because the industry has a poor health and safety performance record compared to other industries all over the world. The Labour Act provides that it is the duty of an employer to ensure that every worker employed works under satisfactory, safe and healthy conditions. The objective of this paper is to identify how clauses in the Labour Act 651 addressing appropriate health and safety standards are used in construction sites and identify possible challenges facing the adaptation of the requirements of Health and Safety in the Labour Act. Using convenience and snowball sampling techniques, 200 questionnaires were distributed to architects, quantity surveyors, site and structural engineers. One hundred and twenty-one were retrieved representing a response rate of 61.5%. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics, and Relative Important Index ranking. The findings indicate that clauses in the Labour Act 651 addressing appropriate health and safety standards are poorly adhered to. The findings also indicate that the key challenges facing the adaptation of the Labour Act are; inadequate training, poor risk assessment, cost, reporting shortfalls,lack of H&S professionals, inadequate H&S policies, data collection shortfalls, lack of H&S education, communication shortfalls and workers attitudes towards Health and Safety