EMP 5103
RELIABILITY, QUALITY AND SAFETY ENGINEERING
EMP 5103 TERM PROJECT ON: WORKPLACE SAFETY
SUMMARY
In this paper, workplace safety is discussed. Analysis of historical data on workplace accidents were used to establish the need and importance of workplace safety.
Relationship between Safety and Reliability Engineering was established to show how reliability engineering techniques and methods can be used to evaluate, identify risk prone activities and machines, with a view of reducing to the bear minimum the faulty equipment and/or factors that cause workplace accidents.
Safety management and safety programs like
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Alice Hamilton became the first woman physician appointed to a faculty position at Harvard University, where she worked at the School of Public Health promoting safe and healthful work practices in the United States. She has been recognized as the leader of the occupational medicine movement in the United States, which came relatively late compared with that in Europe.
Early humans took necessary precautions to guard against natural hazards around them. Also, in 2000 B.C., Hammurabi, an ancient Babylonian ruler, developed a code known as Code of Hammurabi. This code included clauses on items such as monetary damages against people who caused injury to others and allowable fees for physicians.
It is Workplace Safety has been an age old issue. Humans have always sought to be safe and secure within their workplace while also ensuring the protection and prolong use of machines and equipment.
Timeline for the Development of Safety
- Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD): during grinding tasks, workers were instructed that they must wear masks (historia naturalis)
- 1893 in the USA: Rail Safety Act
- 1938 in the USA: Food, Drugs and Cosmetic Act
- 1970: Occupational Safety and Health Act
- Nuclear regulatory commission
- Consumer product safety
- Commission
- National Transportation Safety Board
- Federal Aviation Agency (FAA)
1.2 WORKPLACE SAFETY.
Safety is the preservation of human life and the prevention of accidents and damage
Employers, managers and supervisors should all ensure that workplace practices reflect the risk assessment and safety statement. Behavior, the way in which everyone works, must reflect the safe working practices laid down in these documents. Supervisory checks and audits should be carried out to determine how well the aims set down are being achieved. Corrective action should be taken when required. Additionally, if a workplace is provided for use by others. The safety statement must also set out the safe work practices that are relevant to them. Hence, it is
Thousands of years ago a King Hammurabi wrote a set of 282 laws called Hammurabi’s Code to protect the weak. Hammurabi’s Code was just by it protecting the family. In addition, it protected the property by helping people in need. Finally, it protected personal injury by it giving aid to the injured.
The human resources process has to accompany both the employee and employer in regard to safety issues. An employee wants the assurance of safe and healthy working conditions; anything less exposes danger to their own wellbeing. In addition employees must take heed to precautions design by the organization. However an employer wants to avoid expenditures in overhead by cutting cost or corners often putting their employees at harmful risk. In addition, organizations also have a lawful obligation in which they have to provide a safe workplace by preventing accidents, hazards, serious injuries or accident-related deaths. Negligence on either behalf can result in determination, fines, citations, work-related
Accordingly, they found 48 employer safety obligations (e.g., provide personal protective equipment, reward safe working behaviour, and investigates hazards and risks), and 36 employee safety obligation items such as use work equipment properly, report safety incident, and follow safety rules.. However, even though they did not use psychometrically validated measurement, those obligation items can be used in the measuring physical psychological safety. Thus, physical risk psychological safety items will be derived from this measurement.
Due to the high rate of illnesses, accidents and injuries in the industry, the organization further developed a hazard recognition program. This was greatly supported by the directives and the standards the organization drafted. The organization also set a safety and health program. This mainly depended on the credibility of management’s involvement in the program. This program provided for the inclusion of the employees in the program. The program also provided for the inclusion of the employees in the different decision making processes such as the safety and health decisions. The employees were also to be included in the decisions that involved change in the work site practices and conditions. The program addressed hazards despite failure by the government standard to regulate it (Brain Mass, 2010).
Hence, it would be important for a researcher to explore how work place safety practices of policies affect either employee productivity or the general organizational productivity. The following research question can be developed along this proposal to pursue further light on the issue
Safety is an important function of our daily lives and requires the same attention we give other functions and processes within our daily job routines. Over the years as we continue to do our jobs and the same processes we can become less safe by using short cuts to make a process easier for ourselves. Also, the equipment we use begins to age and breakdown and cause unsafe conditions. Safety professionals use many different types of safety programs to combat safety related issues or problems one may encounter on a job site. Employee involvement is the most important part of any safety program. Without employee involvement safety programs are not as successful, because employees are sometimes not aware of the process and steps in place to protect them.
Data from the Bureau of Labor statistics states that over 4.1 million people were injured on the job in 2006 and 5,488 were killed in 2007 (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin, & Cardy, 2010). All levels of government have passed laws to regulate and maintain safety in the workplace. There are two basic levels of workplace safety laws that affect most workers. On a state level it is workers' compensation laws. On a federal level it is the Occupation Safety and Health Act of 1970 (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin, & Cardy, 2010). When it comes to the various objectives, policies, and operations of these two levels of law, one will notice how
According to the Bureau of Labor, statistics indicate that more than 4.1 million people were hurt or injured on-the-job in 2006 and 5,488 were killed in 2007 (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin, & Cardy, 2010, p. 511). Laws and regulatory requirements are currently in place to standardize and promote workplace safety. Organizations with extensive safety programs have reduced number of accidents, decreased workers’ compensation claims and lawsuits and lesser accident-related expenditures (Gomez-Mejia, et al, 2010, p. 511). This paper discusses the effects of legal, safety and regulatory requirements in
Health and safety policies and procedures were set out to explain what is needed to maintain a safe working environment and adhere to rules and regulation of health and safety regulation. Every working environment must have a safe entrance and exit. In order to minimised risk to health and safety, every equipment must be tested and ensure it is safe to use.
It is most important risk factor in every body’s workplace, occupational health and safety regulation requires that all foreseeable hazards are identified and the risk arising from these are hazards are controlled. The hazards are also include object in the workplace, such as machinery chemicals. Sometimes in the workplace the customers or employer are injured so they compliance breach and customer charge and reputation is
Organized labor has played a major part in the development of the safety movement. Sometimes management would think of organized labor use of safety issues as an advantage for better pay for the workers. On the positive side, the organized labor helped overturn the anti-labor laws relating to safety in the workplace (Goetsch, 2011). Through all the years of the past, safety concerns was nothing more than an expense that management and owners did not want to experience.
As you may have recently heard, lately we received news from the corporate headquarters that it would be in the best interest of the entire company to pay more attention to matters of preventing accidents and any other safety-related measures that affect the workplace, including both office and field activities related to all types of jobs that we complete. Every single employee in each office at every branch needs to be mindful in this regard so that he/she is most efficient and effective in the daily performance of his/her everyday tasks that relate to their job responsibilities so that safety is
The role of human resource department is vital to the success of the organization and its employees. Back in the day, they called it the "personnel department" because of its systems in place for the people of the organization. During this assignment, I will be discussing the human resource systems and how they handle issues in the organization. More specifically, I'll be discussing how my last facility addressed workplace safety issues related to staffing the labor & delivery unit.
It is important it have a written work Health and Safety Policy for the organizations and businesses which have management systems. The Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 addresses Major Hazard Facilities in Regulation 558 and Schedule 17(1.2) and requires that the Safety Management System includes a Safety Policy, including the operator’s broad aims in relation to the safe operation of the major hazard facility, and that the safety policy must include and express commitment to ongoing improvement of all aspects of the safety management system. A Work Health and Safety Policy is an explicit statement of business commitment to work health and safety. It will include a statement outlining the importance which is placed on work health and safety and how it is to be implemented.