The Impact of Organizational Health and Safety Practices on Job Satisfaction of Non –Managerial Employees in Apparel Sector: Reference to Puttalam District

Abstract

The apparel sector is one of the main sectors in Sri Lanka. The main problem of this sectoris labor turnover. Retention of employees is very important. For that purpose, employees have to satisfy with their job. According to the research findings, the employees are not satisfied with their jobs in this sector. Health and safety practices are one of the most important factors that affect job satisfaction in the sector. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of occupational health and safety practices on the job satisfaction of non-managerial employees. The occupational health and safety practices, such as the general, physical and environmental conditions, ergonomics and psychosocial conditions, provision of protective clothing and equipment, and compliance of health, and safety standards were considered as the independent variables. Job satisfaction was considered as the dependent variable. Ten garment factories situated in Puttalam district were selected as the sample of the study. A proportionate stratified sampling technique was used as the method for selecting 100 non-managerial employees among the selected garments. The questionnaire was used to collect the data from non managerial employees. The correlation coefficient and regression analysis were used for bivariate analysis. The hypotheses were tested using the Pearson Product Movement Correlation Coefficient. A strong positive relationship was found between general, physical, and environmental conditions and employees’ job satisfaction. The ergonomics and psychosocial conditionswere strongly correlated with non-managerial employees’ job satisfaction. It was found that the provision of protective clothing and equipment was also positively correlated withemployees’ job satisfaction. And also a strong positive relationship was found between compliance with health and safety standards and employees’ job satisfaction. Accordingto the above illustration, the occupational health and safety practices were positively impacted non-managerial employees’ job satisfaction. Keywords: Job satisfaction, non - managerial employees, occupational