A Study on Perception of Employees on Safety and Welfare Measures & Prevention of Occupational Hazards of Cochin Port Trust (CPT), Kerala, India

The term ‘welfare’ is derived from the French phrase ‘welfaren’ which means ‘to fare well’. In Practice, the Labour welfare includes all services, facilities and amenities established in and around the work place, as it would enable the employees to work in healthy, congenial and trouble-free conditions. The life of CPT employees as in other sectors is full of risks with occupational hazards, which may affect the health and welfare of the employees. Dr. Amartya Sen (The Hindu Dated 8^th April, 2005, p-14) recommends that, in third world countries like India, the government is to spend a lot more on public health care but along with that, government has to introduce a better monitoring of system for delivery of public health services. The ‘Health care’ amenities in Cochin Port trust may be grouped under three heads, they are: (i) hospital facilities, (ii) family welfare and extension programmes and (iii) safety measures and provisions against the occupational hazards. But this study is to assess the nature of occupational hazards as perceived by the employees and to evaluate the satisfaction of employees on safety and welfare measures also the study is restricted to safety measures and provisions against the occupational hazards only.

The Individual satisfaction indices, weighted satisfaction indices and emphasis indices are calculated –factor wise for safety and welfare measures. Ultimate satisfaction indices are also calculated to measure the overall satisfaction level of respondents. The Chi-square test is used to analyse the opinion about prevention of occupational hazards and the hypothesis is tested in this study. The results are discussed and suitable viable conclusions were given.