Occupational Safety and Health Management System - Case Study Example

Occupational Safety and Health Management System Name: Institution: Development of an Occupational Safety and Health Management System Almost every working environment predisposes employees to workplace injuries as well as illness that impact negatively on their wellbeing. Injuries and illnesses associated with working environments not only influence the productivity of workers but also results into pain and suffering of the employees and consequently their families as well. According to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (2008), studies have indicated that workplace injuries and illness cost business owners in United States approximately $ 170 billion annually in compensation of the workers as well as other indirect loss incurred by the business due to such injuries and illnesses. However, these are wasteful and preventable expenses that businesses and organizations can overcome through implementation of effective safety and health management systems (SHMS). Implementation of well-planned and managed SHMS by different organizations and business has shown great potential in reducing the severity of work-related injuries and illness. Following an increase in the number of injuries, illness, and fatalities associated with different working environments, international labor bodies and national organizations have enacted labor laws that compel all businesses and organizations to establish SHMS. The occupational safety and health administration under the U.S. Department of Labor forms typical examples of bodies that ensure all business comply with such requirements. In most organizations, an occupational safety and health management system comprises of an integral part of general management system. Successful organizational SHMS involves management’s commitment and involvement of employees and other stakeholders, proper analysis of the workplace situation, training of staff, and establishment of proper hazard prevention and control strategies. SHMS have been made mandatory for companies dealing with metallic products, machinery, and with hundred employees and above, manufacturers of flammable products, toxic products, chemical manufactures among other companies prone to fatal workplace injuries and illnesses (Ministry of Manpower, 2011). This review entails development of a small occupational safety and health management system for a metalworking industry, a discussion on evaluation of the system, and provides an overview of the safety case regime. West Yorkshire Steel Co Ltd background West Yorkshire Steel Co Ltd is a family owned business that has existed for over thirty years as a metal working industry. The company specializes in delivery of steel specifications with a wide scope of products including carbon and alloy steel, spring steel, cast iron, key steel, tool steel, precision ground bars, stainless steel and ground flat stock among a wider scope of steel products. The company serves the needs of steel products in several European countries through its subscription to the European standard such as DIN specifications and the Werkstoff specifications. In order to diversify its products, the company has a wide range of services including band sawing facilities for profiled sheet, cut steel blanks, and plates. Through its workforce and machinery, the company designs its products to suite the diverse customer needs. Like any other metalworking companies, its working environment involves various occupational risks including machine-related injuries, falling objects, different energy release such as electrical, radiation, thermal, and mechanical. Other occupational risks in this company include risks associated with working in confined spaces, heights, and heat radiation rooms. Improper training in operations of the steel cutting machines may present a great occupational risk in which individuals may end up losing their arms or even loss of life through electronic sites. Additionally, workers working in this industry may also face occupational risks associated with miscommunication and lack of proper in-house safety regulations. Owing to the predisposition of workers in West Yorkshire Steel Co Ltd to high occupational risks, implementations of an effective occupational safety and health management system would improve the well-being of workers as well as reduction in expenses associated with workplace injuries and illnesses. This system should provide amicable strategies for countering most of the risks in the work environment including hazard prevention and control. In addition, the system should also meet various OSHM standards such as the AS/NZ 4801 and AS/NZ 4804. Occupational Safety and Health Management System for West Yorkshire Steel Co Ltd System Objectives The OSHMS is aimed at fostering increased safety and health for workers in the company through strategies that counter the various hazards in the company as well as prevention of the hazards. Expected Outcomes Implementation of the OSHMS will ensure a great reduction in the occupational risks or hazards in the company including present hazards as well as anticipated ones. The system is expected to provide the company with an effective and reliable means of evaluating the progress of hazard control and prevention in the company. Implantation of the system will confer great benefits to the company including reduction in the costs involved in compensation of work-related injuries and illnesses as well as boosting the employees’ productivity through improved well-being. Development of the System in Accordance with AS/NZ 4801 and AS/NZ 4804 Development of the system will involve creation of structures or audit framework that allows external or third party bodies to conduct an independent audit of the OHSMS as required by AS/NZ 4801 standard. In this case, an external consultant firm will be deployed to assess hazards in the company’s working environment. The system manager will also seek certification from external bodies in charge of developing the safety standards to ensure its compliance with the standard requirements. In order for the system to be in accordance with AS/NZ 4801 and AS/NZ 4804, words such as hazard/risk assessment and control will be applied in the development phase to accommodate combination of the two standards. Management Commitment and Employee Involvement Owing to the importance of the system in protecting workers from injuries and workplace related illnesses, the company management should dedicate significant commitment towards establishment of the system through provision of capital, human resource and time as well. The management will also ensure proper sensitization of all stakeholders about the system and encourage their involvement as a way of ensuring that the system becomes an integral part of the company culture. The company management should also establish a workplace safety and health policy that should be communicated to all employees and seek their support in its implementation. As a key step to the success of the system, the executive will appoint a pioneering team capable of overseeing initiation of the project, its implementation, and routine monitoring. In addition, the project team will also establish periodical safety and health goals with clear objectives, goals, and action plan. This can be achieved at the departmental levels in which each department gets certain roles to play in the implementation of the system. In this context, evaluation of the entire safety and health implementation process should entail stage-wise as well as departmental evaluations. The system implementation team will further allocate all employees safety and health responsibilities in written form in which performance of their responsibilities may be gauged through written evaluation reports from each department. This step will ensure that all employees understand their roles in promoting safety and health in the organization. The management system will also cater for visitors to the company including customers through ensuring proper communication of site hazards and steps they should take to protect themselves from potential hazards. All employees and visitors should be informed about the locations of emergency alarms and procedures established by the company. Furthermore, the management will also establish proper protocols and strategies for avoiding introduction of preventable hazards. In this stage, the management will prepare various documents in support of system implementation including worksite policy, budgetary allocations, and responsibility allocation list, performance evaluation checklists, employee qualification requirement for operation of specific machines, and employee participation evidence. Workplace Analysis In order to ensure transparency and uncompromised identification of safety and health hazards in the company, the management will hire external consultants to conduct safety and health hazards survey on their behalf. This step is an instance of adhering to the AS/NZ 4801 standard that requires involvement of external parties in the establishment and evaluation of the system. This move will ensure that the surveys portray the true picture of the company’s safety and health hazards. Upon identification of the hazards, the lead team in the implementation of the system will tag each hazards to an appropriate elimination, prevention or control measure. The most prominent hazards in the company such as falling objects will be countered through an outlined procedure of moving the metallic products as well as provisions of safety gear to the employees. The project lead team will ensure that all employees are involved in survey or the hazard identification process as well as identification of potential control and prevention measures. The surveys will be able to establish hazards encountered by the company employees in the past as well as identification of any potential hazards not easily identified at layman’s level. With most of the hazards in West Yorkshire Steel Co Ltd such as presence of energy releasing/ storage machines, the nature of work, operation of different machines, and other safety risks associated with working in closed door spaces, the company will identify all possible risks associated with the hazards. The company will ensure that all employees express their concerns on job related hazards especially during switching of roles or recruitment of new staff members. Moreover, the lead team will train and motivate all workers to identify and report any hazard to the relevant authority for the right control measures to be taken. In order to ensure that quick control or preventive measures are taken, employees will be advised to stop activities leading to the hazard until proper measures are taken by the system maintenance department. The company should also be able to give safety work orders over other activities in the company. In determining health hazards associated with energy released by machines in West Yorkshire Steel Co Ltd, the hazard analysts will establish intensity of such releases and their potential negative impacts on the health of the workers. In addition, the lead team will establish means of ensuring that every spotted safety and health hazard is well-addressed and recorded. Upon identification of any hazard in the company premises, the system managers will ensure proper communication to all stakeholders for necessary caution. Reports on all identified hazards will also be made available to all workers through public notice boards in the company. The lead team in company will be keen to identify any patterns of hazard occurrences in the company’s working environment in order to address the root cause of their occurrence. The safety and health team will also ensure maintenance of several documents such as employee hazard reports, periodical hazard surveys as well as actions taken, site safety and health inspection results, trend analyses findings as well as machine inspection reports. These reports will be crucial in enabling continuous evaluation of the company’s occupational safety and health management system. Hazard Prevention and Control Strategies After analysis and identification of workplace hazards by the external consultant, the management team will prioritize of the hazard correctional measures based urgency and economic feasibility. In this case, the company can replace high energy releasing machines with lesser energy radiating machine, replacement of hazardous chemical s with safer ones as well as promotion of more indoor safety measures. The OSHMS team will ensure that all hazardous areas are well marked as well as enactment of barriers to rooms with extreme temperatures as well as radiation. This will be achieved through introduction of guards to such areas and provision of personal protective equipments for employees accessing worksites with great health and safety hazards. Notably, safety and health hazards associated with exposures such as working in extremely hot rooms will be controlled using job rotational and break strategies. The administration will ensure that workers do not work in given hazardous worksites for long hours to avoid development of long term health problems such as cancer, respiratory, hearing complications, and skin infections that may develop as a result of long exposures to certain conditions. The management will also establish routine machine maintenance strategies to counter any hazards related to breakdown or improper functioning. The management will further ensure that all maintenance roles exceeding the capability of its workers are handled by external contractors based professional but under the company guidelines and supervision of the company. The management will ensure that all employees are held accountable for adhering to the established safety and health rules and procedures. In order to ensure strict adherence to established rules and procedures, the management will follow a disciplinary policy at all supervisory levels. The disciplinary policy will entail oral warnings, written reprimands, and work suspensions for at least three days and finally dismissal as a way of indicating the seriousness of upholding the established safety and health management system. The disciplinary policy will extend to cover all visitors in which those violating safety and health procedures should be hindered from entering the company premises. Moreover, the safety and health management team in the company will link up its activities with other external agencies concerned with safety of the people such as the fire brigade, police as well as ambulance service providers. These agencies will be critical in designing various emergency response plans. In this system level, the management will keep several documents including maintenance records, health surveillance and monitoring records, disciplinary program records among other records that are important for evaluation of the systems. Training In accordance with the AS/NZ 4801 and AS/NZ 4804 standardized requirements, the company management will establish a safety and health training program to ensure that all employees or individuals involved in the company activities understand all issues surrounding the systems. The training program will equip all employees with the necessary skills for identification, control, and prevention of hazards in the company. This training will entail monthly remedial training as well as employee orientation during job rotations. Newly recruited employees will also undergo training on the safety and health rules and procedures before they embark on their duties. Other than sensitization on the rules and protocols, the training will also entail monthly emergency drills. The drills will cover all forms of emergencies that may arise in company in association with the identified hazards. In addition, a total site evacuation drill will be conducted annually to ascertain the company’s disaster preparedness. All the drills will be evaluated by the safety and health team to identify any loopholes for correctional measures. The safety and health team in the company should also liaise with nearby hospitals or Red Cross to offer first aid training to workers to enable them to assist one another in times accidents or emergencies. This system will focus on protection of employees through following the AS/NZ 4801 and AS/NZ 4804 requirements such as hazard communication, confined space program, emergency evaluation program, pathogen and respiratory protection programs. For the training program, the management team will ensure that employee training programs are maintained. System Evaluation Evaluation of the occupational safety system in West Yorkshire Steel Co Ltd will entail the four major elements of the system including employee involvement, workspace hazard analysis, prevention and control and finally training (U.S. Department of Labor, 2008). The entire system evaluation will be based on its compliance with the standards stipulated by the AS/NZ 4801 and AS/NZ 4804 provisions. For example, in order for the evaluation process to depict the actual situation on the ground, the company will outsource its evaluation process to competent external firms. The audit firm will be selected on the basis of its reputation and competence of the individuals given the responsibility of assessing the company system. The evaluation process will involve various key OSHMS success indicators including parameters such as objectives of the system establishment, illness and injury rates, general workforce health, changes in efficiency, as well the overall organizational performance (Pardy & Andrews, 2009). The system evaluation will not only focus on attaining the intended standards but also its ability to meet the systems objectives that include fostering increased safety and health of the company employees. Determination of work related injuries will entail scrutiny of employee hazard reports, hospital records as well as administration of questionnaires to ascertain the actual situation rather than relying on documented evidences. In order to determine the illness and injury rates in the company, the auditors will compare rates before implementation of the new system and findings obtained after the system came in place (European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, 2001). The auditors may also use other reputable metalworking companies as bench marks for the evaluation to ascertain the success of the new system. Records maintained by the organization for every step will particularly play an important role in the evaluation of the systems. Determination of the general workforce health will also be critical in ascertaining the success of the system instead of expressing the well-being of the employees in terms of illness rates. This will provide better safety and health picture of the company than what other parameters provide. The success rate of the system will also be determined in terms of changes in efficiency because it relies much on the concepts of occupational safety and health management systems. Increase or decline in efficiency will be determined through changes in productivity. In addition, other indirect indicators such as increased motivation of the workforce will also be used to gauge the impacts of the system on the organization. The evaluation process will involve examination of documents used in the employee involvement element of the system to determine the level of their involvement which is crucial in the success of the systems. The various communications systems will also be evaluated to establish their role in the success rates of the system. The documents stated in every step will be examined to provide the auditors with full information on the system implementation process. Disciplinary records will also be crucial in ascertaining the company’s management commitment in ensuring safety and health of the employees. Other documents such as machine maintenance records and hazard correctional records will also form part of the system evaluation. Overview of the Safety Case Regime The case regimes results from the need for an occupational safety and health management system capable of addressing safety and health in metalworking industries. The need for the safety case regimes arises from the high number of safety and health risks characteristic of metal working industries that revolve around machinery, space, heights, and chemicals hazards characteristic of such working environments. This safety regime in form of a system provides requirements and strategies need by the company in order to foster reduced occupational and health risks in its working environment (Heiler, 2006). The case regime entails ways of ensuring that the system is adopted to foster reduced risks in the company including management commitment and employees’ involvement, worksite hazard analysis, hazard control and preventive measures, and finally staff training. Proper development of the case regime guarantees the company of improved safe operations through establishment of control and preventive measures and safety standards stipulated in the AS/NZ 4801 and AS/NZ 4804 standards. The safety case provides for continuous upgrading of the company’s safety and health through identification of all hazards and their correctional measure. The continuous identification and recording of hazards by all company employees provide a good avenue for progressive improvement of its safety and health in all the aspects of its operations (Gunningham, 2007). The requirements for major hazard prone equipment regulations require all operators to ensure safety in all the facility which the company presents to the regulatory bodies in form of a safety case for approval. In accordance with requirements of facility operators to conduct assessment of the worksite hazards, and adoption of control measures, the system provided in this discussion provides the West Yorkshire Steel Co Ltd operators with a complete fulfillment of such requirements (WorkSafe Victoria Advisory Board, 2011). This safety case provides for establishment of a comprehensive system with set protocols and rules for ensuring continued improvements in safety of the company employees. The control measures in this safety case regime include identification and prioritization of hazard elimination, introduction of barriers and guards in areas marked highly hazardous in the company. Other control measures include introduction of personal protective equipments as well as establishment of a disciplinary policy to enforce safety rules and procedures. The system further provides for employees’ hazard safety training programs as well as safety drills to boost the company’s disaster prevention. Finally, this system provides for periodical evaluation of the plan to ensure its full implantation as well as guaranteeing the management and regulatory bodies of its sustainability. Conclusion This essay aimed at developing an occupational safety and health management system to address safety and health issues in West Yorkshire Steel Co Ltd, which deals with steel products. The company worksite predisposes its employees to various hazards including falling objects, energy radiating machines, hazardous chemicals, and extremely hot working rooms in an endless list of risks. The system covers four elements of an effective OSHMS that includes management commitment and employees’ involvement, worksite hazard analysis, hazard control and prevention, and training of employees. This system guarantees the company of a continuous improvement of employees’ safety and health through identification of all hazards and their correctional measures. Some of the control measures proposed by the system include replacement of hazardous chemicals with safer ones, introduction of personal protection equipments, guards and barriers, and routine machine maintenance. Evaluation of the system involves application of the stipulated standards and other organizations as benchmarks for evaluation of the system’s success. Documents maintained throughout implementation of the system such as employee hazard identification records, and hospital records will play a great role in its evaluation. Several parameters such as injury and illness rates, employees’ motivational changes, efficiency, and changes in the company productivity will be crucial in determining the impact of the system in the company safety. Finally, the safety case regime covers all requirements for major hazard facilities by featuring all guidelines and standards set out by safety and health regulation bodies. References European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. (2001).The use of occupational safety and health management systems in the member states of the European Union. Retrieved from http://osha.europa.eu/en/publications/reports/307 Gunningham, N. (2007). Mine safety: Law regulation policy. Annandale, NSW: Federation Press. Heiler, K. (2006). Is the Australian mining industry ready for a safety case regime? National Research Center for OHS Regulation. Retrieved from http://ohs.anu.edu.au/publications/pdf/wp%2045%20-%20Heiler.pdf Ministry of ManPower. (2010). Guideline on implementation of safety management system for the metalworking industry. Ministry of Manpower. Retrieved from http://www.mom.gov.sg/workplace-safety-health/safety-health-management-systems/Pages/default.aspx Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (2008). Effective workplace safety and health management systems. OSHA. Retrieved from http://www.osha.gov/Publications/safety-health-management-systems.pdf Pardy, W., & Andrews, T. (2009). Integrated management systems: Leading strategies and solutions. Lanham, MA: Government Institutes. U.S. Department of Labor. (2008). Sample safety and health program for small business. U.S. Department of Labor. Retrieved from http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/safetyhealth/mod2_sample_sh_program.html WorkSafe Victoria Advisory Service. (2011). Guidance note: Overview of the safety case regime for a major hazard facility. Retrieved from http://www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/eab35100472287c3a8cdacb0b48d6473/50712+WS+3+Safety+Case+OV+5HR.pdf?MOD=AJPERES Read More