PROMOTION OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY OF SANITATION WORKERS IN HYDRO-CARBON OIL PRODUCING AND SERVICING COMPANIES IN RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA.
Keywords:
Sanitation Workers, Hydro-Carbon, Oil Producing & Servicing Companies, Occupational Health & Safety.Abstract
Sanitation workers, who are also health-care givers, actually work in danger; hence their health and safety need to be utmostly promoted for better performance and productivity. This study sought to ascertain measures that can promote occupational health and safety of sanitation workers in hydro-carbon oil producing and servicing companies in Rivers State, Nigeria. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. Cross-sectional research design was adopted for the study. Population of the study consisted of 1000 (250 sanitation workers and 50 sanitation work supervisors) in all 5 hydro-carbon oil producing and servicing companies in the area. A sample size of 250 (comprising of 200 sanitation workers and 50 sanitation work supervisors) was drawn using a disproportionate purposive random sampling technique. A fourpoint rating scale questionnaire titled Promotion of Occupational Health and Safety of Sanitation Workers in Hydrocarbon Oil Producing and Servicing Company Rivers Sate Questionnaire (POHSWHPSCRSQ) was used for data collection. The instrument has two sections with 12 and 8 items respectively. The validity for the instrument was assessed by experts in the field from University of Port Harcourt. Questionnaires were distributed through some assistants and the data retrieved. The arithmetic mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while the inferential t-test statistics was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study showed that the sanitation workers lacked provision of some PPE‟s like CPR, nose-masks, hand gloves, and safety orientations as pre-employment services. Although, they had safety boots, as on-the-job inducements, the sanitation workers had no proper compensation for their health and injury incidents and there were no routine medical examinations. In Conclusion, the workers were exposed to serious operational health and safety challenges which need to be remedied. It was recommended among others that every sanitation worker should be given a formal pre-employment training, proper safety wears, adequate compensation for harm at work, proper supervision of the workers on safe acts at work, among others.Downloads
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