The Importance of Vocational Education for Lifts in the 21st Century

In the 21st century, lifts have come forward as vertical-transportation vehicles with an extremely wide range of use, manufactured for the purpose of transporting people and goods. In our country, the lift sector is one of the leading ones that give a current surplus, and it is among the five largest countries in the world in component production. Installation and component manufacturing are carried out by about 2,800 companies in the sector where between 20,000-25,000 lifts are put into service per year. Lift manufacturing and installation jobs are directly related to the structure of the construction sector. In parallel with the construction sector, which has shown a rapid acceleration recently in Turkey, it is observed that lift installation works, in particular, are becoming increasingly intensive and widespread. The safety of employees is often neglected for reasons such as lack of qualified personnel, subcontracting and work pressure in the fulfillment of increasing work demands. According to the “Workplaces Hazard Class Communiqué,” lift installation works are considered a Very Dangerous occupation. In this context, there are many studies both in our country and in other countries that evaluate the sector from the viewpoint of occupational safety and offer suggestions. More than 50 operations must be completed by the stage of commissioning a lift. About two-thirds of these are assembly operations, which are consecutive as well. In other words, it is impossible to switch to another operation before completing the previous one. Lift installation operations require working in a narrow space. Besides safety, there are various risks performed in such areas in the ergonomic sense. Although various measures have been taken accordingly in developed countries, it is noticeable that the ergonomic principles of the work are considered to be challenging. The number of studies evaluating the installation of lifts from an ergonomic perspective is limited. Based on this point, it is aimed to evaluate the lift installation works from an ergonomic point of view in this study.  Given the occupational accident statistics, lift installation works attract attention with their high death rates. It has been revealed that 42% of fatal lift accidents occur during installation and maintenance operations. These accidents are also important in terms of injuries and loss of working days, and it has been determined that lift installation operations are ranked first among the works performed in construction areas regarding lost working time. As per the Article 4 of “Regulation on the Procedures and Principles of Employees’ Occupational Health and Safety Training,” which was published by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security and took effect on July 4, 2004: “Employers are liable for taking the necessary measures for establishing a healthy and safe working environment at workplaces. For this purpose, the employees are obliged to inform employees about their legal rights and responsibilities, prepare occupational health and safety training programs at workplaces, organize training sessions, ensure employee participation in such programs and provide a place and equipment for training programs regarding the occupational risks that employees are exposed to and the necessary measures to be taken in this sense.”

It is a fact that, as all authorities admit, all works require education at first. By acting in this way, I will try to explain how important general Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) training is in business life and what its benefits are to the workplace and employees, in terms of material and nonmaterial aspects.

In order to reveal the value of life and to be able to produce something before starting work, each employee certainly needs a comprehensive and effective OHS training before starting work.  Today, OHS training is prominent in working areas in developing countries. 

Working life shows quite a rapid change and development technologically and systematically in our country.  This brings along faster working equipment in working areas and, accordingly, an ever-increasing intensive working life. In addition to the convenience brought by intensive, fast and parallel systematic working equipment, risk factors that directly affect employee life come to the forefront, and, as a result, countermeasures need to be taken. In terms of taking these measures and implementing them effectively, the most important and indispensable of them are job entry trainings, followed by orientation trainings, while the general OHS training takes the lead.

In this context, workplaces use technological innovations in order to accelerate their work and minimize their costs. However, employees at work have problems adapting to the equipment that is the wonder of technology, and then, they have serious workplace accidents during this adjustment period. There are material and moral losses of a workplace accident, both to the national economy, to the employer and, directly, to the person who has an accident. 

Companies that provide machinery and equipment using new technology should equip their personnel with sufficient and necessary knowledge to operate it. Such information is obtained through training. When the workplaces are integrated with the machine park and the trained personnel who will use it, the desired successful and efficient production will be realized.

The machines and equipment are new, but if the knowledge, experience and training of the personnel who will use them are insufficient, the desired efficiency and successful production will not be realized. Employees who do not have sufficient knowledge due to lack of training will make mistakes using the machinery and equipment. Malfunctions as a result of improper use and work accidents based on these malfunctions will occur. As a result of accidents, there will be damage to machinery and equipment, loss of production and, perhaps, injuries or even fatal work accidents. According to the statistics by the International Labour Organization (ILO), assuming that 300 incidents happen at an enterprise and no measure is taken against it accordingly, it is put forward that 30 occupational accidents with injuries may occur there, and if these are not investigated and the necessary measures are not taken again, there may be one occupational accident with death at the same enterprise.

After all precautions are taken, it may be necessary to use Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) while working — as a last resort if necessary. Employees should know where and how PPE should be used. It is an irrevocable truth that this need-to-know information will be provided with the OHS training.

Otherwise, the non-use or improper use of PPE, which will protect against accidents or occupational diseases, will lead to the occurrence of accidents.

Employees should be included in appropriate training programs according to the job they will do before starting their first day of work, and these training programs should be repeated periodically. At the same time, they should be theoretical and practical, exams should be held at the end of training, and those who are qualified should be made to work.

The personnel whose workplaces, departments and duties change should definitely be given training about the new job they will do.

If a lack of information related to the work performed by the employees is detected in the work areas, the necessary professional training programs should be provided to the personnel in question again.

Consequently, training in workplaces is extremely important because the costs of occupational accidents are both financially and emotionally significant for employers and employees, as well as for the country’s economy. Employees should be taught that OHS is a part of their jobs by providing an occupational safety culture through training programs, and they should contribute to the spread of OHS culture in the workplace by ensuring that they are involved in the studies to be conducted on this issue.

As can be seen from the above description, companies that have conscious and trained employees and factories will be advantageous in terms of production and quality, and therefore, thanks to the trained and qualified employees, accidents at work will never happen or will be reduced to a minimum.  There will be no loss of labor force in enterprises without any occupational accident, and then, there will be no financial and emotional losses. As a result of all these studies, enterprises will carry out a trained, high-quality and accident-free production, and the targeted success will be achieved. 

“NO JOB CAN BE URGENT AND IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO BE DONE WITHOUT TAKING OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY PRECAUTIONS.”

“PREVENTION IS BOTH CHEAPER AND MORE HUMANE THAN PAYING.”