...As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) "occupational health deals with all aspects of health and safety in the workplace and has a strong focus on primary prevention of hazards."[4] Health has been defined as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."[5] Occupational health is a multidisciplinary field of healthcare concerned with enabling an individual to undertake their occupation, in the way that causes least harm to their health. Health has been defined as It contrasts, for example, with the promotion of health and safety at work, which is concerned with preventing harm from any incidental hazards, arising in the workplace. Since 1950, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have shared a common definition of occupational health. It was adopted by the Joint ILO/WHO Committee on Occupational Health at its first session in 1950 and revised at its twelfth session in 1995. The definition reads: "The main focus in occupational health is on three different objectives: (i) the maintenance and promotion of workers’ health and working capacity; (ii) the improvement of working environment and work to become conducive to safety and health and (iii) development of work organizations and working cultures in a direction which supports health and safety at work and in doing so also promotes a positive social climate and smooth operation and may enhance productivity...
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...Occupational Health and Safety in the Workplace Occupational safety and health (OSH) also commonly referred to as occupational health and safety (OHS) or workplace health and safety (WHS) is an area concerned with the safety, health and welfare of people engaged in work or employment. The goals of occupational safety and health programs include fostering a safe and healthy work environment. OSH may also protect co-workers, family members, employers, customers, and many others who might be affected by the workplace environment. Human resources are one of the most important features of many businesses. A business’ success relies heavily on the effectiveness to which this resource is managed. Policies and practices used by the firm, set out the standards to which they seek to aspire. They are designed to govern the operation of the business; especially in today’s economy where there is such a rise in service industries. This paper seek to highlight the importance of Workplace Health and safety to the business, to develop an understanding of how its effective management can affect the performance of a business, outline how this can be effectively carried out with the interest of the company in mind. It is often said that, “the health of a nation is the wealth of a nation”, the same concept applies to business. The health and safety of a company’s human resource is an enormous contributor to the success of that business. Human resources account for a large proportion of many company’s'...
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...Case 1: 1. With the advent of the internet, registering with WSIB has gotten easier over time as we now can through just four simple steps complete the registration process on the WSIB official website (www.wsib.on.ca). First Step This is the getting started step, here we are welcomed to the registration site, information regarding whether we are eligible to apply is available in this step, also the list of information we need to complete the registration process is given. After reading all the information given, we click on the check box that confirms our authorization to submit this registration on behalf of the employer, and acknowledges that we are submitting accurate information. Second Step This step involves confirming that there are other employees in the organization. Here you tick the check box that confirms that there are other employees other than yourself. After ticking the yes check box, you enter the number of employees you have which is 320 and you click on the no check box for the question on if you are a non-Ontario employer who employs workers who work in Ontario for 11 days or more within a calendar year. After that, you then click the next button. Here, you click the sole proprietorship for business type, and click next. Then you enter the date you first employed for this duty, the description of what the corporation does, and then you enter the estimated insurable earnings annually. Third Step This step involves providing information about the...
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...Task 1: Occupational Health and Safety Laws and Institutional Framework The Occupational Health and Safety Act are to ensure the safety and health of the workers by setting and enforcing standards, to minimize death, injury and ill-health from all workplaces. Occupational Health and Safety Act provides Trainings, educations, and encourage continual improvement in workplaces. There are few frameworks to improve Occupational Health and Safety standards announced in March 2005. The principles of the new framework are to reduce risk by requiring all stakeholders to eliminate or minimize the risks they created in workplace, Instilling greater ownership of Occupational Health and Safety standards, thus, the focus will be then be shifted from complying with prescriptive requirements to make employers suited to their particular situations in order to achieve desired safety outcomes and lastly, preventing accidents through higher penalties for poor safety and health management Duties of employers Every employer's duty is to take necessary measures to ensure the safety and health of his employees and people who may be affected by his instructions even though they are not his employees in the workplace. The measures necessary to ensure the safety and health of persons at work include, providing and maintaining a safe environment, without risk to health, ensuring adequate safety measures are taken in respect of any machinery, equipment, plant, article or process used by his employees...
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...REASONING FOR CHOICE Occupational Health and Safety is a requirement between employers and employees, the public and witnesses that could be affected by poor work habits and the equipment. It is the employer’s obligation to provide a safe working environment and safety equipment for the staff. The reasoning behind the chose to implement Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) is due to the fact that employees are aware but not in great depth. Promoting OHS is not only an advantage for the employees but also the management staff. The aim of legislations and obligations are to minimise the chance of an injury. As the employer there are certain obligations that are enforced to minimise the chance of an injury occurring. (Work Safe Victoria) mentions that in Victoria, workplace health and safety is governed by a system of laws, regulations and compliance codes which set out the responsibilities of employers and workers to ensure that safety is maintained at work. All the employees and management staff implement the OHS through The Act which sets out the key principles, duties and rights in relation to occupational health and safety. The main focus was by educating how to prevent injuries from arising in a workplace environment. Musculoskeletal disorders accounted for 33% of all workplace injuries and illnesses in 2011; sprains, strains and tears accounted for 38% of injuries (Gupta, 2013). Typically, injuries resulted from repetitive motion. Risk management is a four step...
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...Introduction The Occupational Safety and Health Act state that “it shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the safety, health and welfare at work of all his employees “; because hazards exist in every workplace in many different forms (example sharp edges, falling objects chemicals etc) the processes for safe guarding employees should be carefully constructed. Hazards can be defined as any source of potential damage, adverse health effects on something or someone under certain conditions at work. Hazards can be broking down to four major types:- • Biological- bacteria, viruses, insects etc • Chemical –depends on the physical, chemicals • Physical-radiation, magnetic etc • Psychosocial-stress, violence etc. Controlling a hazard at its source is the most effective way of protecting employees; depending on the hazards or the work environment it is recommended that the use of engineering controls (this control eliminate or reduce exposure to chemical or physical hazard through the use or substitution of engineered machinery or equipment) or work practice controls (controls that reduce the likelihood of exposure by altering the manner in which a task is performed) should be implemented to manage or eliminate hazards to the greatest extent possible. When engineering, work practice and administrative controls are not providing sufficient protection; the employer must provide Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to his / her employees...
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...Questions 1. (15 marks) The TLV for carbon monoxide is 35ppm. Define the terms TLV and ppm and calculate them for the following example: Answer: TVL = Term for airborne concentration of a substance, below which all workers are believed to be protected while exposed to it day after day for 8-hour periods. PPM = Concentration by volume of one part of a gas, or by weight of a liquid or solid, per million parts of air or liquid. A mechanic in an automotive repair shop is exposed to the following carbon monoxide levels over an 8 hour shift. 1. 2 hours @ 34 ppm 2. 5 hours @ 40 ppm 3. 1 hour @ 20 ppm Is the worker over-exposed during the duration of the work-shift? Answer: Yes the worker is over-exposed during the duration of their 8 hour shift. What is the primary concept of hazard recognition and the hierarchy of hazard control? Answer: The primary goal of hazard recognition is “to reduce incidents, accidents, injuries and property damage.” The primary concept of the hierarchy of hazard control is “source-path-human intervention. Of which elimination is an option if a task it too dangerous.” The specific hierarchy outlined on slide 13 of the Instructor notes for week 7 is as follows: 1. Engineering Controls 2. Administrative Controls 3. Personal Protective Equipment Going through this list – explain how they might be applied to this example to provide potential solutions. Answer: 1. Engineering Controls: - Develop process to monitor...
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...Accident Investigation and Reporting 1 Definitions Accident Any unplanned or unintentional events that result in harm or loss to personnel, property, production or nearly anything that has some inherent value Incident An event that could happened under different conditions: Accident Near miss 2 1 3 Impact of Accident Increase of organization’s operational costs Higher production costs Decreased efficiency Long term effects of decreased employee morale and unfavorable public opinion 4 2 Purpose of Accident Investigations Identify what had happened Prevent occurrence of similar accidents in future Uncover existing of new hazards Devise adequate control measures Lessons learned Future designs Awareness of the problem Other regulatory preventive mechanisms 5 Reasons to Conduct Investigation Immediately Produce accurate information – longer time span fade the memories Collect any evidence before it is removed, change or destroyed Before witnesses begin to change their stories Shows of management’s commitment to prevent future accidents 6 3 Accident Investigation Investigation guided words: 1H’s and 5 W’s How, Who, What, When, Where,Why Accident investigation frequently identify the following underlying causes: Failure of employer to provide an adequate safe system of work Failure of employer to provide adequate information, instruction, training or supervision Failure of employer to provide adequate personal protective equipment ...
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...Executive Summary Unsafe work or operation of equipment that may cause an undue risk or hazard to an employee before, during and after an employee’s shift should be refused at all times (Worksafe BC, n.d.). This is the approach that an organization should adopt to ensure the safety of employees as well as the protection from liability. At PBJK Burgers there is an absence of a work refusal policy and procedure, essentially making the company not in compliance with the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation of BC,(“OHSR”). As a result of this from a human resource professional perspective the following key issues were identified that PBJK Burgers needs to ensure: • Supervisors are equipped with the knowledge and skills to deal with unsafe work refusals. • Employees are trained on identifying unsafe hazards. • PBJK Burgers must have a work environment culture that cultivates support regarding refusals. With this in mind the reference manual aims to ensure the above is achieved and answered. Through research with Worksafe BC and a risk assessment it was identified that the following were common hazards at PBJK Burgers: slips, trips, falls, burns musculoskeletal Injuries, improper lifting/use of equipment and cleaning agents. This creates a medium to low risk, but without a policy or procedure leaves the company susceptible to loss. The loss could include negative impacts such as, brand damage, penalties, low employee morale, low productivity, higher injury rates and thus...
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...The Importance of Occupational Safety Health Administration Mindy Merceri CS102-Academic skills January 28, 2013 What is OSHA, what is its mission and how does it protect you? OSHA stands for Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The Mission of OSHA is “to assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance ” (OSHA). This agency administered the OSHA Act of 1970 which comprises of standards or rules for workers and employers and penalties for those who do not follow the established guidelines. This Act sets many standards across a multitude of industries; more importantly there are sets of established designed specifically for the medical field. The guidelines cover standard precautions, personal protective equipment (PPE) and handling contaminated waste to name a few. The standard precautions are “a set of procedures recognized by the CDC to reduce the chance of transmitting infectious microorganisms in any health care setting” (Goucher, 193). The universal rule of these procedures is to assume everybody has some kind of microorganism. There are a multitude of safeguards in place to keep medical employees and patients from coming into contact from blood or other bodily fluids. Some of these precautions include the following: Proper hand washing and use of alcohol based hand rubs. Proper hand washing with soap and water should be used...
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...The aims and benefits of Occupational Health and Safety Management As known to all, there are always such-and-such potential hazards in people's work activities or work environment, which may cause property damage, be harmful to environment, affect human’s health and even cause injury or accident. People call the possibility of one or some danger causing incidents and its possible consequence as risk. The object of contemporary occupational health and safety management is the occupational safety and health risks. These hazards may be chemical, physical, biological, related to human work efficiency and others, the factors of which include personal factor, equipment factor, environmental factor and organizational and management factor. Occupational health and safety is a series of measures and the corresponding activities adloyee’s income, prevent employee from injury and create less stress from employee, thus employee may obtain more physical and psychological satisfaction. Occupational health and safety management includes accident investigation and recording, work system designing, examination of workplace, training, complete incentives, supervision and employee aids plan. What is a hazard? The Occupational Health and Safety Regulation 2001 defines a hazard as ‘anything (including work practices or procedures) that has the potential to harm the health or safety of a person’. Hazards can be grouped into five broad areas: o physical eg. noise, radiation, light...
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...Timeline of the History of Australian Occupational Health and Safety Laws 1. The early history of Occupational Health and Safety Laws and significant historical events that helped to shape current laws 1833 The first HM Factory Inspectorate was formed in the UK. The major goal of the Inspectorate was to inspect factories and workshops to prevent injuries of child textile workers (Factories and Workshops: Annual Report of the Chief Inspector of Factories and Workshops, 1842, p. 9). 1837 Priestly vs. Fowler case in the UK was used to establish occupational health and safety as part of common law. In this case, a butcher’s assistant sued his employer after he fell from the overloaded cart and was injured (Bohle & Quinlan, 2000, p. 319). 1840 A Royal Commission in the UK published the findings on the state of working conditions in the mining industry, documenting the appallingly dangerous conditions for workers and high rate of accidents (including fatal ones) in mines. This case led to the public outrage and the adoption of the Mines Act of 1842. The Mines Act led to the establishment of an Inspectorate for mines and collieries to improve safety environment and prosecutions. Under this act, inspectors had the right to enter and inspect premises at their discretion by 1850 (Lavalette, 1999, p. 101). 1880 One of the first voluntary standardizing bodies, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) was established . Actually, the creation of ASME was connected with...
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...Business Occupational Health and Safety Work Health and Safety Act 2011 QLD No. 18 Model Work Health and Safety Act TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 History and Purpose of OH&S Legislation 4 3.0 Scope of WHS Act 5 4.0 Key Provisions in a Business Context 6 5.0 Primary Duty of Care 7 6.0 Application of OHS 9 7.0 Regulation Change, a Harmonious Approach? 11 8.0 References 13 8.0 Resources 13 1.0 Introduction According to recently published data uncovered within the ABS WRIS (Australian Bureau of Statistics, Work-Related Injuries Survey published 2011), in 2009 it was estimated that 640,700 Australian workers experienced a work-related incident. While a total of 337 people died in Australia from work-related traumatic injury (safeworkaustralia.gov.au). Economic losses from work-related disease, injuries and deaths impose a heavy burden on the Australian economy, with estimated costs totalling in excess of $60.6 billion per annum. Figure 1: Total work-related injury and illness cost for 2009 (www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au) It is within these alarming figures we derive the impetus to further examine current Workplace Heath and Safety regulations and the associated Industrial legislation on both State and Federal levels. This report will predominately focus on the newly established Queensland Work Health and Safety Act 2011 in conjunction with the National Model Work Health and Safety Act developed...
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...With the development and globalization of world economy, the competition between organizations is becoming fiercer and more and more industrial pollution and production hazards are constantly threatening the health and safety of organization and its employees. Therefore, it is very important to fully recognize occupational health and safety management for organization increasing its productivity and enhancing its competitiveness. The essence of organization’s competition is the competition of "talent" and human is the core and most important one in various production factors. Retaining "talent" is the most key question in Human resource management, which is responsible for the balance of goals and needs between organizations and employees and take charge of nearly all decisions that are related to people. In this essay it will be detailed the discussion on the impact of some current occupational health and safety issues, such as job stress, on human resource management. 2. The functions and goal of Human Resource Management Human resources management refers to a series of human resources policies and relevant management activities implemented in the guidance of economics and human-centered thought to meet with organization’s needs for current and future development and ensure the achievement of organization’s goals and the maximization of employees’ development through the effective utilization of relevant human resources inside and outside of the organization by recruitment...
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...The Impact of Occupational Health and Safety Issues on Human Resource Management in Contemporary Organizations 1.0 Introduction With the development and globalization of world economy, the competition between organizations is becoming fiercer and more and more industrial pollution and production hazards are constantly threatening the health and safety of organization and its employees. Therefore, it is very important to fully recognize occupational health and safety management for organization increasing its productivity and enhancing its competitiveness. The essence of organization’s competition is the competition of "talent" and human is the core and most important one in various production factors. Retaining "talent" is the most key question in Human resource management, which is responsible for the balance of goals and needs between organizations and employees and take charge of nearly all decisions that are related to people. In this essay it will be detailed the discussion on the impact of some current occupational health and safety issues, such as job stress, on human resource management. 2. The functions and goal of Human Resource Management Human resources management refers to a series of human resources policies and relevant management activities implemented in the guidance of economics and human-centered thought to meet with organization’s needs for current and future development and ensure the achievement of organization’s goals and the maximization...
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