Improving Occupational Safety of Dock Workers at The Port of Tema

ABSTRACT

Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) systems and their management are very important issues in today‘s market place. Many kinds of research have been done to indicate that it has direct impact on productivity and performance but very little emphasis is placed on it in the Ghanaian market. The Tema Port is an important entry and exit point in this country and its operations involves dealing with large metal containers and machine equipment. This requires that safety measures are properly and appropriately put in place for the workers at the port, especially the dock workers – who are mostly casual in nature. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS) of the Tema Port, how effective these have been and the impact the OHSMS has on the safety of the employees at work. Using a convenience sampling method and drawing a sample of 150, a questionnaire was designed to solicit information from 97 dockworkers as respondents at the Tema Port. The results showed that the nature of the Occupational Health and Safety Management system put in place at the Tema Port is poor because there is non compliance to health and safety issues by both management and employees of the organisation. OHSM systems at the port do not serve their intended purpose. One of the important recommendation is for management to enforce the OHSM policies of the organisaiton in a more purposive manner, ensuring that both employees and the leadership are doing what is expected of them.