Poor productivity of construction workers is one of the causes of cost and time overruns in
construction projects. Productivity plays an important role in the construction industry.
Productivity is one of the most important issues in both developed
and developing countries. This
paper reports an investigation of the productivity problems in Syrian construction projects through
a structured questionnaire survey. The main objective of this study is to determine and rank the
factors that affecting labour productivity. 76 factors were identified through a detailed literature
review and interview with projects managers. a questionnaire survey was designed and distributed
to staff of various construction companies. The data obtained was analysed using the relative
importance index. The results from the analysis revealed ten major factors affecting labour
productivity in Syrian construction industry. These
factors are: poor salary, material shortage, financial condition of contractor, poor safety
instructions, size of workshop, rewards shortage, payment delay, low training, and low incentives.
