Impact of job quality on construction worker's health and wellbeing: Comparison between Australia and Bangladesh

The construction industry is often regarded as a dangerous industry to work in because of its high physical and psychosocial demands. Research evidence suggests that the health and wellbeing of construction workers significantly depend on job quality. Job quality refers to those indicators of jobs that directly impact workers' wellbeing, including their health. Job quality is a strong determinant of worker's health status over their working life span, and it is a key factor for sustainable workforce participation. However, it is often concluded that job quality is difficult to measure as it is a contextual phenomenon and varies according to individual perception, occupations, and institutional regimes. Thus, the way job quality affects health and wellbeing in developing countries is likely to be different from that in developed countries due to different political, economic, and cultural contexts. To better understand the contextual differences, the current research aims to compare the impact of job quality factors on construction workers' health and wellbeing between Australia and Bangladesh. An explanatory sequential mixed methods has been adopted for this study. In the first stage of the research, an extensive literature review was conducted to identify the job quality factors that potentially impact construction workers' health and wellbeing. Following that, a questionnaire survey was designed and conducted in Australia and Bangladesh aimed to understand the perceived impact of job quality factors on construction workers' health and wellbeing and compare between these two nations. In the second stage of the research, ten interviews were conducted with the construction industry stakeholders in Australia and Bangladesh to qualitatively understand the impact of job quality on construction worker's health and wellbeing and seek practical implications on how job quality can be improved in the construction industry. A hierarchical cluster analysis was performed on the collected quantitative data and various clusters emerged from the job quality factors. At the cluster level, the clusters of facilities and security at site, workplace safety risks, welfare factors and personal protective equipment (PPE) were identified as the most important in relation to the health and wellbeing perceived by the construction workers in Bangladesh. Among the job quality clusters, ergonomic factors, employment characteristics, demanding job factors and welfare factors were found to be the most prominent job quality issues that Australian construction workers perceive to impact their health and wellbeing. The results from quantitative study suggest that Bangladeshi construction workers perceived their health and wellbeing to be strongly affected by characteristics of the physical work environment and welfare factors. In contrast, Australian construction workers are highly concerned about psychosocial risk factors in relation to their health and wellbeing (demanding job factors and employment factors). However, they also perceive physical work demands, such as ergonomic factors to have high impact on their health and wellbeing. The qualitative results show that the factors perceived to impact construction workers' health and wellbeing are distinct in Bangladesh and Australia due to the differences in institutional and socio-economic contexts, including the skill training systems in construction, provision of job entitlements, OHS enforcement provisions, involvement of labour union and worker's involvement in OHS decision makings. The results suggest that in the developing country of Bangladesh, construction workers are from low socio-economic backgrounds, lack basic physical health, and have limited access to welfare and entitlements, which is linked to weak institutional policies and enforcement in the Bangladeshi construction industry. As a result, the Bangladeshi construction industry is still at the stage where workers perceive that physical safety and welfare are major threats to their health and wellbeing. In contrast, in the develo ed country of Australia, the construction industry has a robust system of regulations, accreditation requirements for occupational health and safety management systems, and provision of workplace protections that ensure basic physical safety, welfare and entitlements for construction workers. Moreover, psychosocial risks that can lead to psychological and physical harm are widely discussed and there are increasing regulatory measures to promote a psychosocially safe work environment in Australia. As a result, alongside an ongoing concern about physical safety, awareness has been grown among Australian construction workers regarding the psychosocial work environment and its impact on their health and wellbeing. Further, considering the contextual differences between countries regarding the construction job quality experience and associated impacts, the qualitative study suggested different recommendations and strategies to further improve the job quality and health and wellbeing of construction workers. While there is an urgent need to focus on improving the socio-economic conditions (i.e., providing adequate welfare and entitlement facilities) and ensuring the physical safety of Bangladeshi construction workers (i.e., providing safety and security at sites, effective law enforcement), there is an increasing emphasis on improving the psychosocial work environment for Australian construction workers (i.e., realistic timeframe in procurement, involvement of the workers in workplace decisions). The research outcomes significantly contribute to the conceptual understanding of the different job quality factors critical to construction workers' health and wellbeing. Further, previous research conducted on job quality and health and wellbeing has heavily focused on developed countries. It is criticised that little attention has been paid to job quality and its health and wellbeing impact in developing countries. The current study has filled this knowledge gap by examining a developing country context and providing insights into how the construction workers of developing countries perceive the impact of job quality. Moreover, the study makes a unique contribution to the body of knowledge by highlighting the socio-economic and contextual differences between countries, which contribute to the differences in job quality experiences and the associated impact on construction worker's health and wellbeing. The extensive knowledge gained from the study provides important implications for policymakers in these two countries to take initiatives to improve the quality of jobs in the construction industry. In addition, the suggested opportunities for improvement identified in the study will help the construction stakeholders to develop context-specific strategies to increase the overall job quality of the construction industries in these two countries to protect the health and wellbeing of workers.