Safety Practices in Cargo Handling Operations at Nasipit Port, Agusan Del Norte

Port safety culture research has grown globally and across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, yet few studies have examined whether individual worker characteristics relate differently to the distinct operational stages of cargo-handling safety. This study evaluated safety practices in cargo-handling operations at Nasipit Port, Agusan del Norte, Philippines, and determined whether respondent profile characteristics related to planning, execution, and supervision specifically, rather than to cargo-handling safety as an undifferentiated whole. The study employed a quantitative descriptive-correlational design. Respondents were 50 port personnel directly involved in containership cargo-handling operations (14 Global Port Terminal employees, 20 Philippine Ports Authority personnel, and 16 stevedores), surveyed using a researcher-adapted questionnaire and analyzed using frequency and percentage distributions, weighted means, and Spearman rank-order correlation. Most respondents were male (80%) and aged 31 to 40 (52%), with basic safety training the most commonly attended program (42%). Execution recorded the highest safety rating (weighted mean = 3.9, "always"), followed by planning and supervision (3.8 each). Neither planning nor execution correlated significantly with any profile variable (all p > 0.05), but supervision correlated significantly with training attended (rho = 0.440, p = 0.001) and age (rho = 0.287, p = 0.043). These findings indicate that planning and execution are governed by standardized procedure regardless of worker background, while supervisory competence specifically depends on accumulated, reflective training and experience, supporting the study's experiential learning theory framework and pointing toward targeted supervisory training as the most evidence-based investment for Nasipit Port.