Assessment of Accidents Occurrence and Cuisine Employees' Awareness of Workplace Safety in Contract Foodservice Management Company

ABSTRACT

The study was conducted in two phase. In phase I, workplace safety accidents were investigated that happened from 2004 to 2008 in 52 medium-sized contract managed foodservice companies located in Seoul. In phase II, a survey was conducted to examine the cuisine employees' awareness of workplace safety. The survey was administered to the same foodservice management companies from April 12 to April 20, 2009. The final response rate was 84% (N=336), and the data were analyzed using SPSS Windows (ver. 12.0). The analysis showed that more accidents occurred in the age groups of 51~60 and 41~50 and among women. Forty-four percents of the accidents were reported by the employees who had been engaged in foodservice for 1~4 years. The majority of the safety accidents occurred in May~June of the year and the injuries were related to the 'hands and arms'. Approximately 38.5% of the injuries happened during 'movement and transportation'. More than half of the accidents were not managed as 'industrial accidents'. By type of injuries, 28.6% of the accidents were 'fractures'. In terms of the companies' actions, 44% of the accidents were dealt by companies' paying medical bills. The results of this study could be useful to develop evaluation indicators for safety education programs, decrease cuisine employees' safety accidents, protect assets, and prevent various worker and industrial accidents to create a pleasant work environment.