• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.35-44
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• 2014

This study empirically examines how much effect levels of fatigue and stress of a construction worker have on disaster risks from the perspective of human factors concerning construction disaster risks. To achieve the purpose of this study, a survey was conducted with respect to construction workers working at large construction sites within the metropolitan area. The retrieved survey data were analyzed by using the statistical software programs, SPSS 18.0 and AMOS 8.0. The results of this study do not definitively lead to the conclusion that the level of fatigue or stress of construction workers result in disaster risks. However, it does show that the results vary depending upon the individual approach and treatment of stress and fatigue. In particular, this study revealed that disaster risk levels could increase through unsafe behavior intentions which were established as a mediator variable. Also, with respect to unsafe behavior intentions of construction workers leading to disaster risks, when examining the results that the level of mental fatigue, occupational stress and social-psychological stress of construction workers had a greater significant effect than the level of physical fatigue, this study demonstrates the importance of psychological and mental issues that could be easily overlooked with respect manual labor workers.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.277-281
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• 2021

Singapore's construction sector employs more than 450,000 workers. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore from April to June 2020, migrant workers were disproportionately affected, including many working in the construction sector. Shared accommodation and construction worksites emerged as nexuses for COVID-19 transmission. Official government resources, including COVID-19 epidemiological data, 43 advisories and 19 circulars by Singapore's Ministries of Health and Manpower, were reviewed over 8 month period from March to October 2020. From a peak COVID-19 incidence of 1,424.6/100,000 workers in May 2020, the incidence declined to 3.7/100,000 workers by October 2020. Multilevel safe management measures were implemented to enable the phased reopening of construction worksites from July 2020. Using the Swiss cheese risk management model, the authors described the various governmental, industry, supervisory and worker-specific interventions to prevent, detect and contain COVID-19 for safe resumption of work for the construction sector.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.207-215
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• 2021

There is a risk of serious injury to workers who work at height in pier construction process. By using auto climbing formwork system that does not need to dismantle and reinstall formworks, it is possible to improve work efficiency and safety of workers. However, auto climbing formwork system still requires workers to work on a pier for rebar connection works and so on. In order to eliminate works by workers on the pier, robot manipulators with special end effectors are proposed. Through analysis of works on the pier, three specialized end effectors which are a gripper, a rebar coupler press, and a concrete vibrator, are suggested. Also, new pier construction scenario by the suggested system is confirmed using 3d modeling. It is expected that the proposed system and method enables pier construction without workers on piers. It will increase safety and efficiency of pier construction.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.1216-1222
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• 2005

A shortage of construction field workers has been a serious problem, both in the developed and in the developing countries. As a solution for conquering this problem, these countries import foreign laborers from nearby less-developed countries. While this contributes to lessening the labor deficiency, foreign workers are relatively inefficient in productivity and are often exposed to the cross-cultural risks due to cultural differences, communication difficulties, different work ethics and customs, etc. Despite these facts, construction firms do not well address these issues and are lagged in establishing an appropriate management strategy against it. This paper presents a practical management plan for foreign construction workers through Focus Group Interviews (FGI) and survey investigation. On this basis, this study examines the level of awareness and important managerial aspects of the issue of foreign laborers. Finally, it suggests a cross-cultural and ready-to-use practical human resource management plan for facilitating the foreign worker's productivity.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.73-74
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• 2011

Compared to the other industries, construction industry depends many parts of production activities on manpower. And also 3D perception on construction industry and the shortage of motivation in construction workers are the biggest reason to reduce construction productivity. So to solve this problem, the research of factors which affect more to improve the construction workers attitude in construction site will be needed. This research has investigated that the productivity and important factors was divided to economic factors, social factors, psychological factors. The result show that economic factors remain pre-eminent in influencing productivity, but that social factors and psychological factors appear to be of increasing importance in this construction industry.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.182-194
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• 2009

This study was conducted to evaluate health status and to propose health protection measures of irregular plant construction workers in Yoesu National Industrial Complex (YNIC). The status of safety and health management was examined in five areas including safety and health education, work environment monitoring, health examination, health management record, and personal protective equipment (PPE) for plant construction workers. The safety training rate for plant construction workers was reached high at 91%, The training was mostly consisted of safety accident related things, but training on hazardous materials was found to be insufficient. Workplace monitoring results showed that the compliance rate for work environment for irregular construction workers was 54% and workplace monitoring during turnaround (TA) period with high risk of exposure to hazardous agents has not been implemented. While 61.4% of irregular workers received the general health examination but only 36.8% received the special health examination. The special health examination was found to be conducted only upon welders from 2-3 years ago. The issue of health management record upon irregular construction workers was not being implemented. In case of PPE, basic safety protective equipments such as safety shoes, safety belt, safety helmet were being supplied well while the supply rate of respirator for organic vapor was relatively low at 40%. Based on this study, two suggestions to maximize the utilization of the current safety and health program were made while boosting its effectiveness in protecting workers' health. First, the role of owners (petrochemical plant) related to safety and health should be strengthened. Second, in consideration of the characteristics of construction workers who usually engage in short term employment and frequent movement, community based health management organization is suggested that can overcome such structural problem and carry out the implementation of health examination and sustained health management.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.618-626
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• 2011

The characteristics of construction work cause excessive strain on specific body parts of the construction craft workers. However, there are few tools to mane an accurate measurement of the load on the musculoskeletal system, and the musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) experienced by the workers have not been properly understood. So, there is an urgent need for development of a tool to measure the load on the musculoskeletal system. Therefore, this research aims to develop a musculoskeletal load measuring device for construction workers. In order to eliminate the noise and errors, an accelerometer, gyro sensors and the Kalman Filter are used in the device developed in this research.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2018.05a
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• pp.120-121
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• 2018

The construction industry is a typical labor-intensive industry, and is heavily influenced by the employment structure. However, research on how the employment structure of construction workers affects the construction industry has not been sufficiently studied. In this study, the major factors influenced by the employment structure in the construction industry are derived and the causal relationship between the factors is illustrated. The results of this study are expected to be used as data for setting direction of policies related to the employment structure of construction workers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.1520-1529
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• 2007

Workers on construction sites are exposed to multiple and varied threats. Of those, climatic factors such as high/low air temperatures and high/low humidity have a bad mental and physical health effect on workers. Especially, work in hot environment has a tendency to cause fatigue, reduce productivity and increase the incidence of accident. So, the purpose of this research was to understand working clothes and working environment of workers at a construction site in summer. The depth interview was performed by 45 workers of 4 different construction sites and the results were as follows. Workers wore average 4 items as clothing(upper, lower) and average 5 items as personal protective equipments(PPEs). They answered "head" is the hottest body area and must be protected during working. This means the necessity of development in safety hat. In addition, it should be developed working clothes and gaiters for alleviating heat stress and safety shoes for diminishing weight. It is expected that this research plays basic and important rolls to develop PPEs for reducing the heat stress of construction workers.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.71-83
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• 2022

This study is to investigate the degree of field awareness of how each provision of the Serious Disaster Punishment Act will affect accident prevention. As a result of conducting a survey of construction site workers, it was analyzed that construction site workers had a low sense of safety and did not voluntarily engage in safety activities. And it can be seen that they are taking a very passive position that it is efficient to implement safety under the supervision of the supervisor. Workers who need voluntary construction site safety activities are most aware of the situation at the site, but the problem was pointed out as "lack of procedures for listening to opinions and preparing improvement measures" for these problems. Future research is needed to see if this is a problem for individual workers or for those in charge of safety and health who do not correct it even though active opinions have been submitted.