Occupational Health and Safety

• Occupational health and safety applies to all sectors of industry, business, and commerce.
• It is essential to establish suitable health and safety management systems.
• Health and safety can be overseen by one capable manager in a low-hazard organization.
• High-hazard manufacturers may require electrical, mechanical, and civil engineers, lawyers, doctors, nurses, trainers, work planners, and supervisors.
• Production pressures, financial limits, and organizational complexity can be obstacles to maintaining high standards.
• Corporate responsibility involves handling core business to provide social, environmental, and economic value for a beneficial impact.

Objectives

• To clarify the importance of health and safety in the workplace
• To discuss the advantages/reasons for organizations to manage health and safety
• To outline the cost of poor health and safety management

Corporate Social Responsibility

• Corporate social responsibility includes firms managing their core business to add social, environmental, and economic worth for a sustainable impact.

Encouraging Organizations

• Organizations should strive to improve health and safety management systems.
• They should highlight the significance of health and safety issues at the board level.
• Organizations must publicly report health and safety concerns, including performance results.

Reasons to Promote Good Standards of Health and Safety

• The moral reason focuses on keeping people safe from injury and illness at work.
• The criminal and civil laws embody the legal reason.
• Financial reasons include fines, compensation, financial costs, and imprisonment for violating health and safety regulations.

Influences on Workplace Safety Standards

• Societal expectations are key to workplace safety standards.
• Society also can impact these standards.
• People should seek employment with good employers, which works best when unemployment is low.
• The news media should highlight good and bad employment practices.
• Educational institutions should teach acceptable standards of health and safety.
• Consumers should purchase only from responsible companies.
• Society can use TV and media to improve safety knowledge and to encourage safe behaviour.

Business Case for Health and Safety

• The business case is focused on the potential costs of inadequate health and safety standards.
• The costs can be direct/indirect, insured/uninsured.

Direct Costs

• Poor health and safety standards may impose direct and indirect costs on employers, employees, and society.

Direct Costs Include

• Medical bills, first aid, and other forms of treatment.
• Lost wages which includes compensation for missed work.
• Repairing/replacing damaged equipment, tools, and other raw materials.
• Temporary or reduced production.
• Costs associated with case and workers' compensation management including disability settlement.

Indirect Costs Include

• Replacement of employees like training new employees and lost time to allow them to achieve the productivity of the prior employee.
• Reduced productivity caused by injured or sick employees.
• Damage to the company's reputation.
• Costs associated with accident investigations, consultancy fees, and specialists.
• Increased insurance premiums.
• Legal fees and prosecution.
• Hiring costs.

Duty of Care

• Employers need to provide a safe workplace, including access and exit.
• Providing safe plant and equipment is essential.
• Employers must provide a safe system of work.
• They should also provide secure and competent fellow employees.
• Employers must provide adequate levels of supervision.
• Providing information, instruction, and training is a must.

Skills of Health and Safety Practitioners

• Status and competence are prerequisites for health and safety practitioners and advisers.
• They must independently advise management, employees, and their representatives.
• The creation and development of health and safety policies.
• Promote a positive health and safety culture.
• Develop effective health and safety policy implementation.
• Health and safety planning involves goal-setting, prioritization, and effective systems.
• Set short- and long-term goals that are realistic.
• Daily implementation and monitoring of policy and plans that include accident/incident investigation, reporting, and analysis,
• Conduct performance reviews and audits of the health and safety management system,
• They must understand the law which relates to their organization.
• Participate in setting risk control standards for hardware and human performance.
• Develop and maintain procedures for reporting, investigating, recording, and analyzing accidents.