Near-miss reporting among construction workers

In 2012, there were 11 000 accidents and near-miss reported of which most of it can be prevented. Though reporting and investigating injuries present a more detailed picture, this is still a lagging indicator — measuring after the event. Recording and investigating near misses, on the other hand, can be used as a positive indicator of performance tool to fix problems before injuries occur. Employers are obligated to inform about near-miss to the workers so that they are aware what a near-miss is, how to report a near-miss and whom to report to. By definition, near-miss leaves no injuries, nor property or equipment damage. They also leave little (or no) evidence that they even occurred and as such, easy to ignore. As a result, workers have no reason to believe reports will be viewed positively and acted on. This study aims to investigate how well informed construction workers are about near-miss reporting. Importantly, investigations will be performed to identify factors that influence workers' willingness to report near misses that they were exposed to or had observed. To achieve the aims, a deductive approach was adopted. Interviews were conducted with 37 construction workers from two districts, all within the same contractor's organisation. Although results indicated that majority of the interviewees are familiar with the definition of a near-miss and routines of reporting, the willingness to report near misses is still low. The study had also identified obstacles to reporting and proposed suggestions to address this issue. Results from this exploratory empirical investigation will be used as a basis for a more substantial empirical investigation