Health and safety management practices of contractors in South East Asia: A multi country study of Cambodia, Vietnam, and Malaysia

The construction sector is notorious for accounting for numerous occupational deaths, injuries and illnesses in many countries. In emerging economies this situation could be direr, and health and safety (H&S) management by contractors is important to tackling this. This study investigated the H&S management practices of contractors in three South East Asian countries (Malaysia, Vietnam, and Cambodia) with the view to highlighting implementation issues. A questionnaire instrument containing 40 H&S management practices was administered to contractors in the three countries. Analysis of the data revealed that in each of the three countries there are at least seven practices that are not commonly implemented by contractors. Whilst the study further suggests this to be acute in Malaysia and Cambodia, it also elucidates that the apparent situation could be due to inter alia: a significantly greater proportion of the contractors in the Malaysia sample being micro size firms; and also the effect of two national occupational H&S programmes implemented in Vietnam from 2006 to 2015. Overall, the findings offer an opportunity for contractors and key industry stakeholders (e.g. state authorities) to reflect on their approach/initiatives to improving H&S management in construction. Further studies which could offer additional empirical realities are also suggested.