The probability of the construction accident to happen is high due the nature of
Construction work that involves complex activities, methods, machineries, materials
and hazards. The occupational safety and health (OSH) law and regulations are
mandatory for every construction project to uphold. Responsibilities to ensure the
safety and health at the workplace lies with those who create the risk and with those
who work with the risk. The owner or client of the construction project has the upper
hand in determining the standard of OSH implementation in their project through
contract documents. If the contract documents comprehensively spell out OSH
requirements and cover all OSH cost, then the issues of contractor not implementing
OSH measures could be minimized. The objective of this study is to identify
Occupational Safety and Health requirements (OSH) in the contract document of
selected construction projects. To achieve this objective, a total of seven contract
document was collected from several construction companies. The qualitative analysis
was performed to identify the extent of OSH requirements and costs are being
mentioned in the contract documents. The finding shows that most of the contract
document contains very little emphasis on OSH requirements and budgeting. Only one
contract contains, an appendix that spell out about the safe work practices for
construction works. The visible allocated budget for OSH requirements for all seven
contracts is very minute range from 0.21% to 1.99% of contract value. In order to
ensure that occupational safety and health is properly implemented, safety needs must
be included in the budget because implementation it is not free, this can be achieved
by making it a permanent feature in all bills of quantity of the project.
The fragmented and unstable nature of the construction industry associated with
unpleasant working environment caused the diminishing preference of potential
manpower to participate in the construction industry. An increasing number of
construction firms are experiencing severe outflow of the workforce, not limited to loss
of manpower, but contemporaneously, expertise and valuable experiences too. The
construction industry is conservative and particularly resistant to synchronise with
hectic and rapid changes to content and accommodate current demands.
Accumulation of a few causes such as the refusal of locals to involve, unsatisfied
working conditions, labour-intensive trades, etc had caused workforce scarcity as the
supplies unable to overcome and cope in-parallel with the demands. The objective of
this study was to identify labour composition (profiles) at construction sites. The
method used to fulfil the objective was face to face questionnaire survey to the
targeted respondents. The questionnaire consisted two (2) sections; details of the
construction project and details of construction labours such as background, education
and training level, working experiences, general welfare and working hours and wages.
The collected data were analysed using percentage distribution methods and
presented in the tables and charts for easy understanding. From the result gathered,
the respondents’ education level is low and most of them are from the Philippines and
Indonesia. Most of them acquire the construction skills through site experience and no
formal training. The majority of them stayed off-site comfortably with their family and
being paid according to their skills.