Safety challenges and improvement strategies of ethnic minority construction workers: a case study in Hong Kong

Abstract

Due to cultural differences, ethnic minority construction workers are more difficult to manage and more vulnerable to accidents. This study aims to identify the major barriers faced by ethnic minority workers from their own perspectives and to determine potential strategies to enhance the safety climate of construction projects, thus ultimately improving their safety performance. A survey with the modified nordic safety climate questionnaire was conducted for a certain subcontractor in Hong Kong. In-depth interviews, status quo description, major challenge investigation and safety knowledge tests were also carried out. The top three most important safety challenges identified were improper stereotypes from the whole industry, lack of opportunities for job assignment and language barriers. To improve the safety performance, employers should allocate sufficient personal protective equipment and governments should organize unannounced site visits more frequently. Also, the higher-level management should avoid giving contradictory instructions to foremen against the standards of supervisors.

Keywords: construction safety; ethnic minority workers; safety challenges; safety climate; safety improvement strategies.