• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2020.11a
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• pp.117-118
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• 2020

The construction industry is an industry heavily dependent on manpower, and high-quality skilled workers are needed to ensure smooth construction. However, workers who entered the construction industry did not acquire professional skills or receive other education through apprenticeship education. In this study, the necessity of professional functional education and education plan were analyzed and presented in order to cultivate quality functional manpower.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.53-58
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• 2018

Background: Since the Republic of Korea became a labor-force-importing country, the number of foreign workers has increased gradually, especially in the construction industry. The main objective of this study was to examine the differences in safety perception between domestic and foreign workers at Korean construction sites. Methods: A total of 891 Korean and foreign workers were surveyed: 140 foreign and 751 Korean workers. The general characteristics and 25 factors influencing safety perception were considered in the questionnaire. Regression and correlation analyses were conducted to examine the variables of workers' safety perception. Results: Differences of nationality (F = 7.379, p < 0.001) and workplace accidents were statistically significant for both domestic (F = 1.503, p < 0.05) and foreign workers (F = 7.868, p < 0.05). In contrast, age, education, and Korean language level were significant variables only for foreign workers. Correlation coefficients of $0.428^{**}$ for Korean and 0.148 for foreign workers between two items - namely, "management's commitment to safety" and "blaming staff when they make mistakes" - support the conclusion that foreign workers do not trust management's commitment to safety, while Korean workers have confidence in these commitments. Conclusion: Foreign workers' level of safety perception should rise to the same level as Korean workers, especially in terms of obeying safety rules, safety education performance, and safety beliefs. Therefore, an improvement plan for the Korean construction industry is suggested in order to have a better safety level at construction sites with foreign workers.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.433-441
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• 2012

Accompanied by Chinese strong economic growth rates and development of demand for the construction industry, Chinese construction industry has already become one of the largest construction markets in the world. Unfortunately, the frequent occurrence of safety incidents on Chinese construction sites is a large obstacle for other countries construction companies seeking to enter the Chinese construction market. This study aims to analyze and compare the safety awareness of Chinese and Korean construction workers. Our research showed that the safety awareness of Korean construction workers is far higher than that of their Chinese counterparts, particularly in terms of the efficiency of safety education and the observance of safety rules. The development of a safety management plan based on these results will contribute to reducing the frequency of accidents on Chinese construction sites.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Rural Architecture
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.95-102
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• 2014

The number of industrial accident victims in the construction industry accounts for 1/3 of those in the entire industries and about 30% of the total compensation costs are spent in the construction industry. As such, the construction industry is a typical industry causing numerous safety accidents. This study analyzes the status of industrial accidents in small scale construction sites to build maximum five-story buildings by examining statistical data for the past five years, investigating those construction sites and conducting interviews with the workers. This study also seeks the causes of and measures for industrial accidents in the small scale construction industry through comparison with relevant systems. The findings are as follows: (1) To reduce hazard rate, shaping the working environment and safety measures that take into account the physically weak classes of the middle aged and the aging are urgently required, because 62.9% of the industrial accidents in the construction industry occurred to those who are 50 years of age or older. (2) The hazard rate at small scale construction sites with less than 10 construction workers accounts for 55% of that of the entire industries. The government, in this context, needs to support finance or technology and improve system by selecting the small scale construction sites, where industrial accidents occur frequently. (3) Because the hazard rate of unskilled workers with less than 6 months of work experience accounts for 90.95% of the total, safety education needs to be concentrated on those unskilled workers. (4) The relevant standards need to be segmented and revised and bolstered, given that 64.79% of death disaster in the construction industry occurs in the temporary structures including scaffolds and ladders.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.1237-1241
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• 2009

With the average life expectancy increasing thanks to better standards of living and medical technology, the number of elderly construction workers in construction sites rises every year to surpass the 450 thousand people in the construction industry (24.7% of all employees in the construction industry). Similarly, the percentage of fatal accidents involving elderly workers has stood at 41~46 percent for the past five years; note that this is significantly higher than the other age groups, making safety measures for dealing with this issue a matter of urgency. This study sought to propose appropriate safety guidelines for elderly construction workers aged 50 years and over by examining the changes in their physical and psychological functions and through the subsequent analysis of the current status and causes of fatal accidents involving them. The guidelines targeted ferroconcrete construction where accidents occur quite often; construction was classified into mold construction, reinforcing rod construction, and concrete construction. Mold construction was further classified into preparation, carry-in, processing, assembly, and disassembly, and reinforcing rod construction, into preparation/transport and processing/assembly. Safety guidelines for each process were presented by dividing them into three aspects considering the changes in the physical and psychological functions according to their ages and type of accident causes: work environment improvement, machinery and equipment improvement, and work method improvement.

• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.197-227
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• 2018

This article aims to analyze some conditions for the reinforcing social security rights of atypical construction workers, and their socio-economical effects, and furthermore, to explore political measures for compliance with obligation of the four basic social insurances. Although the construction industry is one of the pivotal industry sectors, which contributes to the economic development, it is a typical industry sector, half of whose manpower is atypical and irregular. This kind of reality results especially from its own sectoral features and employment structure. We will argue that our society needs political measures for compliance with obligation of the basic social insurances for the construction workers, and it would help the reinforcing social safety net of the precarious construction workers, and furthermore enhancing competition in the construction industry. For this purpose, we will suggest concrete conditions for compliance with obligation of the basic social insurances and prove its positive socio-economic effects. In the end, we will propose some detailed measures like direct construction, introduction of the prevailing wage, etc. for this politic approach.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.83-88
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• 2019

The 7,993 cases of Survey Report of Fatal Industrial Accidents conducted jointly by the MEOL and the KOSHA for the recent seven years(2007-2013) were categorized according to personal and occupational characteristics, industry types, business sizes, job types, activities at the time accident, types of accidents, material agents(assailing materials), unsafe conditions, and unsafe acts. And it is found that among the 72.2 percent of fatal occupational accidents in the construction and manufacturing industries are caused by falling, sticking, bumping and being caught under objects & overturning. For this study, through the empirical analysis on causes of fatal industrial accidents, was used to identity high risk groups based on total data of 7,993 victims of occupational accidents. An annual fatal occupational injury (FOI) rate per 10,000 workers was about 0.47‱. The middle-aged group and the elderly group showed the highest FOI rates per 10,000 workers (0.73‱, 0.80‱), and the daily workers showed the highest FOI rate (1.46‱), and the craft and related trades workers showed the highest FOI rate (2.17‱). In case of industry type the mining industry (7.26‱) showed the highest FOI rate, followed by the sewerage, waste management, materials recovery and remediation activity industry (3.91‱) and the construction industry (2.71‱). The primary high risk target group that requires a strategy designed to reduce fatal occupation injuries caused by falling and bumping & contact(collision) is the construction industry, and the secondary high risk target group in the construction industry is classified as the equipment, machine operating and assembling workers in the construction industry, those aged 50 years old and above need the prevention measures against bumping & contact(collision) and being caught under an object & falling(objects), while those aged less than 50 years old need prevention measures against falling(persons).

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2010.05b
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• pp.95-97
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• 2010

Current trends in the Korean construction industry, including the aging of the workforce, a lack of new Korean construction workers, and an inflow of unskilled foreign labor, have caused a range of problems, including quality deterioration, reduced productivity, insufficient understanding of the function and difficulties in communication, to name a few. Yet while countermeasures to these problems should be based on accurate and diverse fundamental data, including the current status of demand and supply of domestic and foreign construction workers, the perception of construction workers, studies on these questions have, thus far, been scarce. For these reasons, this study was conducted using a questionnaire for managers and workers on construction sites, to secure fundamental data relating to construction workers. The findings of the survey showed that it is urgent to prepare measures to educate, train and foster human resources, considering the aging of the construction workforce and the lack of an inflow of new construction workers.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.77-85
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• 2019

Death accidents rates in construction industry is increasing high recently. Such a phenomenon may be seen as a limitation of current management methods and legal actions. Therefore, purpose of this study was to find priorities of construction Workers safety activities related to motivational factors and to check perception differences between construction workers and construction engineers and to find a main factor of workers attitude, behavioral causes and find a way to reduce the accidents causing in construction industry. For the research, we did a survey with construction workers and construction engineers asking about 3 top motivators 'economic, environmental, safety, cultural, and administrative factors' in 21 details. According to the survey, the biggest difference between construction workers and construction engineers was about a working environment and safety cultural factors. Also, workers and engineers were both positive about safety incentive. Based on the results of this study, safety accidents will be reduced through worker-oriented management.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.67-73
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• 2016

According to industrial accident analysis of the Ministry of Employment and Labor in 2013, 38 workers were injured by fall accidents on average per day, and one worker died on average per day among them. In various industries such as heavy and construction industry, the full body harness is commonly used to prevent the fall accident. In developing full body harness, the designer considered only the workers' safety, without taking into account comfort and workability. The survey was conducted so as to search the problems of full body harness currently used by workers in heavy and construction industry. The survey questionnaire was given to 565 workers wearing full body harness in heavy and construction industry. The results of study showed that the development of new full body harness considering body size of korean was needed. The impotent factors for developing of new full body harness were the size and the weight of the full body harness. The full body harness taking into account body size was judged to contribute to more comfortable work, work efficiency and safety. The result of this study can be utilized as useful data in the development of new full body harness considering the body size of korean workers.