Construction companies need to address health and wellbeing risks

While construction companies have traditionally focused on managing work-related physical safety risks, they have yet to pay close attention to managing work-related health and wellbeing risks, according to RMIT University. This is even though construction workers are exposed to a vast array of well-known occupational health risks, including hazardous chemicals, airborne dust and fibres, ultraviolet radiation, noise, vibration, and biological and zoonotic hazards, said Helen Lingard, Distinguished Professor in the School of Property, Construction and Project Management at RMIT University.

“Compared to workers in other sectors, construction workers are reported to experience higher rates of many occupational illnesses, including occupational cancer, musculoskeletal disorders, occupational hearing loss, lung disease, hand-arm vibration syndrome, contact dermatitis and all forms of skin neoplasm,” said Lingard, who has 28 years of post-doctoral experience in both industry and academic roles in construction WHS.

One possible reason for construction organisations’ emphasis on workers’ safety (compared to health) is how occupational illnesses develop, Lingard explained. 

While adverse safety events tend to have an immediate effect and occur almost exclusively within the physical workplace, she said occupational illnesses often develop over an extended period and are influenced by individual characteristics, workers’ behaviours and environmental factors outside the workplace. 

“Construction companies have also tended to put a high degree of emphasis on workers’ responsibility for managing their health, for example by implementing initiatives to improve ‘lifestyle’ behaviours’, such as healthy eating, smoking cessation and engaging in physical exercise,” said Lingard, who spoke ahead of the AIHS National Health and Safety Conference 2024, which will be held at the Melbourne Convention Centre from 21-23 May.

“While everybody can and should take responsibility for looking after their own health in relation to the things over which they have control, construction workers continue to be exposed to conditions at work that can adversely affect their health, and over which they have little or no control.”
For example, she said construction workers are exposed to a variety of psychosocial risks in their work. 

“Analysis of data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia panel survey revealed that low job security, high job demands, the unfairness of effort and reward and high job intensity are all significant predictors of mental ill-health in manual/non-managerial construction workers.”

Lingard observed that many construction organisations have implemented effective programs to support mentally struggling workers and connect them with appropriate support services. 

“Training and peer support programs have undoubtedly positively impacted reducing the stigma associated with mental ill-health and increasing help-seeking behaviour among construction workers,” said Lingard, who also leads the Construction Work Health and Safety @ RMIT research group at RMIT University.

“While changing attitudes and behaviour in relation to seeking help for mental health issues is important, long-term prevention measures must target the construction industry’s work practices that have an adverse effect on workers’ mental health,” said Lingard, who noted this requires that construction companies extend their management activity to include primary prevention interventions that eliminate or reduce psychosocial risks.

She also observed construction companies vary considerably in the extent to which they are organisationally ready to adopt primary (prevention-based) approaches to protect workers from harm arising from exposure to psychosocial risks. 

One of the biggest challenges is that some practices with the most significant potential for harm are deeply entrenched and reinforced by strong cultural norms within the industry, she said.

“For example, the industry adheres to a rigid culture of long work hours that often exceed 55 hours a week and include a standard Saturday for site-based workers,” said Lingard, who noted that long hours of work are linked to a multitude of adverse health outcomes. 

Further, in its recent Joint Estimates of the Work-Related Burden of Disease and Injury, The World Health Organization and The International Labour Organization identify exposure to long working hours (more than 55 hours per week) as the occupational risk factor responsible for the largest number of work-related deaths occurring globally in 2016.

Unsurprisingly, Lingard said work hours in construction are reported to ‘spill over’ to affect family functioning adversely, reduce workers’ opportunities for rest and recovery and contribute to employee burnout. Moreover, she said high levels of burnout have been observed in professional/managerial workers and manual/non-managerial workers in the Australian construction industry.

“It is therefore important that occupational health and safety professionals engaged in the construction sector equip themselves with the knowledge and skills to identify and rigorously assess psychosocial risks experienced by workers,” she said.

“It is also important to investigate and understand how psychosocial risk factors interact with one another to affect workers’ health.”

For example, long hours of work in construction have been linked to an interaction between time pressures and lack of support/resources, and Lingard said these risk factors are, in turn, driven by tight timelines and cost pressures often observed in project-based work.

“Identifying and understanding how psychosocial risk factors (individually and in combination) can affect workers’ health will help occupational health and safety professionals to identify risk control measures that effectively address some of the systemic factors that shape construction workers’ health and wellbeing,” she concluded.
 
Lingard will speak about ‘what is the research telling us about construction fatalities’ at the AIHS National Health and Safety Conference 2024, held at the Melbourne Convention Centre from 21-23 May. The conference will offer three days of workshops, presentations, keynote speeches, networking events and a conference dinner. Delegates will have the opportunity to learn from their peers, share knowledge and grow their professional networks. For more information, email [email protected], call (03) 8336 1995 or visit the event website.