A Balanced Diet for Construction workers to Improve Safety and productivity

The United Nations (UN) under its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aims to protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers around the world. Although the deadline to achieve the UN SDGs is approaching faster, construction workers around the world are still affecting from a number of factors that highly influence their safety and productivity. Some of these factors are directly linked with the workers' daily food. This paper considers the healthy food and relates it to the productivity and safety performance of construction workers. A qualitative research strategy consisting of a systematic literature review and a semi-structured interview was adopted to accomplish the aims and objectives of this research. A healthy diet from the literature review was identified considering the construction workers' physical activities and energy requirements. The results of face-to-face interviews held with mess managers and construction workers from reputed construction organizations in Oman are reported. The selected workers (50%) consider that their daily food has an impact on their productivity and safety performance. Only 30% of the mess managers reported that they consider health-related factors to make their weekly food menu. 50% of the current food menu of the selected construction organizations in Oman is not balanced for construction workers. The result further reveals that food such as grain, vegetable, fruit, dairy product, lean meat, nuts, seed, fats, oil, and sweets should be part of the daily food to maintain the construction workers in a healthier condition. Construction workers are part of the society, thus any efforts which will improve their well-being need to be done. A healthier worker will not only be more productive but will be useful for the society. As a result of investment in workers’ wellbeing, construction organizations will have the benefits of improved productivity and safety.