Health and Safety at the Workplace - Literature review Example

Name Institution Course Tutor Date Health and safety at Workplace An organization is viewed as a working place that comprises of individuals, processes and policies which extensively determine the capabilities of it meeting its intended objectives and goals. Individuals at workplaces are employees and they are a very crucial part of the organizational success. The nature of activities, size and location of the organization poses a great risk on employees regarding their health and safety as they pursue their work. Health and safety policies are therefore, instituted to assist in ensuring that employees are operating under safety conditions and organizational climate. Health and safety in turn, brings about a safety performance. A research indicated that safety climate in an organization is related to the compliance with safety regulations as well as participation in safety-related activities, (Neal, et al, 2000, p99). The growing need of health and safety at workplace has been necessitated by various financial and organizational related consequences. For instance, lack of being consistent with standards related to health and safety, which is termed as negligence according to law, can lead to suits by the aggrieved thus increasing the contingent liability of the organization. Similarly, the productivity of the company can significantly downscale due to inadequacy of health and safety policies adopted by the organization, (Shikdar, 2003, p563). As part of organizational behavior determinants, health and safety has been an important area of interest for many industries such as construction, telecommunication and manufacturing industries. Therefore, in this essay, we shall look at various risks that can compromise the health and safety of employees at workplace, legal standards set by the UK authorities regarding health and safety, organizational measures and a brief summary of the key issues. Risks at workplaces that may compromise Health and safety of employees can be categorized into organizational climate and Operation-related risks. To start with, temperature and humidity affects the psychology of employees thereby leading to heat-related disorders as indicated by (Zheng, 2012, P228). . With adequate knowledge on stress management, employees end up losing concentration and doing lots of mistakes. High temperatures due to a squeezed working space and lack of early warning rating system subject individuals to heat stress. With this kind of risk, various measures have been put by various countries to counteract the effect of increasing temperature at the work place. For instance, legislation in most Canadian provinces have prompted installation of engineering and administrative control to reduce heat-stress risks should the heating in the workplace exceed the permissible levels by Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT), (Jay, 2010, P842). In the context of UK, a study showed that effect of heat on health is determined by the nature, size and capacity of the building, where building are said to be the modifier of the effect of climate on health outcome, (Anderson, 2013). Health and safety executive, urges employers to consult with employees in order to set a sensible heating climate. Ventilation is another environmental factor. The ventilation should be sufficient to avoid suffocations. The net effect of lack of proper ventilation is a general decline in productivity of individuals due to lose of concentration. A study by revealed that in a classroom, low ventilation rates reduced pupils’ attention and memory concentration, (Bakó-Biró, et al, 2012). The working room should have sufficient quantity of clean air. The organization is also required to adopt a cleaner production or eco-efficiency approach to production to reduce pollution within the entity. This is because pollution in form of harmful gases such as carbon-monoxide can have adverse health impact resulting from poor ventilation. Adopting pollution free methods in area where ventilation is perceived to be poor can really help reduce exposure of individuals to health and safety risks. Welfare at workplace has an impact on the health and safety in an organization. The quality of welfare in the organization determines the level of exposure to some welfare-associated risks. The welfare and health and safety are covered under the Health, safety and welfare regulations in UK. The sanitary and washing facilities if not well maintained can compromise the health of workers. The drinking water for workers and the quality of food is an important area of welfare. Where proper hygiene practice is not taken into account, may lead to health problems. In order to ensure that employees drink quality water, then they must be made aware of water that is fit and unfit for consumption. The facilities to eat and drink must always be clean. The code of practice approved by the executive should is usually adhered to by organizations to ensure that they offer bets welfare to the employees. The construction (health, safety and welfare) regulation 1999 provides guidance and standards to employers in ensuring that they meet provide welfare. Employee welfare has an important impact of increasing productivity of workers since it is a motivational factor, (Gallie et al, 2012, p23). In construction industry, there are several risks that can be addressed. The health and safety regulations of UK provide legislative measures that will help ensure healthy and safety of employees at workplaces. In the context of construction industry, in addition to the above discussed risks, employees at work place may be exposed to substances that are hazardous to health. Industrial emissions are effluents are major hazardous substances to the health of employees at workplace. Therefore, it is the capacity of employers to engage experts to provide their expertise in controlling emissions of these industrial effluents, (Aneziris, 2012, p36). The control of substances hazardous to health regulation 200216 vets some legal responsibilities to employers in ensuring that industrial emissions cause no harm to the health of employees and other individuals within the organization. The employer should therefore, undertake a risk assessment project to identify the level of risks associated with industrial emissions so as to find possible measures on how to control them Risk assessment tools are usually used to identify future potential hazards, (Rausand, 2013). Violence at work is also another risk on the health and safety of workers at workplaces. It can lead to stress and injuries at workplaces. Violence may be in various forms and not limited to physical violence. There are other forms of violence such as discrimination, abuse, bullying and harassment. Cases of violence are minimal and declining at a promising pace. A statistical report by Health and Safety Executive (HSE) showed that the risk of being a victim of violence through threats is similar to the last five years with an estimated 1.1% of working adults being the victim of more violence at workplace. Physical assaults have also been decreasing and they mostly involved robbery, wound and snatches. The statistics by CSEW 2013/14 also provided that an estimated 1.0% of women and 1.2% of men were victims of violence at workplace during the year. It also provided that 72% of violence resulted to physical injuries and the remaining 28% comprised of major bruises, black eye. Violence at work can be mitigated by instituting several practicable measures. Violence at workplace has been a major issue in healthcare centers, where a study revealed that emergency department workers were highly exposed to significant rates of physical and verbal abuse, (Taylor, 2011). Therefore, the way forward to handling internal violence arising from disputes among employees at workplace puzzles in the minds of directors and managers. Dispute resolution mechanism stands to be the only option for various organizations. Development and adopting an appropriate dispute resolution mechanism should involve employees too. This should be in consistent with the regulations of the UK health and safety. There are several measures that can be adopted by the employer to detect and prevent any form of violence within the entity. With the increasing incorporation of information systems by various organizations, the employers can adopt security detective and preventive devices such as CCTVs, alarms, mobile phones and instituting access control mechanism. The organization’s duties and responsibilities should be well defined to reduce collision as they form a source of internal disputes. Other hazardous activities that may compromise the health and safety of employees at workplace include activities that may cause accidents within the entity. This includes falls from work at height, slips and trips, (Hughes, 2011).. Fall from work at height is a major incident in the construction industry. This is regulated by two provisions of the UK health and safety regulations. One of the regulations is ‘The control of Vibration at work regulation 200529’. This regulation requires employers to use experts in controlling the vibration at work. Some heavy equipment may be used in construction that can actually cause vibration and resulting to accidents. Vibration might cause fall from work at height causing severe injuries or even death. Another regulation is the Provision and use of equipment Act 199846. This regulation vests the employer with responsibility of providing equipments that meet the required standards as provide in ISO 9000. The equipments should only be used for the purpose it was meant for. Inappropriate and poor standard equipments can result to fall from work at height. Employers are also required to provide helmet to workers at the construction site. The other regulation is the work at height regulation. This regulation provides control to preventing falls at work at height. The standard requires that work at height be eliminated, sufficient equipments be availed, providing supervisona and training workers. The construction regulation 2007 deals with design and management of construction work. The construction work needs to be well designed by experts in that field together with the employer. A well designed construction project will reduce the cases of fall from work at height. The typology should be realistic and easy to be achieved. This standard provides the responsibilities of the client or employer in the designing process and his role in the management process. Biological and chemical risk hazards are also other factors that can affect the health and safety at workplace. Apart from emissions, employees are usually subjected to various chemicals especially in the manufacturing industry. These harmful chemicals are in various forms such as toxics, corrosive, carcinogenic and mutagenic. All these can cause both acute and chronic health effects that are fatal to human beings. The EU has mandated every manufacturer that risk-phrases appear on each label and safety data sheet for hazardous substances. This is following the implementation of Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals. Therefore, the manufacturing entities should adopt strategic measures to ensure safety of individuals from inhalation, absorption and ingestion of harmful chemicals. Conclusion Health and safety of employees is a very important aspect that needs to be regulated. Employers should adopt measures that are consistent with the existing standards on ensuring the health and safety of workers at workplace is looked upon. There are various organization risks that can compromise the health of workers and the level of safety they experience. It has been identified in many researches that various organizational risks can be handled or reduced through a risk assessment process, which should always be undertaken during job designing process. Risk assessment provide individual with vital information that help them adopt a strategic approach to minimize the exposure of individuals to potential risks. The risks workers are exposed to include temperature and humidity level in the business. This can cause significant decline in productivity of individual with poor air conditioning facilities. The other risk may be posed by poor ventilation. There is need to provide sufficient ventilation to ensure that cool and fresh air is inhaled by workers. Sufficient ventilation will also ensure that harmful gases do not concentrate in the organization. In construction, the workers are exposing to risks that can cause severe injuries and even lifetime disabilities. The fall form work at height is one of the major components of risks associated in the construction industry. The fall from work at height may be caused by use of inappropriate equipments which are not standard. Vibration at workplace may also cause fall at work at height. To minimize such risks, the regulations have been put in place to ensure that such incidents are minimal. Employee welfare is also another item that can compromise the health and safety of workers. The employers should institute good welfare systems that will ensure the safety of workers in terms of health. References Neal, A., Griffin, M. A., & Hart, P. M. (2000). The impact of organizational climate on safety climate and individual behavior. Safety science, 34(1), 99-109. Shikdar, A. A., & Sawaqed, N. M. (2003). Worker productivity, and occupational health and safety issues in selected industries. Computers & industrial engineering, 45(4), 563-572. Zheng, G., Zhu, N., Tian, Z., Chen, Y., & Sun, B. (2012). Application of a trapezoidal fuzzy AHP method for work safety evaluation and early warning rating of hot and humid environments. Safety Science, 50(2), 228-239. Hughes, P., & Ferrett, E. (2011). Introduction to health and safety at work. Routledge. Jay, O., & Kenny, G. P. (2010). Heat exposure in the Canadian workplace. American journal of industrial medicine, 53(8), 842-853. Anderson, M., Carmichael, C., Murray, V., Dengel, A., & Swainson, M. (2013). Defining indoor heat thresholds for health in the UK. Perspectives in public health, 133(3), 158-164. Bakó-Biró, Z., Clements-Croome, D. J., Kochhar, N., Awbi, H. B., & Williams, M. J. (2012). Ventilation rates in schools and pupils’ performance. Building and Environment, 48, 215-223. Rausand, M. (2013). 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