Safety, Security, Health and Environmental Law - Case Study Example

SAFETY, SECURITY, HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL LAW SAFETY, SECURITY, HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL LAW Insert name: Insert course code: Instructor’s name: 7 September, 2010. INTRODUCTION Safety, security, health and environmental law is the unit of law that deals with the regulation of health, safety, security as well as environmental hazards that occur from commerce activities. The law is a mixture of state and federal statutes as well as case law dealing with occupational safety, occupational security and anti-terrorism, occupational health along with the environmental regulation of business undertakings. On the other hand, work-related Health Service refers to the services delegated with basically protective purposes and accountable for directing the manager, the workers, as well as their legislative body in the undertaking on the necessities for instituting and upholding a secure as well as vigorous operational atmosphere which will assist most favorable physical along with mental wellbeing in connection to job as well as the adjustment of labor to the abilities of employees in the light of their condition of physical as well as mental wellbeing. The study of safety, security, health and environment (SSHE) as combined discipline may appear new because all the three areas are developed disciplines in their own right. However, the areas of overlap between safety, security and environment are significant. Additionally, there are synergies that can be achieved from an incorporated approach to the areas given their relevant preparation in risk management as their fundamental method. In spite of the general basis of the disciplines in risk management, the approach to safety, security, health and environmental law enforcement has developed in diverse directions (Tooma, 2008 p. 2). APPROACHES, PRINCIPLES AND STANDARDS IN OCCUPATIONAL WELLBEING SERVICES (a section of SSHE-legislation) The provision of occupational health services refers to executing activities in the place of work with a plan of encouraging and protecting employees’ safety, health along with their well-being in addition to humanizing working conditions and the working environment. These services are offered by the occupational health professionals running privately or as a division of special service units of the enterprise or of external services. Occupational health practice is multidisciplinary as well as multi-sectoral activity involving in addition to occupational health and safety professional other specialists in the enterprise and outside, along with competent authorities, the employers, employees as well as their representatives. The occupational wellbeing service possibly will be a single incorporated body or a combination of diverse work-related healthiness and protection units combined by a general concern for employees’ health and well-being (Stellman and International Labour Office, 1998p. 16.2) Legislative structures for occupational health practice The majority of nations have laws leading the stipulation of work-related wellbeing services, even though the makeup of the legislation its content as well as the employees covered by it varies widely. The other conventional laws reflect on work-related wellbeing services as a collection of expert and separate actions like work-related wellbeing care, work-related security as well as cleanliness services, work-place healthiness endorsement programs and many more. In a number of countries, rather than specifying what may be considered as programs, the legislation specifies the responsibilities of managers to offer health hazard evaluations, fitness inspections of employees or additional personal actions connected to employees’ health as well as safety. The legislation normally entrusts the power to develop, put into practice and examine work-related wellbeing services to such departments or organizations as Health, Labour or social Security. There are two main kinds of legislation regulating work-related health services: One observes the work-related health service as an incorporated multi-disciplinary service communications and lay down the aims, actions, requirements and the privileges of the different associates, the circumstances of operation as well as the credentials of its workforce. An excellent illustration is the “European Union Framework Directive No.89/391/EEC” on occupational Safety and Health. The supplementary kind of legislation is found in the majority of developed nations and is further disjointed. Rather than a solitary act laying down the occupation wellbeing service as a body, it entails several laws that merely obligate managers to put into operation some actions. These might be predetermined rather purposely or simply in common, leaving matters of their association and circumstances of function open. In many developing nations, this legislation is only applicable to key industrial sectors, while large numbers of other sector and agriculture, small-scale enterprises along with the informal sector remain uncovered. The main provisions that are relevant to occupational health practice include: The development of a coherent overall prevention policy at the enterprise level covering the working environment, technology, organization of work, working conditions as well as social relations. The responsibility of the employer to ensure the safety and heath of workers in every aspect related to the work, including prevention of occupational hazards, provision of information and training, along with provision of the necessary work organization, control measures and means that occupational health activities ought to be executed in cooperation between employers and employees. Workers ought to obtain health surveillance adequate for the health risks they incur at work place. Workers have the right to receive all the necessary information concerning the safety and health risks in addition to preventive and protective measures in respect of both the enterprise in general and each kind of workstation and work practice. Planning and implementation of new technologies ought to be subject to consultation with the workers and/ or their representatives, as regards the choice of equipment, working conditions and the working environment for the safety of employees. The common values of prevention have to comprise of the removal of work-related risks; assessment of risks which can not be evaded; fighting the hazards at the starting place; acclimatizing the labor to the person, particularly with respect to the plan of place of work, the selection of tools as well as operational and manufacture techniques; getting used to to technological advancement; substituting hazardous materials by non-hazardous or less hazardous ones; offering communal defensive procedures precedence over personal defensive procedures; offering suitable directions to the employees (Stellman and International Labour Office, 1998 p. 16.4). Occupational security law As much as the occupational safety, health and environmental law is well developed, occupational security law is still lagging behind in terms of development. However, the law and practice concerned with security and terrorism threats keep on building up at a faster speed than academic work analyzing it. Occupational security law is the body of law concerned with regulating corporate activity impacting on security and terrorism threats. The aim of occupational security law is to minimize security and terrorism threats brought about by legitimate business undertakings. Contrary to other anti-terrorism and broader criminal laws, they are not concerned with directly regulating terrorist activities. Nevertheless, they seek to impose obligations on businesses to take steps within their control to minimize the impact and risk of a terrorist attack. This basically involves a balancing of business and operation requirements and the wider social objective (Tooma, 2008 p. 36). SUMMARY Company analysis Analysing a company requires looking into various labour matters: equivalent chances, fitness as well as security, work safety in addition to teaching, trade unions along with other globally recognized labour principles like child-labour, obligatory labor. Some of labour standards and systems tend to emerge as most widely adopted. Generally, equivalent chance is the matter with the uppermost percentage of organizations having urbanized structures and strategies – with approximately 80% of all organizations having an equivalent opportunity strategy. In the same way, organizations with a high threat disclosure to wellbeing and protection concerns are likely to have urbanized schemes inside well synchronized surroundings – with more than 77% of all organizations having ‘health and safety systems’. (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2009 p. 152). References: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2009. Employment and industrial relations. OECD Publishing. From http://books.google.com/books?id=c0_qdPZMlsC&pg=PA152&dq=analysis+of+Safety,+Security,+Health+and+Environmental+Law+legislation+and+its+risk+management+principles&hl=en&ei=IduHTOu1NsLqOOLSvZ8O&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q&f=true (accessed September 7, 2010) Stellman, M. J. and International Labour Office, 1998. Encyclopaedia of occupational health and safety, Volume 1; Volume 5. Switzerland, International Labour Organization. From http://books.google.com/books?id=vW6rXFvm4sQC&pg=PT505&dq=analysis+of+Safety,+Security,+Health+and+Environmental+Law+legislation+and+its+risk+management+principles&hl=en&ei=jbHTIigCsSlONnilZoH&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CFkQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q&f=true (accessed September 7, 2010) Tooma, M. 2008. Safety, Security, Health and Environment Law. NSW, Federation Press. From http://books.google.com/books?id=oYjCvICwD14C&pg=PA91&dq=analysis+of+SSHE-legislation+and+its+risk+management+principles&hl=en&ei=U7-HTKjSJ8KOOOLZuJsO&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=true (accessed September 7, 2010) Read More