Strengthening Occupational Safety and Health Policy in Malaysia: Exploring the Awareness of Civil Servants

Abstract

Accident and fatality rates in the workplace are anticipated to rise constantly over the next few years. Extensive occupational safety and health studies have been conducted in various sectors, yet little attention has been paid to the public sector. This study aims to explore civil servants’ awareness on occupational safety and health (OSH). A survey was conducted in a public university to examine the relationship between OSH awareness and the civil servants’ safety understanding, self-preventive attitudes and self-care practices. The findings revealed that the majority of the respondents have a high understanding of OSH. A correlation analysis indicated that safety understanding, self-preventive attitudes and self-care practice have a positive association with OSH awareness. The highest correlation is between self-preventive attitudes and OSH awareness (r = .732, p < .05). The multiple correlation disclosed F (3,128) = 92.93, p < .000 with an R2 of .24. A significant linear relationship between safety understanding, self-preventive attitudes and self-care practices predicting the OSH awareness with the strongest correlation is between self-preventive attitudes (β = .29, p < .05). The findings suggest that public organisations focus on implementing the OSH guidelines and regulations to minimise occupational hazards at work.