Health and safety issues - Essay Example

Module Health and Safety Issues Who, in an organization, has responsibility for Health and Safety and what procedures must they undertake? Any established organization must have departments, and health and safety is among this departments (Health, 1988). The corporate responsibility, which also covers the organizational effects on the environment, global poverty and human rights, is charged with the mandate to see to it that the health and safety issue in an organization is addressed (Di Berardinis, 1987).

This department is headed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), whose mission is to see to it that all health and safety risks at workplaces are properly contained. This is achieved through: improvement of management systems so as to reduce injuries at work, showing the board how important health and safety issues are, monitoring of health and safety issues in the organization and providing of detailed reports about their states not excluding their stray performances. In essence, World Health (1983) argues that health and safety management that is effective is fundamental to the well-being of employees, plays a vital role in ensuring that the reputation of the organization is maintained while at the same time helping in creating teams that are highly achieving.

How does Quality Assurance in Health and Safety matters help Organizations? An organizations’ health and safety quality assurance department provides various means in which the organization can monitor its continued progress and advices the organization on legislative matters and inflicts best practices into employees (Miller, 1986). To maintain quality, the team carries out internal training to keep their staff up to date with legislative and suitable organizational practices in health and safety matters and related areas.

In addition, solid systems for monitoring organizational progress are to be installed which enhance the technological sector of the company as well as the knowledge of the staff for they have to be trained effectively on how to use the systems thus moving them one step ahead of their competitors. Insurance can be obtained by the employer to cover a number of costs which the employer may have to cover as a consequence of poor health and safety procedures. Examples of such insurance are Liability insurance, vehicle insurance and building insurance.

There are however a number of areas for which insurance cover cannot be obtained. What are these areas? According to HMSO (1974), hundreds of industries that operate in different areas/fields exist that have been excluded from the mandatory coverage since they are registered neither under Sections 1 nor 2 of the Workplace and Insurance Act, 1997 (South Australian, 1986). The areas not covered include law firms, financial institutions such as insurance companies, trust companies and banks, agencies that represent and/or deal in real estates, camping areas for children or activities as a result of children camping, trade unions, recreational and social clubs, travel agencies, business associations, health clubs, private schools, colleges and universities (OSHA, 1995).

In order to cover for these areas, a provision has made under Schedule 1 that allows for the employers in this areas to apply for by application coverage. In case the Workers Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) accepts the application, then the employer in question will be treated as an employer of Schedule 1 and the same employer is subject to payment of departure fee incase they decide to terminate the application (Chemicals, 1973). Apart from fields that are not covered in the Act, a number of individuals have also been excluded.

First, an excluded individual/group can apply for coverage by WSIB referred to as optional insurance as long as the type of business they are engaged in is either of the two schedules, i.e. executive officers of a given corporation, sole proprietors and business partners (The Queen Elizabeth, 1992). The second group that has been excluded completely from the Act and is ineligible to apply for voluntary coverage include volunteers apart from fire brigade workers ambulance workers, and casual workers i.e. an individual whose services are not for the purposes of the industry of the employer (Guy, 1973).

With regard to benchmarking what are the 5 steps to success? The benchmarking process is to be successful if the below key steps are followed effectively: i. Plan – a clear establishment of what needs to be improved on is to be made between the customers and the organization. ii. Analysis – collect relevant information and determine the performance gap between the organization and the competitor as well as identify the reasons for the discrepancy. iii. Action – improvement plans and targets to be reached are developed and implemented. iv. Review – A close monitoring of the organizational performances against the targeted performance. v. Repeat – benchmarking is a process that needs to be carried out repeatedly if one needs to improve the performance of the organization.

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Occupational Health Safety and Welfare Act 1970 (Amended 1990). Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. 1995. Print. South Australian Government. Occupational Health and Welfare Act 1986. South Australian Government Printer, Adelaide, Australia. 1986. Print. South Australian Health Commission. Occupational Health and Safety Data Sheets. South Australian Government Printer, Adelaide, Australia. 1988. Print. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Safety Policy.

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