Workplace Health and Safety

• The unit provides the meaning of Health and Safety at work
• The unit covers workplace Health and Safety policies and practices
• The unit elucidates the legal requirements for workplace Health and Safety
• The unit imparts information on workplace risk and safety inspection and risk assessment
• The unit also delivers understanding on Health and Safety audits, accident prevention, and Occupational Health programmes

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the definition of Health and Safety at work
• Understand Health and Safety Policies and Practices
• Understand legal provisions of Health and Safety
• Understand the process of safety inspection and risk assessment at the workplace
• Understand the process of Health and Safety audits, accident prevention, and occupational health and safety programmes

Assessment Mode

• Case Study (1,000 words)
• Closed Book Examination
• Project Report

Guided Learning Hours

• Six hours of guided learning
• Forty hours of self-managed learning

Introduction to Health and Safety

• The content is extracted from the ILO's "The Fundamental Principles of Occupational Health and Safety," second edition and aims to provide a broad overview and understanding for students new to the subject

Fundamental Principles of Occupational Health and Safety

• Occupational safety and health (OSH) involves anticipating, recognizing, evaluating, and controlling hazards in the workplace
• Hazards could impair workers' health and well-being
• Considers the impact on surrounding communities and the general environment
• Minimizing accident risks requires commitment to safety as a core company value

Definition of Hazards and Risk

• A Hazard is a source, situation, or act with the potential to cause harm through human injury or ill health
• Risk is the likelihood of a hazardous event occurring and the severity of the resulting injury or illness from the event or exposure
• Electricity is a hazard, the risk is an inadequately insulated electrical wire might electrocute a worker
• A 50kg weight is a hazard the risk is a worker suffering severe back strain from manually lifting it

Introduction – Occupational Safety and Health

• Occupational safety and health (OSH) is a broad discipline with many specialized fields
• OSH aims to promote and maintain workers' physical, mental, and social well-being in all occupations
• Involves preparing and preserving workplace conditions to reduce the likelihood of injury
• Aims to prevent workers' health issues caused by working conditions
• Protects workers from risks in their workplaces
• OSH ensures the placement and maintenance of workers in suitable occupational environments

1.1 Definition of Health and Safety at Work

• Occupational health and safety (OHS) relates to workplace health, safety, and welfare
• OHS includes laws, standards, and programs aimed at improving workplace conditions for workers, co-workers, family members, customers, and other stakeholders
• Better OHS standards ensure good business, brand image, and higher employee morale
• Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) can also be referred to as Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) and Occupational Health
• OSH also includes the protection of co-workers and family members

According to Wikipedia

• In the United States, it is referred to as occupational health, occupational and non-occupational safety, and includes safety for activities outside of work
• Companies have a legal duty to ensure reasonable care and safety for their workers. State law introduces specific duties and creates government bodies to regulate workplace safety issues
• Occupational medicine, which focuses on employee health, is part of OSH. OSH is also part of occupational psychology
• Occupational injury is the term used when referring to a specific workplace injury

Occupational Safety and Health concerns everybody

• OSH concerns both employers and workers
• Workplaces have different kinds of hazards
• Millions of workers globally are injured, disabled, or die on the job each year.
• The National Safety Council reports that the costs of injuries and illnesses, lost wage compensation, insurance premiums, hiring replacement workers, damaged equipment, and lost production are immense for businesses and the economy
• Many large companies have professionals with experience and degrees in occupational safety and health
• Smaller employers delegate the task of creating and implementing illness and injury programs to employees, usually HR, quality control, or security specialists

Occupational safety and health in the EU

• The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) reported declining rates of ill health and injuries over the past few decades
• Employees still report persistent and emerging job-related risks

OSH in the USA

• Legislation came into force in 1970 to protect worker safety and health
• The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 required that research, recommendations, and guidance be developed to aid employees and employers
• The 1970 Act also required employers to adopt health and safety standards and gave the government more control over policing and enforcing them
• Rates of injuries and ill health have also declined
• American workers, however, still report persistent and emerging job-related risks

OSH in Sri Lanka

• Factories Ordinance (Ordinance Nos.45 of 1942/22 of 1946) makes provision for the safety and welfare of workers in factories

Definition of a Factory

• Any premises where people are employed in manual labour and in any process
• This ordinance consists of 131 laws and describes the basic standards which need to be maintained by the occupier to provide a safe labour environment in Sri Lanka.

1.2 Health and safety policies and procedures

• Health and safety policies and procedures are part of keeping workers safe
• A ‘standard’ safety management process includes:
• Effective safety plans
• Policies and procedures
• Training and information
• Monitoring, supervision, and reporting of hazards and risks
• Audits

General principles

• Aspects to consider for Maintenance Procedures:
• Human factors
• Poorly skilled work force
• Unconscious and conscious incompetence
• Good maintainability principles
• Knowledge of failure rate and maintainability
• Recognition of faults and marginal performance
• Failure to adopt sound policy and procedures may contribute towards a major accident or hazard, prevention is better than cure

What is a policy statement?

• An organization's occupational health and safety policy is a statement of principles and general rules that serve as guides for action
• Senior management must commit to ensuring and carrying out policy with no exceptions
• The health and safety policy should have the same importance as other organizational policies
• Policy statements can be brief, mentioning:
  • Management's commitment to protect employee safety and health
  • Objectives of the program
  • The organization's basic health and safety philosophy
  • Who is accountable for occupational health and safety programs
  • General responsibilities of all employees
  • No tolerance for unacceptable performance of health and safety duties
• The Policy should be Clear, unambiguous, and unequivocal
• Signed by the incumbent Chief Executive Officer
• Kept up-to-date
• Communicated to each employee
• Used in all work activities

(Ref: Canadian Center for Occupational Health)

• Health and Safety policies and procedures aims to guide and direct all employees to work safely and prevent injuries to themselves and others
• Employers are encouraged to participate in Health and Safety policies and procedures implementation and enforcements

Maintenance Procedures

• Procedures provide systematic steps for complying and performing tasks in compliance with company policies and HSE management systems and assist workers and organizations fulfil their legislative responsibilities under the Factories ordinance, no 45 of 1942 of Sri Lanka
• Procedures provide workers, supervisors and officers with steps that they must follow in specific environments or situations, or when utilizing pieces of equipment for work tasks
• Areas covered include high-risk activities, such as:
  • Work at heights procedures
  • Hazardous chemicals procedures
  • Infectious diseases procedures
  • Permit to Work systems
  • Lockouts and Tag outs (LOTO)
  • Plant modification / Change procedures
• Organizations implement these standards in their own set of policies

5 Steps Towards Developing Effective Safety Procedures at Work

1. Identify Notable Hazards

   • isolate major tasks and examine them via a Job Hazard Analysis.
   • Review each task for areas subject to safety concerns, employee will perform every step of the task while a reviewer takes notes
   • Priority given to tasks with the highest risk of illness or injury
   • Hire an external consultancy to identify and prioritize legal breaches and safety concerns

2. Collect Relevant Safety Data

   • Determine how to improve hazardous workplace areas
   • Strategies will differ with different environments and tasks

3. Record the Safety Procedures

   • Include your employees to bring new perspectives to the table
   • Get feedback and opinions

4. Put the Procedures into Practice

   • Distribute to new employees as part of training orientation
   • Manual to be kept in a public are for all employees across department

5. Analyse the Effectiveness of the Procedures

   • The final step is to set actionable goals and objectives using metrics

Guidance on Job safety analysis (JSA) in establishing correct work procedures

• (JSA), also known as "job hazard analysis", is the first step in developing the correct procedure
• Each task is examined to identify hazards and determine the safest way to do the job

Job safety analysis involves the following steps

1. Select the job
2. Break down the job into a sequence of steps
3. Identify the hazards
4. Define preventive measures

• The analysis should be conducted on all critical tasks or jobs as a first priority
• Critical jobs include:
• Frequent accidents and injuries
• Severe accidents and injuries
• Potential for severe injuries
• New or modified jobs
• Infrequently performed jobs, such as maintenance
• Job safety analysis is generally carried out by watching a worker doing the job, and having members of the joint health and safety committee participate in this process

What are emergency procedures and how are they established?

• Emergency procedures are plans for dealing with emergencies such as fires, explosions, major releases of hazardous materials, violent occurrences, or natural hazards

The objective of the plan is to prevent or minimize

• Fatalities

• Injuries

• Damage

• Organization and procedures for handling these sudden and unexpected situations must be clearly defined

• The development of the plan follows a logical sequence:

• Compile a list of possible hazards or scenarios (fires, explosions, floods)

• Identify the possible major consequences of each (casualties, damage)

• Determine the required countermeasures (evacuation, rescue, firefighting)

• Inventory the resources needed to carry out the planned actions (medical supplies, rescue equip.)

• Based on these considerations, establish the necessary emergency organization and procedures

• Communication, training, and periodic drills are required

1.3 Work-related accidents and illnesses

• Accidents/ illness can happen any time but they're not intentional
• The workplace can be hazardous, especially in an industrial environment
• Contributing factors can include:
• Overexertion
• Mishandling of hazardous materials

Work-related Cancer

• Asbestos
• Carcinogenic chemicals and processes
• Ionizing radiation, radioactive materials, radon and UV-radiation
• Silica and other carcinogenic dusts
• Environmental tobacco smoke at work (passive smoking)

Work-related Circulatory Diseases

• Shift work, night work and long hours of work (including karoshi, or death by overwork)
• Job strain/stress caused by high demands and low decision-making latitude
• Noise
• High risk of injury
• Chemicals including carbon monoxide, carbon di supplied, nitroglycerine, lead, cobalt, arsenic, antimony and combustion products
• Environmental tobacco smoke at work

Occupational Accidents cause is from Lack of

• Organization health and safety policy, structure, work involvement and management system
• Poor safety culture
• Knowledge and awareness of information sources
• Poor government policies, legislation, enforcement and advisory system
• Incentive-based compensation system
• Poor occupational health services
• Research and proper statistics for priority-setting
• Effective training and education

Work-related Communicable Diseases

• Infectious and parasitic diseases
• Poor quality drinking water
• Poor hygiene and lack of knowledge

Causes for Accidents & managing them with DuPont Principle?

• Most accidents and incidents related to accidents and illnesses occurred not because of unsafe conditions but because of unsafe behaviors of peoples
• Behavioral safety is key

Behavioral safety

• Purpose is reducing the number of undesirable incidents caused either by poor management controls, and/or hazards present in the working environment
• Incidents have a comparatively mild impact and that critical impacts are comparatively infrequent events
• BS helps to identify the issues in areas with poor Management controls eliminating hazards and controlling undesirable behaviors
• Focusing on all of these, meaningfully reduces the possibility of a critical impact event while greatly improving performance and efficiencies

Over the past five decades, employee driven BS processes

• Have a remarkable track record of reducing injuries & illness and economic benefits and is guided through the IDEAL Method

IDEAL BS processes all share:

• Identify undesirable behaviors
• Develop observation checklists targeting undesirable behaviors
• Educate everyone by briefing everyone; train process facilitators, champions & observers
• Assess & monitor actual behavior via regular observations
• Limitless feedback provided to all – verbal, graphical & written
• Two basic BS processes exist, behaviors focused on individuals and workgroups Regardless of the approach, all facility personal should be well informed before preceding the process

02. Implementation of Health and Safety in the Workplace

• Health & safety regulations in Sri Lanka relevant to protect employee safety and health
• Ensure that the health and safety of the public is not put at risk by work activities.
• The Factories Ordinance of Sri Lanka with subsequent amendments and regulations Made thereunder no 45 of 1942 ensures working conditions within factors and mentioned places

Main elements of health and safety

• Policy
• Organization
• Arrangements

Amended Ordinances in Sri Lanka:

• Factories (Amendment) Act No 54 of 1961 – Defines the term occupier
• Factories (Amendment) Act No 32 of 1984 – Which related to employment of female workers after 10.00 pm
• Factories (Amendment) Act No 18 of 1998 – Which made changes to increase fines
• Factories (Amendment) Act No 33 of 2002 – Which extended the coverage of ordinance in construction industry
• Factories (Amendment) Act No 19 of 2002 – Which limited the overtime for female workers for two hours per day

Other Regulations

• Factories (No1) Regulation - 1960
• Sanitary Convenience regulations - 1965
• Washing facilities general regulations -1965
• Dangerous Occurrence Notification Regulation - 1965
• General standards of lighting Regulations - 1965
• Meal Room Regulations - 1965
• Notifiable industrial diseases - 1972
• Protection of eyes - 1979
• First Aid regulations - 1995

Occupational health components included to the Factories ordinance of Sri Lanka:

• Industrial hygiene
• Industrial disease
• Industrial accidents
• Industrial hazards
• Industrial rehabilitation
• Occupational psychology

Guiding principles of the policy:

• Occupational health and safety laws should protect all employees and workers and sector within said forms of employment and economy regardless if they stem from employees or stakeholders

The Factories Ordinance

• A document of provisions for health, safety and welfare

Definition of a Factory

• Factory: Any premises where people are employed in manual labour in any process
• The ordinance consists of 131 laws and describes the essential standards to maintain safe labour environment by Occupiers
• Occupier is the person who has the ultimate control over the factory or personnel

2.2 Safety inspection and risk assessment at the workplace

• Health and safety inspections aren't only a leading indicator, but part of culture building:
• Inspections can take place through safety tours, sampling and surveys
  • Safety tours-general inspections of the workplace
  • Safety sampling systematic sampling of dangerous activities and processed
  • Safety Surveys general inspections of dangerous activities and processed
  • Incident inspections- carried out after accidents and near misses events

Workplace inspections

• Appointed Health and safety representatives must inspect at any time or schedule inspection as required depending on nature of the work
• Inspections are less often in for low risk environments and High risk or rapidly changing activities should have frequent inspection

Good practice inspections

• Plan a scheduled programmed in advance
• Agree the to involve relevant authorities and the number of representatives
• Consult health and safety consultants or other specialists
• Break down large tasks or workplaces to keep sessions efficient

Risk assessment steps

1. Simply examination of work and what could cause harm
2. Workers and other have a right to be protected
3. Accidents and ill health risks and affect the workflow
4. A risk assessment identifies sensible measured to control risk
5. assess the risks by walking around an understanding the potential harm Concentrate on control the potential damage and risks and how to mitigate it

Laws and rules for protecting people

• Need include what could not reasonably assess and need to be able to anticipate the risks and protect people
• Review the risk and new system and updated plan as the new procedure progress

Consider those who work with you

• People may have different and new working protocols and the harm they will face
• Other work and business may have risks or harm staff as work may be done together
• High-risk activities should have management measures

Employee consultation

• Is important and needs to be conducted, allowing staff to raise issues and influence decisions on management of health issues
• By listening and communicating about safety, health, and risks Need provide training and information

2.3 Health and safety audits

• Independent review of to determine planned arrangements and implemented
• Structure system to collect of information and evaluate and measure compliance and reliability of Total H&S system

Types of audit?

• Six types of audit that are related to health and safety:
• Health and safety audits - Inform how performance is and meeting standards and compliance
• Walk around audit - Determine proper policies, practices and improvement needed

H&S Management audits look into the:

1. Procedures to identify H&S
2. Responsibility and follow up
3. Document with include hazards, risks, and needs measures
4. Asses of product, services by suppliers, distributers and the public

• Safety Audit is important in the product design and development stages

2.4 Accident Prevention

• ILO estimates that approximately 2.3 million women and men globally die by work-related accidents or diseases every year which consists of 6000 deaths a day
• Yearly worldwide 350 million of work related or illness

Accident facts

• Hazard substances alone are estimated to cause 651,279 deaths a year
• Construction Industry has been disproportionately high
• Young and older workers are particularly vulnerable

Work injuries cost's

• Lost Productivity
• Lawsuits Every year
• Poor relations
• By committing or management to value safety
• Assign operation manager that compliance safety protocols
• Comply with federal and state safety practices
• educate yourself on established safety that OSHA or NIOHS is complying

Effective example

• One building contractor found that people began to skip weekly safety- training sessions after the initial enthusiasm for the company's "Safety First" campaign wore off. So he switched the 20-minute sessions to payday
• Real-life Example is Intervention is to correct the issue through tools and correct measures

2.5 Ergonomics

• Ergonomics is the science that fits people and their work and takes people's limitations and capabilities into consideration
• The job that is being done
• The demands on the worker
• Usage of equipment (size, shape, suitability for the task)
• Information used (way it is presented, accessed, and changed)
• Physical environment (temperature, humidity, etc)
• Social environment (Supportive management)
• Consider if an individual has these aspects - Body, Shape, Fitness, stress, strains, vision, posture, personnel, knowledge, communication and teamwork

The result through required technical

• Reduces incidents and maintains, health, improves productivity and morale by improve health to the organisation At its simplest terms Ergonomics is the science of work and makes it convenient by using your needs and using a good and efficient system

How you use it

• Repetitive – Look for steps that are repeated and necessary
• See if you can re-Order - for the steps to optimize your effort
• Synergy – Can combine thin value and add a quality to process
• Add value to add or subtract quality to make it necessary

Explore workplace health and safety through policies, practices, and legal requirements. Learn about risk assessment, safety inspections, audits, and accident prevention. Understand occupational health programs and their importance in maintaining a safe work environment.