Occupational Health and Safety in Toyota Australia - Case Study Example

Attachment 1 ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET Electronic or manual submission UNIT hst1154 health and saftey CODE TITLE NAME OF STUDENT (Ahmed HAMMADI)             FAMILY NAME FIRST NAME STUDENT ID NO. 10062171       NAME OF LECTURER kate HADWEsN DUE DATE 16-nov-2012 Topic of assignment assessment 3 Group or tutorial (if applicable)       Course U67 Campus ML I certify that the attached assignment is my own work and that any material drawn from other sources has been acknowledged.This work has not previously been submitted for assessment in any other unit or course. Copyright in assignments remains my property. I grant permission to the University to make copies of assignments for assessment, review and/or record keeping purposes. I note that the University reserves the right to check my assignment for plagiarism. Should the reproduction of all or part of an assignment be required by the University for any purpose other than those mentioned above, appropriate authorisation will be sought from me on the relevant form. OFFICE USE ONLY If handing in an assignment in a paper or other physical form, sign here to indicate that you have read this form, filled it in completely and that you certify as above. Signature Date       OR, if submitting this paper electronically as per instructions for the unit, place an ‘X’ in the box below to indicate that you have read this form and filled it in completely and that you certify as above. Please include this page in/with your submission. Any electronic responses to this submission will be sent to your ECU email address. Agreement Date       Occupational Health and Safety Assessment 3 Safe work in Australia Ahmed Hammadi 10062171 Due Date:16-Nov-2012 Tutor: Kate HADWEN Table of Contents ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET 1 Occupational Health and Safety 2 Introduction 4 Summary of Findings 5 Proactive Strategies 6 Performance Indicators 8 Legislative Summary Table 9 Conclusion 10 Reference 12 Introduction Occupational safety and health culture, otherwise abbreviated as 'OSH culture', has been a critical area of research since the late 1980s. In Toyota Australia, there are several areas of non-compliance to regulations concerned to occupational safety and health and most specifically manual tasks deemed hazardous for employee health and safety. The company has over 26,000 employees in Australia and million others across the world. This implies that compliance to work safety acts within the company is an aspect that need serious consideration and constant assessment. Since the company is an industrial one, manual tasks are an area facing high non-compliance rates and thus a critical issue. The purpose of the report is to identify areas of compliance and non-compliance in hazardous manual tasks as practiced in Toyota Australia and to come up with proactive strategies aimed at achievinglawful compliance. It also strives to develop risk control strategies meant for correcting areas of non-compliance and develop strategies for continual monitoring of performance indicators for proactive strategies developed (Yeung, 2004). Safe Work Australia Act provides compliance measures for securing compliance by way of applying effective and appropriate measures for compliance and enforcement and ensuring desirable scrutiny and analysis of actions taken by individuals that exercise powers and perform functions under part 5, Division 2, Subdivision 4 (Sanne,2008). Part 9 of the Act further explains strategies for securing compliance to the regulations provided on occupational health and safety. Part 8, Division 1 of the Act further has areas that guide regulators identify non-compliance to occupational health and safety regulations (Harris and Andrew, 2011). Such guidance includesapplication to the appropriate court that deals with matters of non-compliance for an injunction that compels any individual to comply with any court order, restraining a person from contravening a notice. The respective authorities that regulate non-compliance to the act may do so whether or not court proceedings have been brought for an offence against this Act. This is in relation to any case wherethe courtnotice was issued or whether the duration for compliance with the notice relating to the Act has expired. In general, this paper will have an introduction to discuss background information of the article and a clear statement for its purpose. It also has a summary of the findings, a main body of two proactive strategies, the legislative summary, and finally a conclusion. Summary of Findings Findings show that there are several areas on non-compliance to Safe Work Australia Act within Toyota Australia Co. Ltd. The most notable areas of non-compliance are handling unbalanced loads,the application of high force in terms of hitting with hammer, and handling loads that are difficult to grasp. The Act has areas that guide OHS officials on compliance monitoring activities that may includepredefined inspections, and other verification activities to improve communication, information sharing, reporting, and auditing of compliance with theNational Standard for Manual Tasks (2007). These activities aim at enhancing work health and safety management practices and complete achievement of sustainable compliance with work health and safety laws stipulated under various regulations (Butterworths, 2007). Within the company, employees, workers, manufacturers and other stakeholders have their duties and responsibilities stipulated in the policy and outlined clearly to ensure compliance to the law has complete adherence. Furthermore, regulators have the responsibility of addressing any identified deficiencies by applying compliance and enforcement tools outlined in this policy that are considered appropriate to the prevailing circumstances (Sanne,2008). The Act also has parts that provide clear information on a number of methods used by regulators to detect non-compliance in relation to hazardous manual tasks and the appropriate penalties for individuals accused of non-compliance to the Act (Walls et al, 2004). Additionally, prosecution has an instrumental duty aimed atdeterring any future non-compliance by an organizationwith more emphasis on manual tasks mentioned above. It also aims at sending information to the corporate sector about the risk of non-compliance. Penalties may also have a significant symbolic function in making a moral statement according to an organization’s exposure of workers or the public to hazardous activities (Sanne J, 2008). It is clear that whether conducted for instrumental or symbolic functions, prosecution, and penalties has some substantial impacts on compliance motivations such as motivations resulting from fear of adverse penalties, such as financial penalties or damage of public reputation (Jamieson S. et al, 2010). Empirical studies show that there is some evidence of a specific deterrent impact that come with prosecution but the potential for general public and organizational deterrence is more limited, although health and safety regulators may play an important role in channeling and translating information concerning prosecutions for action within non-complying members of the company (Richardson, 2007). Proactive Strategies Requirement of any officer includes ensuring that, at any given time during work, all processes comply with particular and specific duties and obligations that fall under WHS Act. Such obligations include incident-reporting, consultation with workers and ensuring availability of training programs for workers on matters concerning health and safety in workplace. To meet this requirement, proactive strategies need to be in place to assess non-compliance to hazardous manual task levels among workers in Toyota Australia (Jamieson et al, 2010). These strategies may include undertaking a legal compliance audit seeking to assess policies, procedures, and practices aimed at deterring manual tasks non-compliance within the company. It may also include testing policies, procedures, and practices in order to verify non-compliance with Work safety Australia Act 2011. Conducting legal compliance auditing in relation to loading and offloading of materials in Toyota Australia Co. Ltd ensures that workers have the chance to share their opinions on safety and healthy at workplaces. The legal auditing of non-complianceincludes interviewing workers and the company’smanagement to gauge their levels of compliance and investigating their understanding of health and safety measures and risks within the company (Jamieson et al, 2010). This will help the company’s management come up with specific strategies to enhance health and safety-training programs, provide up to date information on health and safety matters, and ensure minimum exposure of workers and public to hazardous activities such as exposure to excessive vibrations. This will greatly seek to enhance compliance (Part 13, Division 3). Another proactive strategy deemed necessary for ensuring compliance is to test whether organizational policies, procedures, production processes, and practices comply with the provisions of Work Safety and Health Act 2011. Toyota Australia need to inspect and evaluate organizational policies regarding health and safety and provide an appropriate guidance on whether or not they are effective. They also need to propose recommendations for making these policies and procedures effective for worker’s safety and health at workplaces. Performance Indicators Since the scope of every worker’s duty relates directly to the influential activities of cutting metals, loading and offloading spare parts and other accessories for vehicle manufacturing, it is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of the proactive strategies discussed above.Itis therefore necessary for the company to conduct a continuous examination to ensure that organizational resources and systems are adequately complying with the regulations and duty as prescribed under WHS Act 2011. It is also important for officers within the company to keep in touch with regulations to ensure that accountability for work safety is a core value in the organizational set up (Walls, 2004). This is for the intent to examine safety performance to enable management and regulators verify the effectiveness of policies, systems, and procedures in line with the business structure, reporting, auditing, documentation, information, consultation, and technology. Most importantly, two of the indicators necessary for evaluating the effectiveness of the two strategies discussed above are reporting on manual tasks compliance and non-compliance and consult on weekly basis on the progress of hazardous manual tasks in workplaces (Thornton et al, 2005). Application of the strategies will mean that consultation among workers, employers, and management on hazardous incidences will experience an improved trend. Effectiveness of the strategies ensures a remarkable change in consultation in essence that persons conducting business will be reasonably practicable, and consult in accordance to Division 2, of the Act. The strategies will also see a directive consultation with relevant information concerning the matter shared among workers as a threat to work health and safety (Harris and Andrew, 2011). Weekly consultation on compliance to manual tasks in the company will see workers have some significant opportunity to share their views on work health and safety alongside their inclusion in decision-making process. Information on hazardous and health and safety is another area that is likely to experience improvement with effective application of the strategies. Part 7 Division 7 of the Act describes information pertaining work health and safety in workplaces. With application of the strategies described, regulators will have the autonomous authority to obtain information from workers concerning issues of work health and safety (Butterworths, 2007). The strategies will also see that misleading information collected from various individuals does not tamper with judgments of regulators on the extent of occupational safety and health. Furthermore, it will observe confidentiality of information; ensure information sharing among regulators and workers andmakes sure that personal information contains the sameand same meaning as posited in Privacy Act 1988. These two indicators will act in their special capacities as indicators to judge effectiveness of the proactive strategies. Legislative Summary Table Legislation Type Usefulness Source Regulations of safe work in Victoria state Local The legislation is important for analysis and provision for safety and health regulations in state of Victoria www.worksafe.vic.gov.au Work place standards in Tasmania state Local Provides guidelines for hazardous management in Tasmania state www.wst.tas.gov.au Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare Act National Has important amendments and regulations for the entire state of Australia http://www.legislation.sa.gov.au/LZ/C/A/OCCUPATIONAL%20HEALTH%20SAFETY%20AND%20WELFARE%20ACT%201986/CURRENT/1986.125.UN.PDF National Standard for Manual Tasks (2007) National Have guidelines for Australian health and safety about manual tasks in workplaces. It is important for assessing hazardous situations. http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/SWA/SafetyInYourWorkplace/HazardsAndSafetyIssues/Pages/ManualTasks.aspx Health and Safety at Work Act of 31 July 1974 International Regulations by International Labor Organization to provide guidelines for safety and health at workplaces http://www.ilo.org/aids/legislation/WCMS_127510/lang--en/index.htm Declaration on occupational health for all, 1994 International Guidelines drafted by World health Organization as declarations for health and safety at workplaces http://www.who.int/occupational_health/publications/declaration/en/index.html Conclusion The purpose of the report was to identify areas of non-compliance in my area of work (Toyota Australia) in accordance to Safe Work Australia Act 2011. It was to develop proactive strategies to achieve legal compliance, risk control strategies for areas of non-compliance. Furthermore, the paper was meant to develop proactive strategies and develop methods for continual monitoring of performance indicators within Toyota Australia. From the analysis of the Act and the company’s safety and health, it is evident that areas of non-compliance and measures are clearly stipulated and has predefined guidelines that help organizations, individual employees, and regulators to ensure compliance with provisions provided by the Act concerning health safety at workplaces. Finally, the Act provides guidelines for penalties and prosecutions for non-compliance. It has two types of deterrence as specific and general (Thornton, 2005). In conclusion, proactive strategies as discussed above need to be in place to ensure complete compliance of the Act within Toyota Australia Co. Ltd. Measures such as employee training and awareness play an important role in boosting health and in an organization. As an Occupational Health and Safety officer, I put plans in place to ensure that non-compliance in the future becomes history. I ensured that employees had the freedom to participate in planning strategies for non-compliance, share their views and opinions on OHS issues, and organized training programs where employees get a better insight of safety and health in workplaces in relation to hazardous manual tasks. Most specifically, I ensured that non-compliance to manual tasks and risks involved were reduced by ensuring that employees lift loads with definite shapes and therefore easy to grasp. Furthermore, provision of cranes to lift heavy machinery is another measure introduced to reduce the chances of exposing employees to hazards that may result to musculoskeletal disorders among them. In areas that required excessive force such as hitting, use of electronic hammers is a strategy still under evaluation. However, I am pleased to report that the plan is at its early stages and will soon relieve employees whose work is to apply more force through hitting. Finally, I introduced insurance program to cover expenses accrued by employees that may unfortunately face hazards in workplaces. Reference Butterworths. (2007).Tolley's Health and Safety at Work Handbook 2008. Harris, B. and Andrew C.(2011).Disciplinary and Regulatory Proceedings.Jordans. Jamieson, S., Reeve, B., Schofield, T. and McCallum, R. (2010). OHS prosecutions: do they deterothercompanies from offending?Journal of Occupational Health, 26(11), p. 213- 231. Quinlan, M., Bohle, P. and Lamm, F. (2007).Managing Occupational Health and Safety (3rd ed.). Melbourne: PalgraveMacmillan. Richardson, P. J. (ed.) (2007). Archbold: Criminal Pleading, Evidence and Practice. London: Sweet &Maxwell. pp. 388–390. Safe Work Australia, Main Report for Safe Work Australia.(2010). Motivations, Attitudes, Perceptions and Skills (MAPS), unpublished report, Safe Work Australia, Canberra, Sanne, J. (2008).‘Framing risks in a safety-critical and hazardous job: risk-taking as responsibilityin railway maintenance’,Journal of Risk research, 11(5), p. 645-657. Thornton, N., Gunningham, N. and Kagan, R.(2005). ‘General deterrence and corporate environmentalbehaviour’,Law and Policy, 27(2),p. 262 – 288. Walls, J., Pidgeon, N., Weyman, A. and Horlick-Jones, T. (2004). ‘Critical trust: understanding layperceptions of health and safety risk regulation’,Health, Risk and Society,6(2),p. 133-150. Work Health and Safety Act 2011,Act No. 10, retrieved from http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/maintop/view/inforce/act+10+2011+cd+0+N on 27th October, 2012 Yeung, K. (2004).Securing Compliance. A Principled Approach, Oxford: Hart Publishing. Read More