Occupational Health and Safety

What is Occupational Health and Safety (OHS)?

• Concerned with the organisation’s responsibility in relation to providing a healthy and safe work environment.

Key Features

• Encompasses both physical and psychological aspects of health and safety.
• Mainly concerned with health and safety of workers, but also other parties (e.g., customers, visitors)
• Based on doing what is ‘reasonably practicable’ to ensure highest levels of health and safety

Deaths and injuries in the Workplace

• Approximately 2900 work-related deaths and 650000 injuries in Australia every year.  
• Annual economic loss of approximately $34 billion.  
• Major injury causes: 

• Mechanical failure, Being hit by a moving object, Harm by chemicals, Falls, trips and slips, Heat, radiation and electricity, Vehicle accidents  

Importance of OHS

• Ensures that the organisation meets its responsibility to workers.  
• Improves employee outcomes (e.g., commitment, morale).  
• Makes the organisation more attractive to applicants.  
• Reduces costs (e.g., insurance claims, absenteeism).  
• Improves productivity.  
• Meets legal requirements  

OHS Strategies

• Obstructionist (economic)

• Based on economic considerations only
• Emphasis is on minimising costs and social responsibility

• Defensive (economic and legal)

• Based on economic and legal considerations
• Do the minimum required by law and not more

• Accommodative (economic, legal, ethical)

• Based on economic, legal and ethical considerations  
• Do what is required to meet legal obligations and to be perceived as ethical  

• Proactive (economic, legal, ethical, discretionary)

• Involves going beyond economic, legal and ethical considerations through discretionary actions that reinforce the company as a good corporate citizen  

Regulation of OHS

• In Australia OHS activities are governed by legislation.  
• This involves OHS Acts that involve broad duties and that are accompanied by Codes of Practice and regulations that address particular risks.  
• Traditionally legislation has been state-based but this has created inconsistencies between states and added to complexities for organisations in multiple jurisdictions.  
• Currently the new Work Health and Safety Act is being implemented as a uniform set of OHS laws across most states.
• Features of the new Act:

• Organisations have to ensure workplace safety for all types of workers engaged in organisational activities and other affected people.  
• Workers are obliged to undertake reasonable care for themselves and others, and to cooperate with reasonable organisational instructions.  
• Enforcement through a process of inspection, investigation, education and prosecution.  
• Maximum fines of $3 million and custodial sentences for serious breaches.  

• Safe Work Australia

• Is an independent statutory agency set up in 2009 to replace the Australian Safety and Compensation Council (ASCC).  
• Responsible for improving work health and safety and worker’s compensation arrangements across Australia  
• Functions include developing national OHS policy, preparing and monitoring adoption of Acts and Codes, and conducting and publishing OHS research.  

Current health and safety issues

• Fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) workers→ offer family-sensitive rosters.
• Terrorism
• Sexual harassment
• Smoking
• Substance abuse
• Obesity
• Depression
• Homebased workers
• Workplace violence
• Domestic violence
• Workplace bullying (but some are playing the system for psychological injury compensation).
• Work-family conflict.

Workplace Hazards

• Workplace hazards are factors that expose individuals to possible injury or illness at work. Harm is the potential outcomes associated with the hazard.  
• Physical hazards (e.g., heat, radiation, noise)  
• Chemical hazards (e.g., asbestos)  
• Ergonomic hazards (e.g., repetitive tasks, long hours)  
• Psychsocial issues (e.g., bullying, harassment)  

Risk Assessment

• Risk refers to the probability that the hazard will lead to harm and the severity of the consequences of the harm.  
• Risk assessment involves: 

• Identifying hazards
• Assessing likelihood and consequence of harm
• Deciding whether hazard can be eliminated
• Controlling hazard so that it doesn’t result in harm  

• Risk assessment should be conducted regularly, especially after workplace change.  
• Trained assessors are more likely to notice hazards and are better at estimating risk.  

Risk Controls

• Elimination  
• Substitution  
• Isolation  
• Engineering controls  
• Administrative controls  
• Protective equipment  

OHS Management Systems

• A systematic approach to managing health and safety that is comprised of three elements:

• Organisation, responsibility and accountability
• Consultative arrangements
• Specific program elements  

• Responsibility and accountability is shared among employees and managers (HR, line, senior and executive).  
• Consultative arrangements are in place that involve OHS representatives and committees and that support employee participation.  

• Specific OHS program elements include:

• Health and safety rules and procedures
• Training programs
• Workplace inspections
• Incident reporting and investigation
• Data collection and analysis/record keeping
• OHS promotion and information provision
• Emergency procedures

Positive Safety Culture

• Positive safety culture refers to values, attitudes and beliefs in relation to safety that are shared by an organisation’s members and that reflect a commitment to promoting safety.  
• Key aspects:

• OHS management systems
• Management commitment to safety
• Active employee involvement
• Information systems that monitor and evaluate OHS performance  

Evaluating OHS Performance

• Three types of measures include outcome, input and process measures .  
• Outcome measures

• Assess OHS outcomes such as lost time, near misses, and compensation claims and costs  
• Example: Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR)  
• LTIFR = # of injuries * 1000000/# of hrs worked in accounting period  
• If 100 workers worked for 500 hours each and there were 4 accidents then LTIFR = (4*1000000)/(100*500) = 80 injuries per million work hours.  
• Outcome measures are often included in annual reports and provide a general indication of OHS effectiveness.  

• Input measures

• Assess the input of stakeholders and other inputs into OHS  – Include measures such as senior management written commitments, OHS reports to the board, resource expenditure on OHS, and the numbers and qualifications of OHS specialist staff.  

• Process measures

• Assess the extent to which OHS management is being implemented.  
• Focus on factors such as risk management (e.g., % of reported incidents investigated), participation (e.g., % of staff with adequate OHS training), monitoring and review (e.g., % of OHS systems audit recommendations implemented).

Employee Stress

• Refers to a process by which an individual responds to the demands and pressures of the workplace.
• Stress is caused by stressors – the stimuli and circumstances that initiate the stress process.  
• Exposure to the stressor leads to changes in the person:

• Physiological: Rapid heartbeat, increased blood pressure, dry mouth
• Psychological: Feelings of tension, nervousness, anxiety  

• Stress by itself is not necessarily bad, but excessive stress or stress over a long period can result in health problems.  

Work-Related Sources of Stress

• Job-specific factors

• Workload (Burnout: state of mental exhaustion vs. rust out vs. shift work)
• Shiftwork
• Role ambiguity

• Interpersonal relationships at work

• Poor relationships with superiors, subordinates and peers
• Especially problematic in highly political organisations
• Workplace bullying and harassment  

• Physical environment

• Excessive noise
• Lighting
• Temperature
• Crowding and lack of privacy  

• Organisational change

• Change can cause uncertainty, require adaptation to new situations, and increase job insecurity  
• Types of change that induce uncertainty include takeovers and mergers, downsizing, and new technology  

Personal Characteristics and Stress

• Not all individuals are equally susceptible to stress; personality can influence how an individual reacts to stressors.  
• ‘Big Five’ Personality Factors

• Individuals who score higher on Neuroticism are more vulnerable to stress than individuals who score low on Neuroticism.  

• Type A and Type B Personality Types

• Type A: Competitive, time-conscious, impatient, perfectionist
• Type B: Easy-going, relaxed, patient
• Type A more likely to be stressed and create stress in others; also more susceptible to coronary heart disease than Type B.  

External Factors:

• Economic conditions
• Government laws and regulations
• Travel
• Community values
• Crime

Consequences of Stress

• Performance: Curvilinear relationship between stress and performance.  
• Job attitudes: Stress is associated with greater job dissatisfaction  
• Burnout: Over time stress leads to emotional exhaustion, cynicism and lower professional efficacy  
• Physical effects: Stress is associated with both minor ailments (e.g., flu, migraine, back pain) and serious illness (e.g., hypertension, heart disease).  
• Behavioural effects: Stress is associated with aggression, substance abuse and withdrawal.  

Stress Management Techniques

• Stressor reduction (primary intervention)

• Reduce or eliminate factor causing stress (e.g., less workload, more support)  
• Effective but can be costly and impractical  

• Stress management training (secondary intervention)

• Change the way the person reacts to the stressor  
• Cognitive-behavioural methods focus on changing beliefs about the situation  
• Relaxation methods focus on modifying emotional response to the situation  
• May also focus on other strategies (e.g., Exercise, diet, talk, planning and time management)  

• Employee assistance programs (tertiary intervention)  

• Focus on treating and rehabilitating employees who are experiencing stress

Current Issues on OHS

• Workplace bullying

• Refers to repeated unreasonable behaviours that create a hostile work environment.  
• Can take many forms: Verbal humiliation, physical assault, making, setting impossible work targets, unreasonable demands, intrusive surveillance, etc.  
• Can be done by one person or by a group; typically involves someone higher up as the bully (e.g., supervisor) can occur anywhere in the organisation.  
• Factors that precipitate bullying include organisational cultures that emphasise conformity, jobs that have high levels of role ambiguity and role conflict along with low employee control, and authoritarian or laissez- faire leadership styles.  
• Strategies for dealing with and preventing bullying include having a workplace bullying policy, having a system for handling complaints, training to increase awareness and implications of bullying, taking disciplinary actions against individuals/groups who engage in bullying.  

• Workplace violence

• Workplace violence is a prevalent issue in Australia, especially in the health, welfare, restaurant, education, retail, and road and rail transport industries.  
• More recently, workplace homicides due to disgruntled workers have increased, especially in the U.S.  
• Violence is precipitated by unfair treatment and an organisational culture that accepts aggressive behaviour.  
• Workplace violence can be addressed through selection procedures

• (e.g., reference checks), training managers to detect signs of violence
• (e.g., verbal threats, frustration), HR policies, systems through which employees can report threats, and increased security  

optimum stimulation =stress (high performance)