ABSTRACT
Since the forest products industry is a labor-intensive that should be considered important in terms of occupational accidents and diseases. In the forest products industry sector, there is a high potential for the emergence of negativities in terms of occupational health and safety due to the working environment's mechanical, physical, and environmental factors. It will be possible to prevent occupational accidents and diseases by taking the necessary precautions for occupational health and safety in working environments. This study is aimed to examine the factors affecting risk-taking behavior from the perspective of blue-collar (employee) and white-collar (manager) workers in forest products industry sectors operating in the TR42 Level 2 region. For this purpose, 148 different enterprises with 10 or more employees for the forest products industry in the study region and 10835 employees with the number of employees in these enterprises consisted of the universe of the study. Due to the pandemic (Covid-19) process in 2020, 687 participants from a total of 64 different businesses, 36 and 28 of them from furniture and wood & cork products businesses, respectively, were reached through face-to-face interviews. Questionnaires were used as a data collection tool in the study. As a result, white-collar workers think that blue-collar workers tend to take more risks, more importance is given to security-related issues within the enterprise, and working conditions are better within the enterprise. This study will provide guiding information to understand the factors affecting the risk-taking behavior of both white-collar and blue-collar workers.
ABSTRACT
Those working in the forest products industry, which is a labor-intensive sector, are affected by the environmental and physical factors of the working environment. In this study, it was aimed to determine the effects of physical, mental and environmental factors and body posture on the fatigue levels of employees in forest products industry workplaces operating in Duzce. 196 enterprises and 5459 employees with 10 or more employees registered to Duzce Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2019 formed the universe of the study in order to achieve the purpose of the study. Due to the negativities of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019 and 2020, 203 employees could be reached with a 95% confidence level and 6.75% failure rate. A questionnaire form developed by the researchers was used in the study. The fatigue levels of the employees were determined using the "Fatigue Severity Scale" developed by Krupp et al. As a result of the statistical evaluations made, it was determined that 20.1% of the participants did not experience fatigue due to work, 63.3% experienced fatigue due to work, and 16.6% experienced chronic fatigue due to work. It was determined that the participants experienced problems arising from the excessive weight carried during the work and the problems mostly caused by noise, dust, temperature and coldness among the environmental factors in the working environment.