ESTABLISHMENT OF SAFETY GUIDELINES FOR ELDERLY CONSTRUCTION WORKERS

With the average life expectancy increasing thanks to better standards of living and medical technology, the number of elderly construction workers in construction sites rises every year to surpass the 450 thousand people in the construction industry (24.7% of all employees in the construction industry). Similarly, the percentage of fatal accidents involving elderly workers has stood at 41~46 percent for the past five years; note that this is significantly higher than the other age groups, making safety measures for dealing with this issue a matter of urgency. This study sought to propose appropriate safety guidelines for elderly construction workers aged 50 years and over by examining the changes in their physical and psychological functions and through the subsequent analysis of the current status and causes of fatal accidents involving them. The guidelines targeted ferroconcrete construction where accidents occur quite often; construction was classified into mold construction, reinforcing rod construction, and concrete construction. Mold construction was further classified into preparation, carry-in, processing, assembly, and disassembly, and reinforcing rod construction, into preparation/transport and processing/assembly. Safety guidelines for each process were presented by dividing them into three aspects considering the changes in the physical and psychological functions according to their ages and type of accident causes: work environment improvement, machinery and equipment improvement, and work method improvement.