Factors Influencing Foreign Workers’ Unwillingness to Practise Safety in The Malaysian Construction Sites

Foreign workers issue needs to be addressed urgently as most of the industry sectors in Malaysia are still heavily dependent on them. Therefore, cultural and behavioural differences have appeared as the primary sources of their unwillingness to practise proper safety procedure. The aim of this research is to access the fundamental factors influencing the construction foreign workers’ resisting to practise proper safety in the workplace. This research was conducted via qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews with nine (9) selected informants who are working closely with foreign workers at the operational level. Thematic analysis was adopted in this research in order to analyse the responses by familiarising the data coded and identifying the main factors as well as the sub factors. The finding shows that, ignorance, negligence, overlooked, over-confidence and misconception are the five (5) factors influencing construction foreign workers’ resisting to practise proper safety in the Malaysian construction sites. Therefore, if these elements are thoroughly evaluated, it is possible to attain a high degree of safety compliance among foreign workers.