Evaluation of the impact of occupational health and safety culture on work accidents- denim washing example

Work accidents and occupational diseases cause both material and moral losses for workers and employers in working life. These losses negatively affect the employees themselves and their families socioeconomically and psychologically. In the literature research, it has been seen that the OHS culture of businesses has a significant share in work accidents and occupational diseases. This study aims to determine the steps to be taken to prevent work accidents and occupational diseases with a proactive approach. For this purpose, ELMERİ field observations were made in the selected facility, and it was seen that the region with the lowest safety index was Washing 1-2 (92.2). The effects of the main and sub-criteria in the ELMERİ method on each other were evaluated with the DEMATEL method, and the highest value (3.27) in the D + R column in the total relationship matrix was found to be 1.1. It was observed that it belonged to the sub-criterion of PPE use and risk taking. 1.1. It was concluded that the sub-criterion was affected by all other criteria. Pairwise comparisons were made in the Super Decisions program with the ANP method, and the 7th main criterion, First Aid and Fire Safety (0.27), was the most important parameter in determining adverse operating conditions. When occupational accidents and occupational diseases were examined with 5 'Why ?' root cause analysis, it was determined that 44.5% of the accidents occurred due to non-compliance with the procedure and 44.5% due to not understanding the risk. In light of all these data and the survey results, it is seen that the employees trust the facility and are educated about OHS. However, accident rates show that employees take risks and have work accidents with confidence due to the experiences they have gained over many years. It was concluded that necessary precautions should be taken to prevent occupational accidents and ensure that employees comply with the procedure, training should be provided more effectively and risks should be explained more clearly.