Abstract:
One of the most important aspects of any kind of business is occupational health and safety
management. A healthy workforce contributes more to the success of a production. The sugar
industry is one of the major risk-oriented, agro-based industry in Sri Lanka, though less
concern on mitigation practices to minimize the risks of workplace. For this purpose, a
questionnaire was prepared and gathered relevant data from workers as quantitative data.
Qualitative data were collected from observations through the factory visit. All the
observation-based risks and hazards identified were tabulated and the seriousness of risk was
calculated, using the risk matrix tool. Using a risk matrix, appropriate mitigation methods
were suggested and evaluated. Finally, it was evaluated the progress of mitigation methods
by comparing the risk values at identification step and suggestion step. The ultimate objective
of this research is to identify the workplace hazards frequently occurred in the Factory
Department of Lanka Sugar Company Private Limited, Pelwatte and apply the risk
assessment tool to the workplace to suggest appropriate mitigation measures, based on the
risk assessment tool. The result of quantitative analysis showed that 54% of workers have
lower levels of satisfaction about occupational health and safety conditions in the factory
while 60% of them were not satisfied with the available occupational health and safety
facilities. The research result showed that working conditions existed in the sugar mills were
not at satisfactory level regarding employees’ occupational health and safety. Also in this
research, it was clearly identified that workers were not very much keen on safety during their
work. Although, 26.5% eye injuries were recorded, but still the welders without safety
goggles commonly observed during the factory visit. Even though the company arranged
safety awareness programs frequently in higher risk-oriented sections only 56% of the labours
had sufficient awareness on occupational health and safety while others suggest the programs
should be practical oriented. The study suggests that there should be practical awareness
programs on occupational health and safety, sufficient supply of personal protective
equipment (PPE) relevant to the job performance and it highly recommended that there must
be continued inspections of job performance and usage of safety precautions, for higher
employee performance.
