Implementation of a Systematic Approach to Managing Occupational Health and Safety - Essay Example

Implementation of a Systematic Approach to Managing OHS Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Introduction Every workplace is expected to take into account the health and physical safety of the employees and all other occupants. What this means is that, every organization has to enact different policies and regulations that are geared towards ensuring the working environment is safe and does not present any kind of situation that may be a threat to the individuals. However, this cannot be done in isolation but it must adhere to the stipulated health and safety policies that have been established by the local governments. A good example of the government acts that have been developed to ensure safe and health environment for all the employees and occupants in an organization, is the Queensland Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act). The act was designed particularly to help both organizations and people to understand the different duties with regard to ensuring safe and health workplace (Queensland Government 2011). In order for the act to deliver on its mandate effectively, it does provide different requirements for consultation with different stakeholders, enforcement procedures and the penalties that are attached to those parties that fail to comply. To demonstrate the different actions that could be performed to ensure health and safety at workplace at Queensland, the case of Central Glass Pty Ltd we be used as an illustration. Case overview In the last decade, in Australia, a number of court cases that related to safety and health at workplace had been reported something that has raised concerns about the safety of people at work and the effectiveness of the prevailing policies on safety and health at workplace. Different companies at Queensland have been put on the spot on the way they handle their operations and if at all they are concerned with the safety and health of involved persons. One such company is Central Glass Pty Ltd. The company that is based at Queensland deals with the manufacturing of aluminum window parts (Jones, 2010). The concerns that have been raised about the company safety, is the process through which the employees are known to carry very slippery steel die manually and placing it in the press. This procedure in most cases has exposed the handlers into the risk of sliding and having them rolled over even their fingers and toes getting crashed and consequently amputation. The latest case was in 2007 when the die slipped crashing the fingertip of one of the workers. The case was taken to court whereby the company was fined 9375Australian dollars. This is after the court held that the company had failed to a greater extent to implement different policies and regulations to ensure safe and health workplace for all people. What this case raised was that, the company was not presenting safe working environment and it was not committed to identifying and assessing various hazards that workers were exposed to (Jones, 2010). Change implantation Since that case was determined, it has remained absolutely very important for the company to ensure that it has policies and regulations that are effective towards ensuring safe and health workplace. However, to ensure that the process of designing and implementing different policies is guided by different policies clearly stipulated in the Queensland Work Health and Safety Act 2011(WHS Act). This is because the act provides for Work Health Safety (WHS) and various codes of practice, duties for each stakeholder, the consultation process, inspections, enforcements and offences as well as penalties (Queensland Government 2011). The act therefore provides a rich foundation for various strategies, concepts, systems, plans and expertise advice. In order to ensure that OHS is systematically implemented at Central Glass Pty Ltd, the following are the various strategies, systems and plans as well as expertise advice that are very critical to follow: Establishment of information and data systems In any organization, it is the designed and running systems that determine the end result of a given operation. For a running operation and system, required information must always be made available for all the involved parties to access. The reason for this is to ensure every bit of data and information is communicated. One important aspect of Queensland Work Health and Safety Act 2011(WHS Act) is that, it has been developed from Fair Workplace of Act of 2009 which demands the need to listen and address the concerns raised by employees. This strategy is therefore one among many others that the systems in the organization should consider, it should identify, assess and address any safety and health issues raised by the workers (Heymann 2003). Different OHS strategies, systems and plans are important in ensuring safety and health workplace. However, most important strategy for the organization is to ensure that it is advanced in dealing with safety and health issues and the commitment to WHS regulations and codes of practice. This is because it identifies the duties and responsibility of each member at workplace and that it is respected by both the employee and the employer. The WHS regulation forms a very important strategy and system that provides for various procedures and administrative matters. Following the regulation and committing to it, calls for the need to allow for different activities to take place which are important in ensuring proper safety and health measures (Messing 1998). The same case applies to commitment to codes of practice. This is because it provides a detailed guidance on how the organization should meet different standards that have been stipulated in the WHS Act and WHS Regulation. Integration of OHS into the management approach Organisational Health and Safety can only be successful if it is made part of the management strategy that an organization uses. This is because, safety and health issues, are daily issues and they are raised very often. What this means therefore is that, the safety and health regulations and practices will only function well in a situation where management has been changed and has accepted the need to have a department that is in charge of issues related to health and safety. This way, the company stands a good chance to have important issues and concerns related to safety and health addressed regularly at top management. This creates opportunities to identify areas exposed to hazards and take necessary precautionary measures (Absar 2003). Implications of workplace changes In the process of proposing and enacting different changes in an organization, it is easy to note that they are various implications that have to be dealt with. First and most, it is important to clearly identify health and safety duties for each and every person. The WHS Act clearly outlines the duties for the PCBUs, unincorporated associations, public departments and authorities as well as officers in different companies. At organizational level, it is therefore considered paramount that the officers at that level recognize that creating health and safe workplace is part of their responsibilities (Absar 2003). This goes further to call for the need to establish the relevant department that deals with the issues and concerns that are related to individuals’ safety and health and that are likely to be hazardous. This could therefore mean that, expertise is very necessary to advice on certain aspects and environment that could be hazardous to the workers. On the other hand, while enacting various changes to managing OHS, it is very important to recognize that there are different tips to doing that. Among the common changes to managing OHS and that have direct implications on the operations of the organization include understanding the responsibilities of each, consulting with the workers, identifying, assessing and controlling risks, Informing, training and supervising the workers, managing different incidents and physical injuries, keeping records and monitoring, reviewing and improving the operations (Bambra 2011). What this means is that in any organization, irrespective of the size and nature of the business, change to managing OHS has several implications and this is because it is expected that the change will be made part of the business management process. However, with appropriate measures and changes in order to manage OHS, where a safer and free injury workplace is established, the organization stands a better chance to avoid paying huge compensation claims and other fines and consequently benefiting from a happier and a health workforce that is committed and determined to work hard. On the same line, involvement and consulting with other people as well as doing proper communication, is considered critical as it creates room for identification of areas that need improvement and that pose great risk to the occupants. Evaluation of the effectiveness of the approach to managing OHS The effectiveness of the approach to managing OHS can be establishment based on the outcome of various measures taken by an organization. Such elements as reduced complaints of physical injuries and harmful contamination while at work are enough results to show the impact of a particular OHS management approach (Markkanen 2009). Conclusion The essay was intended at presenting a detailed discussion of the actions necessary to systematically manage OHS in a workplace, including the implementation of strategies, systems, plans and expert advice. The review has established that because of high risks that are associated with negligence of safety and health issues in many of the workplaces, enacting different changes that can support the implementation of various regulations and practices, has become very critical. It is with this regard that the government of Queensland came up with a Work Health and Safety Legislation to ensure workplaces are safe and health for people to work in. However, most important is the need to refer to the WHS Regulations and Codes for effectiveness in implementation of various systems at organizational level. References Absar, SS 2003, ‘Health Hazards and Labour Laws in Bangladesh: A Narrative-based Study on Women Garment Workers.’ Asian Journal of Social Science, viewed 25th Jan. 2013 from http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/saj/2003/00000031/00000003/art00006 Barten, F., Santana, V., Rongo, L., Varillas, W & Pakasi, T 2008, ‘Contextualizing workers health and safety in urban settings: the need for a global perspective and integrated approach.’ Habitat International, 32, viewed 25th Jan. 2013 from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197397507000501 Bambra, C 2011, Work, Worklessness, and the Political Economy of Health, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Heymann, J 2003, Global Inequalities at Work: Work's Impact on the Health of Individuals, Families, and Societies, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Markkanen, P 2009, Shoes, Glues and Homework: Dangerous Work in the Global Footwear Industry, New York, Baywood Publishing Company. Messing, K 1998, One-Eyed Science: Occupational Health and Women Workers, Philadelphia, Temple University Press. Queensland Government 2011, Guide: Workplace Health and Safety Queensland viewed 25th Jan. 2013 from http://www.deir.qld.gov.au/workplace/resources/pdfs/guide-whs-act-2011.pdf Jones, K 2010, Category Archives: Machine guarding, viewed 25th Jan. 2013 from http://safetyatworkblog.com/category/ohs/machine-guarding/page/4/ Read More