Safety climate in construction industry the case of Gaza strip

Abstract

The construction industry plays an important role in the social and economic development in Palestine. Safety in the construction industry is considered a major issue in developed and developing countries. Palestine's construction suffers recently from poor safety and health conditions as safety rules do not exists and work hazards at the workplace are not perceived. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the perceptions of construction workers regarding safey climate and safety behavior work in Gaza Strip construction sites. It will also explore the relationship between personal characteristics of constuction workers and safety climate/safe work behavior. Furthermore, the relationship between safety climate and safe work behavior will be explored. The methodology adopted in this paper was based on comprehensive questionnaire targeting the construction workers. 300 questionnaires were distributed and 246 questionnaires were collected and then analyzed to achieve the research objectives. It was found that construction workers have positive attitude and perception towards safety climate and safe work behavior. There exist a positive relationship between safety climate and safe work behavior. There is an impact of experience, field of work, smoking habit, and job on safety climate. In contrast, the personal characteristics; marital status, direct employer, educational level, family members to support, skill levels have no influence on safety climate. There exist a relationship between personal characteristics age, experience, field of work, smoking habit, educational level, and job on the field safe work behavior. On the other hand no impact …