ABSTRACT
Construction is a large, dynamic, and complex industrial sector that plays an important role in the US (Behm, 2008) and in European economies. Construction workers and employers build houses, workplaces, and other buildings, and also maintain the physical infrastructures of cities all over the world. However, job fatalities in the construction industry have long been disproportionate to the number of employees in the business. To date, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (2008) shows that the construction industry has one of the worst occupational safety and health records in Europe. New data from the International Work Organization (IWO) in 2007 reveals that 60,000 fatal accidents take place in the construction industry every year. This is the equivalent to one death every ten minutes. Therefore, this sector is one of the most afflicted with occupational accidents.
