Workplace Hazards and Risk Assessment

Basic Concepts

• A hazard is a source, situation, or act with the potential to cause harm to worker health, equipment, or facilities.
• Hazard identification is the process of determining if a hazard exists and defining its characteristics.
• Risk combines the probability of hazardous exposures or events and the severity of potential harm.

Risk Evaluation and Health Conditions

• Risk assessment determines the level of risk, considering probability and severity of consequences.
• Health conditions encompass objective and self-reported variables of physiological, psychological, and sociocultural factors, defining the sociodemographic and morbidity profile of workers.

Catastrophic Events

• A catastrophic event is an unexpected, undesirable occurrence that significantly disrupts normal business operations.
• Effects of a catastrophic event include widespread harm to personnel, operational paralysis, impact on production, and/or partial or total infrastructure destruction.

Workplace Conditions and Environment Factors

• Elements, agents, or factors that significantly influence the generation of risks to worker health and safety are workplace conditions and environment factors.
• General characteristics of premises, installations, machinery, equipment, tools, raw materials, and products existing in the workplace are key.
• Physical, chemical, and biological agents present, including their intensities, concentrations, or levels, matter.
• The organization and arrangement of work, including ergonomic, biomechanical, and psychosocial factors are also important.

Occupational Health Monitoring

• Monitoring health in the workplace, or epidemiological surveillance, is crucial for planning, implementing, and evaluating safety and health programs.
• It aids in controlling work-related disorders, injuries, and absenteeism.

Occupational Safety and Health (OSH)

• Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) is the discipline focused on preventing injuries and illnesses caused by working conditions.
• OSH aims to improve workplace conditions and the environment, enhance workplace health, and promote maintenance of well-being.

General System of Occupational Risks

• The General System of Occupational Risks protects all workers in Colombia by providing security and care for employees facing potential work-related accidents or illnesses.
• Aims to prevent work-related accidents and occupational diseases.
• Attenuates severity and attends to and compensates workers or their families in the event of a work-related accident or illness.

System Affiliation

• Employers must enroll in the risk system for the employer makes the payment.
• Obligatory affiliates include dependent workers under contract or public service, contractors under formal service contracts longer than a month, and pensioners rejoining the workforce.
• Non-enrolling employers are responsible for benefits caused to workers in occupational safety matters.

Responsibilities of System Stakeholders

• Employers must affiliate, pay contributions, manage risks, ensure workplace safety and health management, and report situations affecting coverage to the ARL
• Workers must care for their health, adhere to safety standards, report health status to employers, and participate in health promotion and prevention strategies.
• ARLs must facilitate affiliation, collect contributions, process registrations, guarantee health and financial benefits, and conduct promotion and prevention activities.

Coverage for work related incidents

• The costs of health services directly related to care are covered by the ARL.
• Coverage includes work-related accidents and occupational diseases.
• Any IPS (healthcare provider) must provide initial emergency care.
• A worker's EPS (health provider) must provide necessary health services.
• Red de IPS are contracted by ARL, which also provides treatment of professional rehabilitation and occupational medicine services.

Benefits of the General System of Occupational Hazards

• Assistance benefits are provided by EPS, charged to the corresponding administrator of employment risks, these include:
  • Medical, surgical, therapeutic and pharmaceutical care
  • Hospitalization services
  • Dental services.
  • Supply of medication
  • Prostheses and orthoses, their repair and replacement
  • Physical and professional rehabilitation.
  • Patient transportation

Economic Benefits in the General System of Occupational Hazards

• Allowance for temporary disability such as 100% of salary until the end of rehabilitation or declaration of disability.
• Compensation for permanent partial disability for loss between 5% and less than 50% of working capacity.
• Funeral Assistance
• Disability pension for 50% or more of their working capacity
• Survivor's pension

OSH Policy

• Employers or contractors must establish a written Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) policy as part of the company's management policies.
• The policy should extend to all work centers and all workers, regardless of their form of employment including contractors and subcontractors and communicated to the Joint Committee or Watchman of Safety and Health at Work, according to current regulations.

Objectives of Workplace Health and Safety Policy

• Identifying, assessing and controlling all workplace hazards.
• Protecting the health and safety of all workers through continuous improvement, in accordance with the Occupational Health and Safety Management System (SG-SST).
• Compliance with all applicable national regulations regarding business risks.

Employer Responsibilities

• Defining, signing, and publicizing the Occupational Health and Safety policy in the workplace.
• Assigning and communicating responsibilities throughout the organization.
• Reporting within the company and those with delegated SST responsibilities accountable.
• Defining financial, technical, and personnel resources.
• Compliance with applicable regulatory requirements.
• Managing hazards and risks with a panorama broken down by area.
• Creating an annual work plan.
• Ensuring the Prevention and Promotion of Occupational Hazards
• Encouraging worker participation.

Worker Responsibilities

• Striving for comprehensive health care.
• Providing clear, truthful, and complete information about health status.
• Complying with the rules, regulations, and instructions of the Company's Occupational Health and Safety Management System.
• Reporting any potential risks to appropriate employer.
• Participating in training activities in OSH as defined in the SG-SST training plan.
• Participating in and contributing to the achievement of the objectives of the SG-SST.

Principles of Security Policy and Health at Work

• Guaranteeing safe facilities and working conditions and to prevent risks and mitigate hazards.
• Conserving and improving quality of collaborators’ and service providers’ life, as well as to provide a healthy workplace.
• Managing as appropriate to the context, needs and expectations, threats, and opportunities of the interested parties.
• The fulfillment of objectives seeking constant improvement.
• To always comply with legislation and requirements.
• Promoting participation and consultation with collaborators.