A survey of over 3,000 construction workers across Europe has found that low-quality equipment and poor working practices pose dangerous risks on-site.
The Building a Safer Future report, based on a survey of 3,200 construction professionals across 14 European countries, revealed that only 37% of workers say they feel completely safe on-site. The report from MILWAUKEE (manufacturer of power tools and PPE) highlighted several alarming trends regarding accidents, hazards and on-site safety protocols.
Over half (52%) of workers had experienced at least one to five accidents in their careers, with 200 respondents reporting to having had more than ten incidents in their career. Working at height was cited as the top safety concern by respondents (50%), followed by objects falling from a height (42%), slips and trips (41%), and faulty tools and equipment (37%).
The report particularly highlighted concerns about workers ‘unknowingly risking their lives’ with the ‘bad practice of self-modification of tools, gear and equipment, which is reportedly endemic across European construction sites. Nearly half (47%) of surveyed workers admitted to altering or enhancing PPE they perceived as ‘inadequate to help them do the job’.
The report identified several key solutions to improve construction site safety. The most popular was better tools and equipment, with more than half (54%) of respondents believe investing in higher-quality, safer tools would reduce accidents. Secondly, half (48%) of the surveyed workers said they wanted access to better, more comfortable protective gear.
Enhanced training on PPE and on-site safety procedures came third, with only 42% of workers reporting that they had received comprehensive training on tools, equipment, and PPE.
The report stated that these answers “clearly highlight how much value workers place in the tools, equipment, and PPE they’re supplied with”, emphasising the need for employers to make a reasonable investment in these products and resist buying products based on cost alone.
The ‘Building a Safer Future’ report is available to download here.
