Vietnamese construction workers’ attitude to health and safety

The Vietnamese construction industry has a poor health and safety (H&S) record. H&S performance is influenced by, among other things, stakeholders’ attitude. Construction site workers are major stakeholders in H&S. If attitude to rights and responsibilities in relation to H&S among construction workers is understood, it may be managed to improve H&S performance. Against this background, a questionnaire survey of 408 construction workers in Vietnam was undertaken to measure the workers’ attitude to their rights and responsibilities and to establish the key factors that influence it. The results suggest that construction workers have, generally, a positive attitude to their rights and responsibilities. The results also suggest that there is significant association between the worker’s attitude to H&S and gender, number of dependants and amount of training. Furthermore, the results suggest that there is no significant association between the worker’s attitude and their age, marital status, level of education and experience. The survey leads to the conclusion that H&S performance in the Vietnamese construction industry could be improved by adopting a holistic approach to managing H&S, promoting mixed-gender work teams, and designing regular and lifelong H&S training programmes that provide for, among other things, understanding of social consequences of poor H&S performance.