A construction worker is a worker employed in the physical
construction
Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and com ...
of the
built environment
The term built environment refers to human-made conditions and is often used in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, public health, sociology, and anthropology, among others. These curated spaces provide the setting for human ac ...
and its
infrastructure
Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...
.
Definition
By some definitions, workers may be engaged in
manual labour as unskilled or semi-skilled workers; they may be skilled tradespeople; or they may be supervisory or managerial personnel. Under safety legislation in the United Kingdom, for example, construction workers are defined as people "who work for or under the control of a contractor on a construction site";
in Canada, this can include people whose work includes ensuring conformance with building codes and regulations, and those who supervise other workers.
The term is a broad and generic one and most construction workers are primarily described by the specific level and type of work they perform.
Laborers
A laborer (or labourer) is a person who works in manual labor types in the construction industry workforce. Laborers are in a working class of wage-earners in which their only possession of significant material value is their labor. Industries e ...
comprise a large grouping in most national construction industries. In the United States, for example, in May 2021 the construction sector employed just over 7.5 million people, of whom just over 820,000 were laborers, while 573,000 were
carpenters
Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters tra ...
, 508,000 were
electrician
An electrician is a tradesperson specializing in electrical wiring of buildings, transmission lines, stationary machines, and related equipment. Electricians may be employed in the installation of new electrical components or the maintenance ...
s, 258,000 were equipment operators and 230,000 were construction managers.
Like most business sectors, there is also substantial
white-collar employment in construction - 681,000 US workers were recorded by the
United States Department of Labor
The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemploym ...
as in 'office and administrative support occupations' in May 2021.
Construction workers may
colloquially
Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the style (sociolinguistics), linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom norm ...
be referred to as "hard hat workers" or "hard hats", as they often wear
hard hat
A hard hat is a type of helmet predominantly used in workplace environments such as industrial or construction sites to protect the head from injury due to falling objects, impact with other objects, debris, rain, and electric shock. Suspensio ...
s for safety.
Safety
Construction safety is intended to ensure a safe environment for workers, who are required to be educated on safety at each site.
Examples of poor pay and working conditions for migrant workers
In 2008, a
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
report described unsafe and unfair working conditions in China and a failure on the part of the government to enforce labor standards in the construction industry.
The
International Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and o ...
(ILO) estimated that, at the end of 2006, 90% of the 40 million construction workers in China were
migrant worker
A migrant worker is a person who Human migration, migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have the intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work.
Migrant worker ...
s. Many turned to work after their farming communities collapsed into poverty.
In the United States,
illegal immigrant
Illegal immigration is the migration of people into a country in violation of the immigration laws of that country or the continued residence without the legal right to live in that country. Illegal immigration tends to be financially upwar ...
labor is prevalent in the industry. Due to workers' questionable legal status, some employers commit crimes such as
wage theft
Wage theft is the failing to pay wages or provide employee benefits owed to an employee by contract or law. It can be conducted by employers in various ways, among them failing to pay overtime; violating minimum wage, minimum-wage laws; the miscl ...
and violation of workplace standards, running little risk of consequences. Similar abuse occurred in
Qatar
Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...
during preparations for the
2022 FIFA World Cup
The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...
where workers mostly from poor countries in the Indian Sub-continent work in desert conditions for as little as €6.20 a day.
See also
*
Civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...
*
Dirty, Dangerous and Demeaning
"Dirty, dangerous and demeaning" (often "dirty, dangerous and demanding" or "dirty, dangerous and difficult"), also known as the 3Ds, is an American neologism derived from the Asian concept, and refers to certain kinds of labor often performed by ...
*
Index of construction articles
This page is a list of construction topics.
A
Abated
- Abrasive blasting
- AC power plugs and sockets
- Access mat
- Accrington brick
- Accropode
- Acid brick
- Acoustic plaster
- Active daylighting
- Adaptive reuse
- Aerial crane
- Aerosol ...
*
List of topics on working time and conditions {{Short description, 1=Overview of and topical guide to working time and conditions
This is a list of topics on working time and conditions.
Legislation
* See :Employment law
Working time
* See :Working time
* Flextime
Working conditions
* Bios ...
*
Outline of construction
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to construction:
Construction – process of building or assembling infrastructure. A complex activity, large scale construction involves extensive multitasking. Norma ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Construction Worker
Worker
The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual labour, manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via wage, waged or salary, salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also "Designation ...