RECOMMENDATIONS FOR OCCUPATIONAL
AND SAFETY STANDARDS
Prepared for
Mohd Hashim Abdullah, Managing
Director
MA Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd.
34A, Taman
Perindustrian Mega,
25000 Kuantan
By
Marzia bt Jantan, Occupational
Health Manager
MA Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd.
34A Taman
Perindustrian Mega,
25000 Kuantan
6 November 2012
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Special
thanks to my lecturer for giving me chances to complete this report writing
with full support and supervision. I really appreciate the information given
how to do my report as required by the course. Even it seems quite difficult
for me to complete it, but it teaches me a lot in order to make it as good as I
can.
I
also would like to thank to my family members for their support and concern
since I have to spend most of my times to complete this report. Fortunately,
they really understand me. Finally, I would like to thank to my collagues for
helping me to find sources and information and I really appreciate it. Thank
you.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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NO.
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CONTENTS
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PAGES
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1.
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1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Problem
1.2 Purpose of Report
1.3 Overview of Report
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2.
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2.0 BODY
2.1 Present Situation
2.2 Possible problem
i. Increase number of
injures
ii. Decrease in production
level
iii. Cost incurred
iv. Decrease in quality
and quantity of product
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3.
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3.0 RATIONALE FOR CHANGES
3.1 Facilities/equipment/infrastructure
3.2 Personnel
3.3 Cost
3.4 Benefits
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4.
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4.0 CONCLUSION
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5.
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5.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
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6.
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6.0 REFERENCES
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Report
on Company Occupational and Safety Standards
(A) Terms of Reference
From
the observation made and the preparation made to achieve occupational and
safety standards for the company, the Occupational Health Manager requested
some investigations regarding workplace safety. A report on making
recommendations for improvements was to be submitted by Tuesday, 6 November
2012.
(B) Procedure
To
identify specific information from the observation, the investigation has been taken
based on following procedures:
1. Interviews
were held for the supervisory and the operations personnel.
2. A
survey and questionnaire was designed, focusing on current:
·
Attitudes towards safety at workplace
·
Environment and surrounding at workplace
·
Labours knowledge about workplace safety
·
Understanding on workplace safety policy
3. Investigators
were put in the factory to observe the problem.
4. Study
has been done for accident reports in 2011 and 2012.
5. A
research on theory and practice about occupational and safety standards was
made.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF PROBLEM
There are many issues
regarding safety at workplace. The problem arises due to ignorance of workers
on safety regulations that have been set up by company for them. Many accidents
occurred at workplace especially in industrial areas and this lead to unsafe
working environment to the workers. Lack
of information and ignorance on the safety regulations cause a very serious
problem of accidents at workplace. For example, in Nepal OSH
Industrial sector is
the most risky occupational hazards compared to other sectors. It may create
unsafe work and work environment because of the inherent sources of hazards in
material, process, technology or products. These sources of hazard may expose
risk in occurring diseases and happening accidents to the employees within the
industrial premises. The study on Nepal cases, the report estimated that each
year approximately 20,000 workers suffers from accidents at workplace which
lead about 200 live lost in Nepal (Internet Source : Current Occupational
Safety and Health in Nepal). This report shows the currents situation on safety
working environment and problem occurred when the safety regulations have been
neglected by the company and the workers as well.
Many incidents have
been reported in manufacturing industries where large numbers workers were
injured due to the lack of safety provisions. Generally, industrial workers
suffer from the occupational diseases related to brain, mouth and teeth, neck,
back, chest, lungs, hand and wrist, abdomen, lever, kidney and many more
dangerous diseases due to work in this particular industries. Occupational
accidents seem to be nominal in government record but it cannot be taken as
actual situation since there is more than that which has not been reported to
labour officers but solve it within workplace.
The major cause of under-reporting of such accidents is also attributed
to very low awareness on legal provisions concerning OSH
1.2 REPORT
FINDING
Due to my observation regarding
ignorance of safety among the workers, I suggested managing director to take
further investigation on this problem. The purpose of this report is to address
the impact of the problem and how to overcome it because it will affect the
performance of the company in the future. It also to reduce the risk faced by
company if accidents occurred at workplace since company can prevent it by
introducing new working environment and enhances workers awareness about the
safety regulations. Company should take immediate actions because most of the
workers were bluntly ignore their safety and not follow the rules as stated by
the company. This problem occurred because of many factors such as lack of
information on safety regulations, take safety as minor concern, not exposed to
the effect of ignoring safety and not been force to take safety as serious
matter.
1.3 OVERVIEW
Due
to observation and investigation made to this problem, it shows that the
effects company will face if there is no action be taken. To ensure that
company will perform better in the future, some changes need to be done so that
company will be able to face any consequences in the future. Reflect to the
observation made at the factory, most of the workers ignore the safety and
careless to take care of themselves from bad injures. The problem that will be
faced by company are law actions about safety policy if the company not expose
the workers with the safety regulations, cost involves when there are accidents
at workplace, law cases if workers take legal action if there are accidents
happen at workplace and investigation from legal officer about the occupational
safety and health of the workers to check if company neglecting workers’ right.
Besides, this report
also present the causes of the problem might be from less information about the
safety regulations to the workers, workers personality and no regular
observation from the company. If the problem persist and further actions not be
taken, the company has to face increase in numbers of injures at workplace, the
cost incurred, decrease in effectiveness of productivity of the workers,
decrease in the quality of the products as well as decrease in production
level.
2.0 BODY
2.1 PRESENT
SITUATION
Nowadays, accidents at workplace
become serious problem in occupational area. The most affected area is
industrial sector. This involves a lot of dangerous and tough works and it is
really important to the workers to understand the safety regulations.
Unfortunately, most of the workers in industrial sector ignore the safety at
workplace. The use of safety kits while doing their work is the most important
part that needs to be highlighted. This can reduce injures faced by them if
something happen at workplace. However, the workers tend to ignore the safety
regulations and more prefer to do it as what they like and never cares about
their safety. Nepal reported that most of their workers died because of many
factors like injures and diseases that cause from the unsafe environment of the
workplace.
Worker is the main asset of the
company. Company need to have a good relationship with the workers and need to
take into account about the safety and health of them. Ninety-five percent of
business executives report that workplace safety has a positive impact on a
company's financial performance, according to the findings of The Executive
Survey of Workplace Safety announced today by the Liberty Mutual Group, the
nation's leading provider of workers compensation insurance. This report shows that
safety environment at workplace can increase company profits because workers
feel confident and secure while doing their work. Besides, the benefits of
workplace safety go beyond the company's bottom-line, with 70 percent reporting
that protecting employees is a leading benefit of workplace safety.
Thus, in order for a workplace to be a productive and welcoming
environment, safety must be a priority. The overall plan and execution of
safety measures ensure that the staff or workers will be well-prepared and have
peace of mind on a daily basis. The best way to handle any bad situation is to
properly evaluate the steps and think about scenarios ahead of time. In order
to improve safety in a work environment, the company must analyze the location,
availability, and knowledge of the workers in regard to safety equipment,
evacuation plans, and emergency medical situations. This can help company to avoid direct and
indirect costs and suffer from losses.
2.2 POSSIBLE
PROBLEMS
i. Increase number of injures among
workers
The
workers are balntly ignore thier safety while doing their work and it is really
dangerous to them if accidents occured. Processing production highly need for a
safety environment because if the workers do a small mistake, it will cause bad
injures for them because they are working with dangerous machine in the
factory. According to the last year report, it shows that the number of injures
among the workers increase from 30% to 40% and the numbers may increase if the
is no action be taken to produce safety environment to the workers in the
factory.
The
statistic collected shows that most of the workers did not wear safety kit to
prevent them from serious injures. Most of them more prefer to wear what they
like and some of them are not protecting themselves from danger when they using
a machine. This becomes serious matter to control the situation and avoiding
from the accidents happen at the workplace.
ii. Decrease in production level
Unsafe
environment can affected the performance of the workers. Once accident
happened, the workers will afraid to perform their duty very well. They will be
more cautious and always be careful while doing their work. This will slow down
their productivity and performance bacause they are afraid they will get
injures and they must be very careful to avoid injures. Besides, most of the
work involves human task to handle the machine and if the number of injures
increase, company will lost the number of workers available to do the work. If
accidents occured, the company also need to shut down the operation for
sometimes because the police officers and the investigators will do some
investigation to investigate the cause of the accidents. Thus the factory can
not be operated and company will have to face lossesa and it will reduce the
production level as well as decrease the profits earned.
iii. Cost incurred
Once the
accident occured, there are many costs involved especially treatment cost,
summons, cost for legal action against company, cost for overtimes and production
cost. The costs incurred will affected the performance of the company in the
future. If the workers get injured, the company have to pay for the treatment
cost and it maybe costly if there are serious injures. Besides, company may
also face summons and legal action because not providing safety environment at
the workplace and not produce information about safety regulations to the
workers.
The cost
incurred maybe double and company need to give overtime payment to other
workers to cover their friends job. The workers need for extra time to work in
order to fulfill the demand of the product in the market. Furthermore, the
company also have to face production
cost which the company need to recover the cost while the production
process stopped for the investigation since the market demand for the product
need to be fulfill to avoid lost customers faith to the company’s product.
iv. Decrease in quality and quantity of the
product
When
there is no safe working environment, the workers tend to do their work less
effecient and this will reduce the quality of the products. The workers will do
mistakes and this will give effect to the company products. The quality of the
products is really important because customers will evaluate the company
performance and productivity. If the quality of the products does not sastify
customers desire, customers will change their demands to other types of
products that much better in the quality. This will give bad impact to the
company profits.
3.0 RATIONALE FOR CHANGES
3.1 FACILITIES/EQUIPMENT/INFRUSTRUCTURE
Enhancement
in technologies needs to be done for facilities and equipment. The old
equipment and facilities need to be replaced with the new one. This will help
to increase the quality of the product. Besides, it also can reduce the time to
process the product. The old equipment can expose the workers to the danger.
The workers need safe environment because it will help them to do their work
better as well as increase the productivity and efficiency of the product.
3.2 PERSONAL
The
safety of the workers is really important to the company. Besides, company also
needs to take good care the workers because they are one of the main assets for
the company. The workers need a safety environment at workplace. Thus, it is
really important to ensure that they received benefits and company will liable
and responsible for any injures faced by the workers while doing their work.
3.3 COST
The cost
incurred due to this matter can affect the performance of the company. Thus, to
avoid from facing this matter again, the company need to transform the
occupational and safety standards in the future. The high cost faced by company
can be avoided when company upgrade the equipment, facilities and the
infrastructure. The cost can be reduced to the minimum level and not give big
impact to the company’s performance and the production of the product. Company
can earned more profits when the cost incurred can be save more than
previously. Company also can reduce the cost of treatment, payment for overtime
and production cost. Thus, instead of continue using the old equipment, company
can moved to the new facilities that can produce more than company earned
previously. This can save cost in the future.
3.4 BENEFITS
Some
changes can give benefits to the company. Company will be able to produce a lot
of products and upgrade the quality of the products in the future. The company
needs some changes because this can benefits the workers, the production of the
products and the performance of the company progress in the future. The workers
can work safely and help them to improve their work’s performance with the new
facilities provided and enhamcement in safety regulations to protect the
worker’s benefits. Besides, the production of the product can also increase to
maximum level and the numbers of product sold in the market also increase due
to good productivity and efficiency of the workers.
4.0 CONCLUSION
Work
safety among the workers show the performance of the company. The safety
environment is one of the good value to the company. The investigation made from
the survey and analysis can help company to improve the safety rules and
enhance the workers’ knowledge about their rights and security.
The
investigation approach such as survey and questionare, interviews among
supervisor and the workers as well as the data collected from the investigators
help to increase workers awareness of the safety workplace . The rationale of
the investigation is to expose the workers with the safe working environment
that really important for them to avoid from any bad injures.
Some
changes need to be taken to avoid from having this matter in the future. The
replacement of the equipment to the new facilities, give good impact to the
production of the product. Besides, it also helps to improve the performance of
the workers to do their work more efficient and productive in the future. Thus,
safety wrokplace will lead to increase the efficiency and productivity of the
workers at production level.
5.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
Safety working environment is really important for the
workers. Company need to improve and add the information about the safety
regulations and paste it on board information and any areas which can be found
around the factory so that the wokers are alert with the danger or any
consiquence that might be happen if they are careless and ignore the safety
rules provided by the company. This can reduce the risk of bad injures and
reduce the risk that company will face if the is an accident because company
has provided a lot of information about the safety work in the factory.
Furthermore, the most effective way to improve safety in
the workplace is to encourage employees to be cognizant of it on a daily
basis. Employees should feel a sense of
efficacy when it comes to identifying potential workplace dangers,
brainstorming possible solutions, and working with management to prevent accidents.
Regular safety meetings, positive reinforcement, and other mechanisms can be
used to create a communicative work environment in which employees feel
empowered to make a difference when it comes to safety.
Besides, company also need to improve security system in
the factory. The company need to ensure that the maintanance for the security
system need to be done once a month to ensure that the system is functional. Mark
all of the building's exits clearly with signs that are visible in the daytime
as well as in the dark. Installing security or emergency lights that come on
when the power goes off is also important for keeping workers safe. The
Occupational Safety and Health Administration website explains that an
effective evacuation plan should be determined and practiced regularly, and
include fire drills and natural disaster preparation. Any danger can be avoided
and any injures can be reduced because the workers are alert with the emergancy
bell when suddenly something happen in the factory like fire. This will help
the workers to save themselves as soon as possible.
Company also need to promote workplace safety through
campaign, courses, forum and so on so that the workers know about it better and
increase their knowledge about the occupational and safety standards which can
protect them and benefits them if anything happen in the future. The company as
well need to encourage the workers to get insurance cover to protect them and
their family members if there is anything happen to them in the future. If the
accidents happen because of human mistakes, the company will not cover the cost
treatment and need to be covered by the workers themselves. Thus, it is really
important to the workers to get life insurance. This will reduce the burden
faced by them in the future.
