Safety management on construction management : a case study review

Poor safety management in construction management may adversely affect cost, schedule and quality of a project. Heavy fines upon safety offence becomes a burden to the budget; losing working hours as a result of safety incident impacts on the schedule, and compromising quality is always an indirect consequence when workers perform duties in an unsafe site environment. Therefore, promotion of safety management becomes the top priority in any construction manager’s agenda. Working safely will benefit construction project and lead to a “real” success. This paper is a case study, based upon “Geller’s 10 principles for achieving a total safety culture”, reviewing how a Hong Kong leading construction company fosters the safety culture and possesses a pleasant safety record over years. Its safety performance is not only well ahead the local industry, but also ranges top within the Asia Pacific region and comparable to those mature Western industries. The review concluded that safety culture is one of the major components in construction management and collaboration is the essence to realize this positive culture within an organization. Safety management is not merely a “top down” approach, but requires the positive “bottom up” actions from the other end. The successful story of this company can demonstrate the contribution of safety management in construction management.

Predicting neck pain in Royal Australian Air Force fighter pilots

Objective: Fighter pilots frequently report neck pain and injury, and although risk factors have been suggested, the relationships between risk factors and neck pain have not been quantified. The aim of this study was to identify personal and work behaviors that are significantly associated with neck pain in fighter pilots.
Methods: Eighty-two Royal Australian Air Force fighter pilots were surveyed about their flying experience, neck pain prevalence, and prevention. Multinomial logistic regressions were used to fit models between pilots' neck pain during and after flight and a range of personal and work characteristics.
Results: In-flight neck pain was very weakly, yet positively associated with flight hours. Duration of postflight pain was positively associated with the weekly desktop work hours and the sum of preventative actions taken in flight. The duration pilots were considered temporarily medically unfit for flying was positively associated with pilots' age and their weekly desktop work hours.
Discussion: The risk factors identified by the current study should guide neck pain prevention for fighter pilots. In particular, reducing desktop working hours as well as incorporating specific neck-strengthening exercises and in-flight bracing actions should be considered by agencies to help alleviating neck pain in their pilots

Sitting time and socio-economic differences in overweight and obesity

Objectives: To examine (1) the inter-relationships between socio-economic status (SES), physical activity, three different domains of sitting time (weekday, weekend day and leisure-time sitting), and being overweight or obese (body mass index25 kg/m2); and (2) the potential mediation effects of sitting time in the relationship between socio-economic factors and being overweight or obese in working Australian adults.

Design: Observational epidemiological study.

Subjects: One thousand forty eight working adults. Using a multistage sampling design on neighbourhood SES, participants were from high and low SES neighbourhoods of an Australian capital city.

Measurements: Neighbourhood SES was assessed using census data; individual SES was based on self-reported educational attainment and household income. There were three sitting time variables: sitting time on weekdays, weekend days and in leisure time. Overweight and obesity were determined using self-reported body weight and height.

Results: Gender, age, neighbourhood SES, education, working hours and physical activity were independently associated with weekday, weekend day and leisure-related sitting time. With the exception of education and working hours, these variables were also independently associated with being overweight or obese. Leisure-time sitting was found to be a mediator in the relationships between gender, education and being overweight or obese.

Conclusion: Strategies to promote less sitting in leisure time are required to combat overweight and obesity in Australian adults, especially among those from low SES neighbourhoods, and among those with high levels of education and income who work long hours.

Psychosocial risk factors for coronary heart disease: a consensus statement from the National Heart Foundation of Australia

In 2003, the National Heart Foundation of Australia published a position statement on psychosocial risk factors and coronary heart disease (CHD). This consensus statement provides an updated review of the literature on psychosocial stressors, including chronic stressors (in particular, work stress), acute individual stressors and acute population stressors, to guide health professionals based on current evidence. It complements a separate updated statement on depression and CHD.

Perceived chronic job strain and shift work are associated with a small absolute increased risk of developing CHD, but there is limited evidence regarding their effect on the prognosis of CHD. Evidence regarding a relationship between CHD and job (in)security, job satisfaction, working hours, effort-reward imbalance and job loss is inconclusive.

Expert consensus is that workplace programs aimed at weight loss, exercise and other standard cardiovascular risk factors may have positive outcomes for these risk factors, but no evidence is available regarding the effect of such programs on the development of CHD.

Social isolation after myocardial infarction (MI) is associated with an adverse prognosis. Expert consensus is that although measures to reduce social isolation are likely to produce positive psychosocial effects, it is unclear whether this would also improve CHD outcomes. Acute emotional stress may trigger MI or takotsubo ("stress") cardiomyopathy, but the absolute increase in transient risk from an individual stressor is low. Psychosocial stressors have an impact on CHD, but clinical significance and prevention require further study.

Awareness of the potential for increased cardiovascular risk among populations exposed to natural disasters and other conditions of extreme stress may be useful for emergency services response planning. Wider public access to defibrillators should be available where large populations gather, such as sporting venues and airports, and as part of the response to natural and other disasters.

Workplace bullying a risk for permanent employees

Objective: We tested the hypothesis that the risk of experiencing workplace bullying was greater for those employed on casual contracts compared to permanent or ongoing employees. Methods: A cross-sectional population-based telephone survey was conducted in South Australia in 2009. Employment arrangements were classified by self-report into four categories: permanent, casual, fixed-term and self-employed. Self-report of workplace bullying was modelled using multiple logistic regression in relation to employment arrangement, controlling for sex, age, working hours, years in job, occupational skill level, marital status and a proxy for socioeconomic status. Results: Workplace bullying was reported by 174 respondents (15.2%). Risk of workplace bullying was higher for being in a professional occupation, having a university education and being separated, divorced or widowed, but did not vary significantly by sex, age or job tenure. In adjusted multivariate logistic regression models, casual workers were significantly less likely than workers on permanent or fixed-term contracts to report bullying. Those separated, divorced or widowed had higher odds of reporting bullying than married, de facto or never-married workers. Conclusions: Contrary to expectation, workplace bullying was more often reported by permanent than casual employees. It may represent an exposure pathway not previously linked with the more idealised permanent employment arrangement. Implications: A finer understanding of psycho-social hazards across all employment arrangements is needed, with equal attention to the hazards associated with permanent as well as casual employment.

Northern Lights: the positive policy example of Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway

The nations of Scandinavia and Finland, or Nordic Europe, continue to provide living proof that economic prosperity can be combined with social equality and environmental responsibility. This book, written from an Australian perspective, explores previous outside policy interest in the Nordic nations and outlines some lessons which the English-speaking world, in particular, can learn now from the achievements of the four main Nordic European nations. In terms of income distribution these countries are still much more equal than Australia, Britain, New Zealand and Canada – and nearly twice as equal as the United States. Workforce participation rates are high in the Nordic nations but working hours remain within reasonable limits, enabling genuine work–life balance. Sweden has played a leading role in improving wellbeing, and lowering poverty, among children. Finland has achieved stunning success in schools since the 1990s. Denmark invests in comprehensive skills training as part of providing security, as well as flexibility, in people’s employment lives. Norway’s taxation approach and other measures ensure that its natural resources are used sustainably for the entire nation’s long-term wealth. All of these achievements are relevant to the policy choices for the future which Australia, and other English-speaking countries, can now make.

Perfil dos trabalhadores por conta própria no Brasil

O objetivo global desta pesquisa foi contribuir com subsídios para a análise das características do trabalhador brasileiro por conta própria ou autônomo, particularmente no que se refere ao padrão de distribuição setorial, ocupacional e dos rendimentos da população ocupada, tendo em vista os novos requisitos demandados pelos atuais processos produtivos e organizacionais, dentro e fora das empresas. Estas características são retratadas pela representatividade ocupacional dos trabalhadores detalhando particularmente as diferenças segundo a segmentação setorial, nível de escolaridade, rendimentos, número de horas trabalhadas por semana e gênero, analisando as informações disponíveis para o ano de 1997.

A percepção da idéia de justiça em um contexto de mudanças organizacionais.

This thesis aims to analyse the perception of justice in the day-to-day of the corporations, when organizational changes take the place therein. The context of the corporation which is focused herein derives from the globalization of the Brazilian market of telecommunications which has been started in the 90`s. Two substantial changes have occurred in the period of only ten years. What happens in the day-to-day of the corporations in those moments, when a deep change in their structures is operated? Which is the impact of such change in the working hours and in the internal relations? Those questions have been relevant to and have motivated the perfomance of the survey. It has been developed with twenty employees of the ¿Z¿ corporation, who are based in the city of Rio de Janeiro and who have been heard. Such different interviews with the employees have reached thirty hours. After the completion of the due analysis of the contents of the survey, this thesis sustains that the organizational practices of the ¿Z¿ corporation do not adhere to modernization and, therefore lead the perception of the unfair. This thesis wishes to contribute to the field of the organizational studies, with an interpretation of the data that have been compiled in a given moment, about a corporation.

O peão e o acidente de trabalho na construção civil do Rio de Janeiro: elementos para uma avaliação do papel da educação nas classes trabalhadoras

This dissertation seeks to identify specifications bu which the Subsection cf Buildings c f the Civil Construction os Rio de Janeiro could be improved. It attempt to determine the factors that make construction workers both victims of accidents, as well as the cause of these accidents. It a150 seeks t o identify the means af the capitalist way that as the producer specific kind af society, creates this type af invisible of a worker. Further more, to verify the violent ar disguised ways, that lead the worker to have a guilty consclence relative to himself and to the other workers , and maklng him feel responsible even for accident - related deaths on the job. A revolting factor is that malnutrition and endemic hunger, are in large part responsible for accidents at work in the capitalist production system, ln which production relations are still primitive. Therefore, the accidents at work are a product of society, especially caused by conditions in the construction sector . This fac 19 often masked, and responsibility is put on the worker ln 77,5~ of work related accident . Under these specific working conditions the cumulative overtime hours of work and tasks make the rythm and working hours extreme and overburdensome. The large and modern firms subcantract to smoller construc~i ns firms who have more dangeraus working condictions which result in more frequent and mayor accidents. These are not computed in the statistics of the large firms and the workers of the subcontractors do not appear on the builging construction lists, and are therefore a non - existent entities. Even opressed, the workers still continue to work under these conditions mak1ng there resistence a form af struggle. The Education that intends to be transformed in to an instrument of the workers struggle, should stimulated the participation in the daily educational and political practices and try to reconstructed what the dominant knowledge has fragmented: the ptoduction of existence as an integrated whole.

Credit borrowing constraints in a DSGE framework: income vs. housing

Credit market in Brazil distinguishes from advanced economies in many aspects. One of them is related to collaterals for households borrowing. This work proposes a DSGE framework, based on Gerali et al.(2010), to analyse one pecularity of Brazillian credit market: payroll-deducted personal loans. To original model, we added the possibility to households contract long term debt and compare to differents types of credit constrains: one based on housing and other based on future income. We callibrate and estimate the model to Brazil, using Bayesian technique. Results show that, in a economy where credit constraints are based on income, responses to shocks appear to be stronger, at first, but dissipate faster. This occurs because income responds quickly to shock than housing prices, so does amount available to loans. In order to smooth consumption, agents compensate lower income and borrowing by increasing working hours, restoring loans and debt in a shorter time.

Os efeitos da redução da jornada de trabalho de 48 para 44 horas semanais sobre o mercado de trabalho no Brasil

The reduction of standard weekly working hours from the curreilt leveI of 44 hours to 40 hours has recently been proposed by the main central unions as a way to create jobs and reduce unemployment in Brazil. The idea, known as work-sharing, is that the reduction in average hours per worker allows the same tasks to be performed bymore employees. However, the notion ofwork-sharing has been challenged by the theoretical and the empirical literature. Theory says that, in general, a reduction in the duration ofthe workweek tends to decrease employment. Work-sharing is even less likely in the case of no wage restraint, when monthly wages are not proportionally reduced. Recent cautious econometric evidence also conflict with the notion of work -sharing (Hunt, 1999, and Crépon and Kramarz, 2000). The objective ofthis paper is to study the effects ofthe workweek length reduction from 48 to 44 hours, prescribed by the 1988 Constitutional change, on the Brazilian labor market. We find that: i) the reduction of standard working hours was followed by a significant decrease in actual working hours: 60,7% ofthe employees that worked between 45 and 48 weekly hours in 1988 (the affected group) and that remained employed in 1989 switched to a 40-44 hours workweek; ii) belonging to the affected group in 1988 had no statistical effect on the probability ofbecoming unemployed, exiting the labor market, or switching to an informal job in 1989; iii) the reduction in working hours implied a 8,8% increase in hourly real wages with respect to those that remained employed at 40-44 hours a week. In sum, the reduction of standard working hours in 1988 reduced actual working hours, did not affect the probability ofa typical worker to lose hisjob in 1989, and implied a relative increase in hourly real wages.

Análise microestrutural de misturas cerâmicas de grês porcelanato com adição de chamote de telhas cerâmicas

MELO, Maxymme Mendes de ; PINHEIRO, Andrea Santos ; NASCIMENTO, R. M. ; MARTINELLI, Antonio Eduardo ; DUTRA, Ricardo Peixoto Suassuna ; MELO, Marcus Antônio de Freitas . Análise microestrutural de misturas cerâmicas de grês Porcelanato com adição de chamote de telhas cerâmicas. Cerâmica (São Paulo. Impresso), v. 55, p. 356-364, 2009

Podem os programas sociais e de transferência de renda influenciar a oferta de trabalho em atividades não agrícolas? uma análise para as famílias em condição de pobreza no meio rural do nordeste

This study aims to analyze the main effect of social programs and cash transfers on the labor supply of non-farm family members in poverty in rural areas of the Northeast. Among the specific objectives, we sought to investigate the effects of these programs and individual characteristics on the decision of participation and allocation of working hours of parents and children in non-agricultural activities. It was assumed, as a theoretical basis, the model of neoclassical labor supply as well as the principle that the decision of allocation of working hours, non-agricultural, is subject to the initial choice of the worker devote or not the non-agricultural employment . The hypothesis assumes that access to social programs and income transfer contributes to the dismay of rural workers, in poverty, in its decision to participate and offer hours of work in non-agricultural activities. To achieve this objective, we applied the models of Heckman (1979) and Double Hurdle, of Cragg (1971), consisting of associating the decision to participate in the labor market with the decision on the amount of hours allocated. The database used was the National Survey by Household Sampling (PNAD) of 2006. The results of the heads of households showed that transfers of income, although they may have some effect on labor supply rural nonfarm, the magnitude has to say that there may be some dependence on benefits. The estimates for the joint children of 10 to 15 years showed that the programs have negatively influenced participation in suggesting an increase in school participation, although for the allocation of working hours the results were not significant on the incidence of child labor

Ofício, Estresse e Resiliência: desafios do Professor Universitário.

The objective of this study was to investigate the elements that contribute to the state of stress which often affects those who embrace the university teaching career, and also to learn whatever strategies professors use to cope with stressing situations in order to develop resilience and a sound exercise of their profession. To the very nature of university teaching belong a variety of attributions, demands and challenges which, together, may contribute to the development of stress. The epistemological principles which guided this research were those of Complex Thinking, which facilitate a deeper comprehension of the human and social phenomena as viewed through the lens of complexity principles: the dialogical principle, the organizational recursivity principle and the hologramatical principle. Fully acknowledging the many difficulties brought about by any attempt that would try to explain human phenomena based only on one theoretical reference, we have elected multi-referentiality as the support for this study, thus being able to dialogue with a variety of authors about the same phenomenon. This was a qualitative research in which questionnaires and interviews were used as instruments for the empirical work. The data has been articulated into categories and subcategories, allowing for a thematic analysis. Participants of the study were seventeen professors from two different colleges in the city of Natal, state of Rio Grande do Norte. Bad working conditions, demands from the institution, student s lack of commitment, long working hours, low salaries, lack of incentives to university teachers, uncertainty concerning timetable and difficulties in proper time administration are the variables that contribute to the stress of professors. Although this is a problem that affects the group as a whole, strategies to cope with it are individually sought and vary from trying to find different leisure options, opening one s heart to colleagues or relatives, individual planning, prayer, rational facing of the situation, to simply giving in to exhaustion. The study has proposed institutional as well as personal actions that may foster a development among professors which takes into account a resilience development in a collective perspective. Also, it shows some articulations that are already under way so that professors may be attended to.

O atendimento educacional especializado no processo de inclusão escolar, na rede municipal de ensino de Mossoró/RN

This dissertation aims to analyze the specialized educational services(AEE, Portuguese) implemented in four municipal schools of Mossoró/RN, with attention to the process of collaboration between regular classroom teachers and multifunctional resource classroom teachers. We use as theoretical reference the works of Vygotsky and others authors that write about education and collaboration. To accomplish the research we chose a qualitative approach, using as a methodological resources: study of cases, bibliographical, documental and field research. For the field research we make observations in regular and multifunctional classrooms. We produce group intervieus with regular and multifunctional teachers. From the analysis performed we identify that the concepts and the practices of teachers in regular classrooms changes, with integrationist predominance. The AEE s teachers had more inclusive conceptions and greater investment in continuing education than the regular classroom teachers. The practices of regular classroom teachers are more traditional, what makes the learning process more difficult for the students, even more for the students with disabilities and pervasive developmental disorders. Teachers of AEE was more interactive and creative, however, the attention to the students was more individual. In three of the four schools surveyed stand out the efforts of the teachers of specialist classroom to collaborate with regular school teachers, by notes, e-mails, phone calls and resource sharing. In one of the four was noted a good collaborative interactive between the AEE teachers and the regular school teachers. The school with the worst improvement was that in which the actions of the teachers of the AEE were limited to actions in multifunctional resource classroom. The resistance to these professionals was identified in the statements of the regular classroom teachers. Another issue raised was the lack of time for teachers to conduct AEE actions that contribute to the process of school students, because their working hours is restricted to the opposite turn in school. Transport difficulties for the students to attend the resource classroom multifunctional and the lack of dialogue with the health sector was challenges for the four schools. The families were with a practically constant interest to interact with the AEE teachers in the four schools. Thus, we believe that the presence of AEE school can make contributions to the educational process, however, it is necessary more attention to the collaborative process between teachers and the school community