Examining psychosocial and physical hazards in the Ghanaian mining industry and their implications for employees’ safety experience

IntroductionIn addition to hazardous conditions that are prevalent in mines, there are various physical and psychosocial risk factors that can affect mine workers' safety and health. Without due diligence to mine safety, these risk factors can affect workers' safety experience, in terms of near misses, disabling injuries and accidents experienced or witnessed by workers.MethodThis study sets out to examine the effects of physical and psychosocial risk factors on workers' safety experience in a sample of Ghanaian miners. 307 participants from five mining companies responded to a cross sectional survey examining physical and psychosocial hazards and their implications for employees' safety experience.ResultsZero-inflated Poisson regression models indicated that mining conditions, equipment, ambient conditions, support and security, and work demands and control are significant predictors of near misses, disabling injuries, and accidents experienced or witnessed by workers. The type of mine had important implications for workers’ safety experience.

► We examined the impact of physical and psychosocial hazards on employees’ safety experience, i.e. near misses, accidents witnessed, worker injury outcomes and incidence of accident with no injury.
► Mining equipment, mining conditions and ambient conditions were found to be significant predictors of safety experience.
► High job demands and low control over workload were associated with a negative safety experience for workers.
► Type of mine had important implications for workers’ safety experience.
► The associations found indicate that production efficiency and economic gain may come at the expense of worker safety.