Purpose

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically changed safety measures in every industry, including the construction industry. Thus, the construction companies have instituted safety measures at the construction sites to curve the disease’s spread among the workforce. This paper aims to examine the challenges encountered by construction firms in implementing COVID-19 safety measures at construction sites.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative research approach was adopted for this study using open-ended interview questions to solicit data from 19 construction professionals currently working on a construction project in South Africa. Content analysis with the assistance of an Excel spreadsheet was used to analyse the data collected.

Findings

The findings indicate that there are numerous challenges such as ignorance of COVID-19, the supply of poor personal protective equipment (PPEs) by contractors, lack of compliance, sanitising construction materials, difficulty in sharing tools and equipment, public transport usage by workers, superstition (COVID-19 is for a particular group of people), complying with social distancing rules, among others in the implementation of the COVID-19 safety measure at the construction site to curb the spread of the disease among the workers. These challenges have, therefore, hampered their effort to strictly adhere to the safety measures in accordance with the COVID-19 safety protocol at the project sites currently under construction.

Research limitations/implications

The interviewees were construction professionals working in the South African construction industry during the COVID-19 period.

Practical implications

The implication is that, due to the challenges faced in implementing the COVID-19 safety measures, workers on the construction site are not adequately protected from contracting COVID-19. The workers may thus contract the disease at the project sites and transmit it to their families and vice versa, which may have further implications on the spread of the disease within the communities and society.

Originality/value

The study has identified implementation challenges of the COVID-19 safety measures at construction sites of which the construction stakeholders must institute measures to overcome since COVID-19 has become part of our daily life. The study also recommends some preventive measures to the owners of construction companies to help overcome or minimise these COVID-19 safety implementation hurdles to minimise the spread of the disease among the construction site workers.

中文翻译：

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南非建筑工地中COVID-19安全措施的实施挑战

目的

COVID-19大流行极大地改变了包括建筑行业在内的每个行业的安全措施。因此，建筑公司在施工现场采取了安全措施，以控制疾病在劳动力中的传播。本文旨在研究建筑公司在施工现场实施COVID-19安全措施时所面临的挑战。

设计/方法/方法

本研究采用定性研究方法，使用不限成员名额的访谈问题，从目前在南非从事某建筑项目的19名建筑专业人士中收集数据。在Excel电子表格的帮助下进行了内容分析，以分析收集到的数据。

发现

调查结果表明，存在许多挑战，例如对COVID-19的无知，承包商提供的个人防护设备不佳，合规性不足，建筑材料卫生，工具和设备共享困难，工人使用公共交通工具，迷信（COVID-19适用于特定人群），遵守社会疏散规则，以及在建筑工地实施COVID-19安全措施以遏制疾病在工人中的传播等方面。因此，这些挑战阻碍了他们在目前正在建设的项目现场严格遵守COVID-19安全协议中的安全措施的努力。

研究局限/意义

受访者是COVID-19期间在南非建筑行业工作的建筑专业人士。

实际影响

这意味着，由于在实施COVID-19安全措施方面面临的挑战，施工现场的工人没有得到充分的保护以免承包COVID-19。因此，工人可能在项目现场感染该疾病并将其传播给他们的家人，反之亦然，这可能进一步影响该疾病在社区和社会中的传播。

创意/价值

该研究已经确定了COVID-19安全措施在施工现场的实施挑战，因为COVID-19已成为我们日常生活的一部分，因此施工利益相关者必须制定克服这些措施的措施。该研究还向建筑公司的业主推荐了一些预防措施，以帮助克服或最小化这些COVID-19安全实施障碍，以最大程度地减少疾病在建筑工地工人中的传播。