Malaysian wooden furniture industry: study of safety standards, compliance and consequential implications

Abstract

The improvement of health and safety standards within the organisational context is an important issue of global concern. The traditional approach to managing workplace safety in Malaysia has focused on the technical aspects of engineering systems and processes, and it has attributed the majority of workplace accidents and injuries to unsafe working conditions instead of the unsafe work practices of employees. However, there has been a fundamental shift in the safety management research carried out in many countries and across diverse industries, which aims to measure the impact of attitudinal, organisational, cultural and social dimensions on occupational safety. The factors affecting the safety level in the Malaysian wooden furniture industry was studied in 30 wooden furniture manufacturing factories, using a structured questionnaire. The study found that although there were four determinants of the prevailing safety climate in the work environment, it was the management responsibility and safety precautions that had the strongest influence on safety climate. Further, the primary health and safety concerns among workers in the wooden furniture manufacturing industry were the airborne dust, noise, chemical exposure, materials handling and occupational accidents. In this context, it is essential for the management to show commitment towards health and safety and incorporate safety precautions into the operational system, to ensure a safe working environment in the wooden furniture manufacturing industry. Further, in order to improve the safety level within the wooden furniture industry, the economics and policies that govern the implementation of safety and health precautions must be emphasised, as the wooden furniture industry is a cost sensitive industry.

A Review on Sustainability Characteristics Development for Wooden Furniture Design

“…Sustainability issues and related challenges in furniture industries have emerged at two stages, namely, manufacturing [15][16][17][18] and the end-product stage [2,15,19,20]. As a result, sustainability issues affect both workers (during the furniture-making process) and users [21].…”

Perceived Implications of Non-Compliance with Safety Practices in Construction Projects: Construction Professionals’ Awareness Level

“…Positive conduct towards safety practices will encourage compliance with safety practices while a negative attitude will result in non-compliance with safety practices. Management responsibility and safety precautions influence employees' safety attitudes and perceptions on overall safety (Ratnasingam et al, 2010). It is thus necessary to emphasise the influence of management in the development of the safety behaviour of employees.…”

“…Non-compliance with safety practices is unsafe work practices (Ratnasingam et al, 2010), which is due to different factors. Umeokafor (2020) argued that one of the major reasons for non-compliance with safety rules in Nigeria is that legislation, standards and measures are copied, transposed and adopted from developed countries in which there is no enabling environment for their functionality.…”

A vision of the environmental and occupational noise pollution in Malaysia

“…[32] The relationship between the safety practices, safety level, and the primary health and safety concerns within 30 wooden furniture manufacturing factories was evaluated.…”