Occupational Safety and Health Coordinators – Puzzle-piece Caretakers or Necessary Evils

The construction industry continues to be high-risk in terms of occupational safety and health (OSH) issues. A pivotal instrument in preventing these risks at both European and Danish levels is the OSH coordinator. In spite of the important role of the coordinator, little research on their roles and functions exist, and critics have pointed out that OSH professionals in general may only confer limited impact on preventive OSH work. This study argues that professional identities and struggles to maintain preferred, as well as rejecting unwanted identities are highly important to understand OSH coordinators’ practices. The study investigates OSH coordinators professional identities and their implications for practice through analysis of interviews with 12 experienced OSH coordinators in the Danish construction industry. The study reveals how struggles for maintaining a positive self-image and social recognition may explain why coordinators struggle to prioritize preventing OSH risks over legitimization and social practices

Habituating pain:Questioning pain and physical strain as inextricable conditions in the construction industry

In this article, we investigate the relations between discursive practices within the Danish construction industry and the perceived pain, physical deterioration, and strain affecting the construction workers. Of central importance is the widely accepted hegemonic discourse on physical strain and pain as unavoidable conditions in construction work. Based on 32 semi-structured interviews performed in eight case studies within four different construction professions, workers’ descriptions of physical strain and its relation to the organizational and social context are analyzed through concepts of subject positioning in discursive practice and a focus on power relations. The analysis shows that workers and employers reproduce certain types of traditional working class masculinities and search for high-pace productive working rhythms, which in combination with economic incentives common within the industry reproduce physical strain and the habituation of pain as unquestioned conditions in construction work. The understanding of this mutual reinforcement of the necessity of physically straining, painful, high-paced construction work provides fruitful perspectives on the overrepresentation of musculoskeletal deterioration within construction work and also sheds light on some of the difficulties in addressing and changing occupational health and safety practices in the construction industry

Reducing physical risk factors in construction work through a participatory intervention:Protocol for a mixed-methods process evaluation

BACKGROUND: Previous research has shown that reducing physical workload among workers in the construction industry is complicated. In order to address this issue, we developed a process evaluation in a formative mixed-methods design, drawing on existing knowledge of the potential barriers for implementation. OBJECTIVE: We present the design of a mixed-methods process evaluation of the organizational, social, and subjective practices that play roles in the intervention study, integrating technical measurements to detect excessive physical exertion measured with electromyography and accelerometers, video documentation of working tasks, and a 3-phased workshop program. METHODS: The evaluation is designed in an adapted process evaluation framework, addressing recruitment, reach, fidelity, satisfaction, intervention delivery, intervention received, and context of the intervention companies. Observational studies, interviews, and questionnaires among 80 construction workers organized in 20 work gangs, as well as health and safety staff, contribute to the creation of knowledge about these phenomena. RESULTS: At the time of publication, the process of participant recruitment is underway. CONCLUSIONS: Intervention studies are challenging to conduct and evaluate in the construction industry, often because of narrow time frames and ever-changing contexts. The mixed-methods design presents opportunities for obtaining detailed knowledge of the practices intra-acting with the intervention, while offering the opportunity to customize parts of the intervention