The Construction industry contributes greatly to the socio economic development of any nation. Despite its importance, the Construction industry has been ranked as one of the most hazardous industries across the globe. This research evaluated the safety performance of Construction companies in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria and the effect of management commitment to safety management implementation on safety performance. Qualitative and Quantitative research survey method was deployed. The study population comprises nine construction companies in the Niger Delta, selected through stratified sampling method. 190 respondents were purposively selected from the nine construction companies for questionnaire administration. The collected data was analyzed descriptively to determine the safety performance of the industry. Pearson Moment correlation statistics was used to establish the relationship between management commitment to safety management implementation and safety performance in the industry. Obtained results revealed a moderate level of safety performance at leading indicators with average mean of 3.23 ±1.22 in Construction industry in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria and poor level of safety performance at lagging indicators with average mean of 3.42±1.26. Interestingly, a strong, positive correlation was identified between Management Commitment and Safety performance for leading indicators, which was statistically significant (r = .506, n = 190, p = .005). A strong negative correlation however was seen between Management Commitment and Safety Performance for lagging indicators, which was statistically significant (r = -.408, n = 190, p = .003). This implies that where top management is committed to implementation of occupational health and safety management in such organization, there would be better safety practices and reduced rate of accidents.

Life-saving rules (LSRs) are a set of defined rules that support and complement general site-specific safety rules and procedures (SRPs). LSRs are popular in the oil & gas (O&G) industry and are part of the safety management system framework designed to prevent incidents in the workplace. Complying with LSRs ensures its intent of incident prevention, drives the goal of creating decent work, economic growth and sustainable development. With the continuum of incidents in the industry, total compliance with LSRs and SRPs still remains a mirage. Even though the introduction of LSRs in the O&G caused a paradigm shift from fair to better safety performance, incident investigations continue to unveil cases of violations/non-compliance. In the space of continuous improvement, it becomes expedient to determine possible causes of these LSRs and SRPs non-compliance, with a view to nipping the causal factors in the bud. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the factors affecting the level of workers compliance with IOGP LSRs in selected O&G companies operating in Delta State, Nigeria. The research recruited 317 sharp end workers and selected leaders, through a multistage sampling technique. A semi-structured, self-administered questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. The study in its findings was able to elicit numerous compliance determinants arising from socio-demography, occupational and organisational factors. These factors are barriers to strengthen if the goal of total compliance and zero incident must be achieved in the workplace. The study recommends that management should comply with Thomas Legge's aphorisms 1 & 4 on SRPs and design training programmes for employees to be imparted with requisite knowledge needed for compliance, commit to safety and lead a positive safety culture to drive continuous improvement. Furthermore, there is the need to pursue total compliance with LSRs, SRPs and any site-specific safety rules to achieve zero incidents in the O&G industry.