Legal Aspect of the Occupational Safety - Essay Example

A legal aspect of the Occupational Safety and Health professional’s duties, responsibilities or working environment. ] [Instructor Name] [Date] A legal aspect of the Occupational Safety and Health professional’s duties, responsibilities or working environment. Occupational Safety and Health Act was proposed in order to provide the employers and workers with a safe working environment which is free from all sorts of hazards. In order to manage and maintain the act an administration was formed in order to look over the act; this body was named as Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The purpose of this agency was to make sure that the workers are working under safe and healthy environment and that they are being provided with proper training and education regarding safety hazards in workplace environment. This governmental body has set safety standards which are to be followed by all the companies and the safety and health professionals have to ensure that these standards are being followed and obeyed by every company. The article “Importance of safety consideration in site layout and organization” is written by Anumba and Bishop. The article was published in the Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering in the year 1997. The article discusses the facts that generally at the time of laying out the site plan are ignored and it has been mentioned that these facts are very important to be considered in the practical implementation. It has been discussed that in general no company focusses much on safety methods that must be adopted. Here it has been mentioned that occupational safety and health professionals must keep a proper check on such companies and proper action must be taken against such companies (Anumba & Bishop, 1997). Safety and health professionals are responsible for planning out and formulating the rules and standards that are to be set for the employees. They have to first plan out a team of highly professional and experienced professionals which would work together as a team to formulate the points and rules and finalize them, then a team must be developed which would ensure that the rules and standards set by the agency are being implemented or not. While planning and formulating the rules it must be made sure that the rules that are being designed must be practically applicable and can be applied to all organizations and firms (Bailey, 2008). Each and every aspect regarding health care issues must be kept under consideration and all sorts of companies and firms must be kept in view while designing the rules and points of the act. It is the responsibility and duty of the health and safety professionals to design such rules and set such standards that each and every employee feels safe and secure while working in the workplace environment. Safety and health professionals must make sure that the employees are being provided with emergency training and are being taught first aid. The article mentions that it comes under the responsibilities of the health and safety professionals to demand a complete bio data of all the employees working in any company and maintain a complete record of all the data. It is the duty of the health and safety professionals to request the companies to submit an annual report of health of all the patients so that they can keep a complete record and if necessary take any proper action. Through the article it can be observed that the authors have done quite a research on this topic and have clearly focused and targeted the companies who do not obey the occupational health and safety act and the occupational health and safety professionals. The topic that they have covered is clearly relevant to the occupational health and safety act. The article has mentioned some previous studies relating to legal framework in United Kingdom. The article has mentioned in detail about the safety precautions that are necessary to take at any construction site (Anumba & Bishop, 1997). According to the article the employees have the right to complain about any sort of mis happening in their company to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and it is the responsibility of the team to perform an immediate inspection team and send it to the company without giving any prior notice and perform inspection; the employee who had reported to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration can also take part in the inspection with the inspection team and carry out the investigation. It also comes under the responsibility of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to provide any sort of protection to the employee who has complained about the office. The team should make sure that the company does not provide any sort of harm to the employee like not giving bonuses to him or discriminating him or insulting and humiliating him. Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act it is the duty of the administration team to take action against any such company which practices discrimination and misbehavior with any such worker who has reported about any health hazard to the Occupational Safety and Health Organization (Bailey, 2008). The Occupational Safety and Health professionals are responsible for providing the employers and workers with all sorts of security and protection. The team of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration must be a group of highly competent, educated, efficient, trained and experienced individuals. They must hold expertise in their field so that they can professionally design the rules and standards and they must be competent enough to properly manage all the data and keep a proper check on all the companies and offices that all rules and regulations are being properly followed and obeyed (Bailey, 2008). The team members must be given proper training of working in a team and cooperating with every team member. All possible techniques must be used in order to make the team highly efficient. If the team is highly competent, well-organized, and effectual then only it would be possible for the team to properly enforce all rules and regulations. The article is a very informative one and is a very good resource for gaining information on legal issues on occupational health and safety matters. References Anumba, C., & Bishop, G. (April 01, 1997). Importance of safety considerations in site layout and organization. Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 24, 2, 229-236. Top of Form Bailey, M. A. (2008). Occupational safety and health law handbook. Lanham, Md: Government Institutes. Bottom of Form Read More