Older construction workers: Needs and abilities

Construction presents specific problems for vulnerable workers, be they younger, older or migrant workers. This paper concentrates on the needs and abilities of older workers. In addition to the health problems associated with normal ageing, heavy physical workloads have been shown to exacerbate this physical decline. Construction is recognised as having higher rates of fatality, injury and illness than most other industries. Many workers in industries with a heavy physical workload are forced into early retirement due to injury and ill-health. Although there is data available to show age-related relationships with a range of occupational ill-health conditions in construction, little has been done to explore workers' personal perceptions of ageing. The SPARC (Strategic Promotion of Ageing Research Capacity) initiative funded a project at Loughborough University to explore the needs and abilities of older construction workers. The pilot research used qualitative methodology to attempt to gain a rich understanding of some of the issues that are perceived to impact upon the health and career paths of older workers. In-depth semi-structured interviews and focus groups were held with participants from several areas of the industry. A range of issues have emerged that are considered to affect older workers in construction have emerged from the project and are wide ranging, acting at both a macro and micro level within the industry. Client demands, construction company employment policy and design considerations act alongside specific work processes, employee uptake of safe practice, and availability of tools and equipment to create an environment which can be hostile to the older worker. The contribution of this work was as the foundation of Loughborough’s older construction worker research that is continuing with the development of occupational ill-health simulators as training aids for younger workers and empathy aids for designers and workplace design.