Managers' attitudes toward employee health and safety practices and a research on building trade

Following the Industrial Revolution occurring as a result of mechanization, employees began to spend a large part of their lives in the rapidly growing and expanding factories. As a result of this, a large increase in occupational accidents and diseases has been observed. This increase in occupational accidents and diseases attracted the attention of organizations and evoked the necessity of taking measures against these. In this respect, the Occupational Health and Safety issue emerged. In time, organizations realized the importance of the units working in the Human Resources field. Assigning specialist staff who has the adequate know-how about the business is the issue of Human Resources Management. For this reason, Human Resources Management has a great role in achieving effective results on Occupational Health and Safety.In order to reduce occupational health and safety problems and risks to a minimum, awareness about this issue is important. Employees' level of knowledge in occupational health and safety issues affects their behaviour. Because of this, increasing their level of knowledge would reduce the negative consequences.In this study, the measures and practices, problems and solutions to these problems in the field of occupational health and safety for employees, as well as the applicability of the legislation related to occupational safety are examined with regard to the construction sector in Turkey.Keywords: Human Resource Management, Occupational Health and Safety, Occupational Accident, Occupational Disease, OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System