Legal Issues on Corporate Health and Safety - Essay Example

Laws, economics, and morals lead to organisational programs designed to promote employee safety and health. The occupational Safety and Health Administration has utilised a police-and-punish approach. Lately it has emphasised improvement of the industrial environment with a view toward preventing disease. Workers' compensation laws make the employer fully liable and use the stimulus of insurance premiums to reduce accidents and diseases. Full information about the costs of industrial accidents and diseases puts the force of productivity and profits behind health and safety efforts. In business 'what gets measured gets managed'. Research carried out by RoSPA suggests that the variability in accident rates across UK organisations as a population is so great that any attempt to analyse accident statistics in studies, which consider less than 1,000 organisations are statistically meaningless. In other words, the variability of accident rates in UK industry is so large that the probability of making an error in the interpretation of the results is nearly 100 per cent. A further criticism that can be levelled is that, most often issues such as work related ill health and unsafe conditions are neglected as compare to other, such as the unacceptable exposures to health hazards. Health damage is generally a bigger issue than accidental injury but these are harder to identify and quantify. HSE estimate that early death from past exposure to hazardous working conditions is at least one (if not perhaps two) orders of magnitude greater than death due to workplace accidents (although much of this occurs after those affected have ceased employment). Some may seek to argue that good health and safety management which produces a low a lost time injury rate is more likely to address health protection as well. But an absence of accidents cannot be taken to imply neither a low rate of work related ill health since neither modelling nor data are available to support this. (Director action on Safety and Health, 2004) Although some employers and so-called workplace violence "experts" promote profiling of perpetrators to predict violence, it is often inaccurate and can lead to mislabeling and possibly discriminating against groups of people and workers. Identifying hazards, collecting information and documenting incidents is a very important part of addressing workplace violence problems. Employers are not required to correct hazards, which they do not know exist. Solutions cannot be found for unreported problems. A hazard assessment is a method of identifying, analyzing and documenting workplace hazards. Assessing workplace violence hazards involves some of the same tools used to document any other workplace safety or health problem. These include checklists and surveys, investigating incidents and reviewing available records. 1. Inspect the Workplace - Appendix A contains a workplace violence inspection checklist that can be used as part of a safety and health inspection or safety audit. While inspecting for work-place violence risk factors, review the physical facility and note the presence or absence of security measures. Local law enforcement officials may also be able to conduct a security audit or provide information about their experiences with crime in the area. 2. Conduct a Survey - The most important source of information on workplace hazards is workers. In fact, workers may be the only source of information on workplace violence hazards since management may not document incidents (or near misses). In addition, conducting regular surveys may also enable the local union to evaluate workplace violence prevention measures. Information can be collected either through a written questionnaire distributed to workers or through one-on-one personal interviews. A written survey may be appropriate if the union wants personal or sensitive information. For example, a worker may be reluctant to voice to a union representative fears about a co-worker, but may be more willing to describe the problem in an anonymous questionnaire. Alternatively, a one-on-one interview is a good technique for organizing as it gets people talking about their jobs and working conditions. Oral surveys are also a way to involve workers who do not read well. 3.Analyze Safety Records - By reviewing records of prior instances of workplace violence, local unions may be able to identify factors that contributed to the incident. Some of these documents must be requested from the employer. Others (for example, medical records or workers' compensation records) may require permission from the affected worker. Sensitive or confidential information may not be necessary to analyze the incidents; a summary of the information that includes at least the nature of the injury and type of treatment needed may be sufficient. Records and reports on prior incidents may help determine: - If a workplace violence problem exists and how serious the problem is. - If management is aware, or should be aware, that a workplace violence problem exists. - Trends in a particular department or work area, at a certain time of day or night, among specific job titles or job tasks, or under a particular supervisor or manager. Once the risks for workplace violence have been identified and documented, the local union may not be able to address all of them at once. Rank issues based on how many people are affected, how easily they can be resolved, how serious they are, or other criteria based upon local needs. What the Union Can Do Addressing violence between co-workers and managers is never easy for a union representative. The steward often has to deal with several conflicting interests: the "accused" worker who may want the union to defend him or her against disciplinary charges; the "victims" who may want the union to protect them against an abusive co-worker; and management who may not react appropriately to an incident. Employers or even co-workers may assume that a worker who displays threatening behavior needs to be terminated. The union representative may be caught in the middle - defending the "accused" worker and protecting his or her due-process rights, and addressing the legitimate safety concerns of the "victims" of his or her behavior. Violence among co-workers may need to be handled differently from other union-related issues because in many of these cases no clear winners emerge from the traditional discipline-grievance process. Labor and management should sit down together early in the process to try to work out a solution to the problem, rather than only rely upon the discipline process and the grievance procedure for resolution. If a real potential for violence exists, the union representative and management should seek the assistance of a professional who is trained to talk to potentially violent individuals, offer counseling to distraught employees and make recommendation on improving the work climate. Under no circumstances should the union representative personally attempt to resolve a potentially violent situation. Actions that signal that a situation may become serious include threats, verbal assaults, property destruction or any major disruptions in the workplace. Management also may be fearful of becoming "victims" if they successfully fire the "accused" worker. Instead, they may do nothing and fail to address the problem. To make matters worse, some managers believe the only recourse against an employee who violates a workplace violence policy is to immediately fire the employee. Termination, however, is not always the best or most appropriate solution. An angry employee may feel the need to retaliate against the employer who fired him or her. Investigate Underlying Problems Before union representatives can appropriately address the potential for violence, they need to consider the underlying factors that may cause inappropriate behavior. For example, problems may be identified by: - Talking to union stewards, especially those working different shifts, to see if they are having the same problems with management. - Analyzing grievances to look for patterns of contract violations. Determine if a particular supervisor is a problem. - Examining workplace policies and rules to determine if they are implemented fairly consistently or are either too flexible or too rigid. Ask whether exceptions are made to the policy for certain workers or under certain situations. Do any of the policies violate the collective bargaining agreement - Arranging meetings where members can talk about their problems. - Conducting written, anonymous surveys. Sometimes workers may be reluctant to come for-ward and discuss problems they may be having at home or with their boss. Through a survey, the union may be able to get information without making workers uncomfortable about sharing personal information. The survey could include questions that ask if a worker is having any difficulties or problems resolving conflicts with either a co-worker or supervisor. Figuring out if a worker is having trouble at home or has an untreated mental or physical condition that may contribute to violent behavior must be done delicately. Simply asking if the union can assist him or her may open communication with the worker. On the other hand, telling the worker that he or she needs professional help may backfire and make the worker resentful or angry at the union. The union representative can learn techniques for referring a co-worker to assistance. If an Employee Assistance Program is available in the workplace, it may be helpful. The AFL-CIO Community Services Program may also be able to provide information about referral services. The AFL-CIO State Federation or Central Labor Council should have a list of community services representatives in your area. Full realisation of the economic and human costs of inadequate a more systematic approach to the effecting of personnel maintenance. Such programs can include one or more of the following elements: Safety A Top management support of special safety effort B Appointing a safety director C Engineering a safe plant and operation D Educating all employees to act safely E Maintaining accurate records of costs and causes of accidents F Accident analysis G Safety contests H Enforcing safety rules through disciplinary action Health A physical 1 Pre-placement physical examinations 2 periodic physical examination for all key personnel 3 voluntary periodic physical examination for all personnel 4 a well-equipped and staffed medical dispensary 5 availability of trained industrial hygienists and medical personnel 6 systematic and preventive attention devoted to industrial stresses and strains 7 periodic and systematic inspections of provisions for proper sanitation B Mental 1 Availability of psychiatric counselling 2 Co-operation with outside psychiatric specialists and institutions 3 Education of company personnel concerning the nature and importance of the mental health problem 4 Development and maintenance of a proper human relations program Over and above any economic costs, evading the maintenance responsibility will inevitably lead to increasing governmental interference and control of private company operations. The preservation of the physical and mental status of the nation's citizens is a social objective which transcends any company objective of producing economic goods, profits, wages, salaries, and the like. References Director action on Safety and Health, (2004). Measuring and reporting on Corporate Health and Safety Performance: Measuring OS&H Performance, Retrieved from Read More