Promoting the health of construction workers

The present paper reports on research which attempted to ascertain the attitudes of the management and site personnel of general contractors and subcontractors on the issue of health promotion in the workplace. The main focus was on fitness and nutrition programmes, and the existence of a relationship between the health of employees and their productivity. The data were collected using questionnaires from a sample of eight large general contractors and 14 subcontractors operating in the Sydney region of the Australian construction industry. The responses in the sample were received from eight occupational health and safety (OHS) managers and 34 site workers employed by general contractors, and 14 site workers employed by subcontractors. The attitudes of the respondents toward health promotion in the workplace were found to be highly positive, and supportive of the development and implementation of health promotion programmes. In the opinion of the respondents, job performance and productivity may be increased through health promotion programmes in the workplace.