Occupational Health and Safety Management in Small Scale Automobile Repair and Maintenance Workshops in Sri Lanka

The above-stated industry formerly known as the auto mechanic industry in which the primary duty is to provide mechanical and electrical repair and maintenance for cars, bikes, trucks, and all sought of automobiles. This particular industry includes self-employed mechanics, garages, car paint shops, wheel alignment, and tirerelated workshops, etc. However, petrol sheds, spare parts shops, and car sales do not include to this industry. The auto mechanic repair and maintenance industry had a remarkable growth throughout the years [1]. In Sri Lanka, several large scale organizations are directly engaged in the Automobile repair and maintenance industry, such as UNIMO, DIMO, Ideal Motors, Toyota Lanka, Edirisinghe Brothers, and Auto Miraj, etc. These leading organizations follow an occupational and health safety plan and implement it. As for small scale repair and maintenance workshops, 95% of them fail to perform a proper occupational health and safety plan and only follow some necessary safety precautions, which leads to cause harm on workers, equipment and environment as well. Fig. 1 shows an unsafe method used in small scale repair centers [2], and Fig. 2 shows a technician from UNIMO working with appropriate safety precautions.