Contemporary

Issues
in Lec-3
Human Resource -Occupational Health and
Management Safety
IMPORTANCE OF OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY
AND HEALTH
• Human resource is the most
voluble resource
• Good health and safety
practices may help improve
productivity
• Accidents and occupational
diseases could bring down
the moral of workers
• Repeated accidents can
create fear and
uncomfortable working
 COST OF OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES AND
INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS
• Direct costs
• Cost of compensation
• Medical fees
• Hospitalization expenses
• Higher insurance cost
• Damage or waste of products and raw
materials

• Indirect costs
• Decreased productivity
• Hire and train new workers
• Management time
• The Integrated Benefits Institute estimated that poor health costs US
businesses $530 billion in lost productivity.
• The European Risk Agency estimated that Switzerland lost 1.2 percent
of its GDP to stress, while Germany lost 9.9 million euros in direct costs
of employee stress.
• In other words, no matter how you look at it, unhealthy employees
cost your businesses.
• Whether it’s through stress from an unreasonable workload or the
costs of “presentism” (which is when someone comes to work and
goes through the motions, but isn’t being productive–usually due to
illness or stress), it’s a lot of money.
• Understandably, companies want to reduce the costs associated with
employee health.
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What is Employee Health?
• Employee health encompasses the physical and mental status of your
employees.
• It can cover illness and wellness in the same breath. When we talk
about health, physical health comes into mind first, but mental health
is just as important. And bad physical health can lead to bad mental
health and vice versa.
• We can also talk about the wellness and prevention side of employee
health. Smoking, lack of exercise, and bad eating habits are areas in
which companies often want to intervene. Annual physicals and even
free flu shots are something that companies are concerned with. All
of it rolls into one employee health package.
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 AIM OF HEALTH AND SAFETY AT
WORK
• Protection and maintenance of highest degree of
• Physical
• Mental
• Social well-being
• of all workers of all occupations.
PHYSICAL WELL-BEING
• Free from illness,
injury or pain
MENTAL WELL-BEING
• understand own abilities, ability to
cope with the normal stresses of
life, can work productively and
fruitfully, and able to make a
contribution to his or her community
Social well-being
• Social Integration, social
contribution, social coherence,
social acceptance
 Occupatio
nal health
and
safety

Occupatio Occupatio
nal nal
health safety
• physical and physiological well being of employees
in and
out of the work place

• A working environment free of accidents and

occupational diseases, that may cause personal
injury or ill health (Caused by hazards and
industrial pollution)
HEALTH HAZARDS
1. Physical Hazards
Heat, Cold, Light, Noise,
Vibration, Pressure, Radiation
2. Chemical hazards
Dose of Gases, Fumes, Solids, Liquids or
Dust
3. Biological Hazards Psycho-social
Hazards
Affect to Mental well being
4. Ergonomics
Anatomical mismatches leads to various
muscular and skeletal disorders
 PHYSICAL
HAZARDS
Arising out of Effect Who is in What is Solutions
danger the risk
Heat
Cold
Noise
Light
Noise
Vibration
Pressure
Radiation
CHEMICAL HAZARDS
• All chemicals are poisonous.
• It is the dosage, determines whether a chemical is
safe or hazardous.
• Chemicals could
find in any foam • Can enter human • Nature of effect
Solid body through • Immediate
• Liquid, • Mouth Distant Local
Dust • Lungs or
Fumes skin
Gas
 BIOLOGICAL HAZARDS

• Caused by virus, fungus

or bacteria

ERGONOMIC
• Match the man
to job
• Muscular and skeletal
disorders
PSYCHO-SOCIAL HAZARDS

• Nature of the job

• Role of the person
• Inter-personal
relationship
• Career development
• Etc…
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY
• Industrial Accidents
Unexpected/ unforeseen /unplanned happening. Which
can course personal injury that would disrupt normal
course of duties of an employee.

• Human failures cause accidents

Injured person – carelessness (Initial blame)
Lower levels - Little regard to safety rules
and precautions (Attitude ?)
Top management - Ignorance of legal
and moral responsibilities (Attitude ?)
• UNSAFE • UNSAFE PERSONAL
CHEMICALS ACTS
 Policy Matter: HOW TO REDUCE
ACCIDENTS
• Check for and remove • Create safety concern
unsafe conditions culture
- If cannot remove • Show that safety is a
guard it. high priority

• Through selection of • Enforce safety

employees rules
• Screen out accident
prone employees
• Conduct safety and health
• Establish a safety policy inspections
• Investigate accidents and near
• Set safety goals misses
• Analyze the incidents • System of upward communication
• Through genuine top management
commitment
• Personal involvement in safety activities regularly

• Giving high priority to safety matters in meetings and

production scheduling

• Giving a high rank and status for safety officer

 LAWS RELATING TO INDUSTRIAL
HEALTH AND SAFETY
• Workman compensation ordinance (No 19 of 1934) modified
Act No. 15 of 1990
• To provide compensation

• Factories ordinance No.45 of 1942

• To provide safety and welfare for workers in factories General
Provisions – Health
General Provisions – Safety General
Provisions – Welfare

The Punjab Occupational Safety and Health Act 2019

• General Provisions – Health
Every factory should be maintained
• in a cleaned state
• Accumulated dirt and refuse should be removed daily
• Floor of everyworkroom should be cleaned by washing or
sweeping
• At least once a week
• Factory should not be over crowded
• 400 cube feet per employee
• Maintain at reasonable Temperature and suitable and
adequate ventilation and lighting
• Sanitary convenience
• Separate sanitary convenience for males and females
General Provisions – Safety

• Moving parts should be securely fenced

• Any vessel containing dangerous substance should be covered or

securely contained

• Hoist and lift should be of good mechanical construction and examin

by a competent person once a year

• Fire exit and fire fighting appliances should be installed and properly
maintained

• Sound construction and maintained

• Safety requirements for steam boilers

 General Provisions –
Welfare
• All employees should be provided with suitable
Drinking
water

• Adequate and suitable Washing facility for

employees

• Accommodation for clothing not worn during

working hours

• A first-aid box -at a reasonable accessible place

• Suitable and sufficient facilities for resting for

OBJECTIVES OF SAFETY
MANAGEMENT
• To make environment safe

• To make the job safe

• To make workers adhere to safety

conditions
Ensure employers responsibility of
providing
• Properly planned equipments

• Safe systems and methods of work

• Sufficient personnel to carryout

work safely

• Reasonably competent people

• Proper induction and adequate

supervision

• Adequate safety measures

BENEFITS OF GOOD SAFETY MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM
• Cost benefits

• Safe environment for social responsibility

• Better industrial relations

• High moral – high productivity

• Enhanced co-operation between

employer and employee
HEALTH AND SAFETY PROBLEMS
AFFECT
• Insurance cost
• Benefits and compensation to injured employees
• Medical cost
• Legal cost
• Future claims for related injuries
• Work interruption and cleanup work after injuries
What can your organization do?
• Happy and healthy employees cost you less and bring in higher
productivity levels.
• In larger organizations, one of the people involved with the employee
health efforts will be the compensation and benefits manager, while
in a smaller company this may just be another responsibility of an HR
generalist.
• Here are some ideas of what you can do to improve employee health
within your organization.

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1. Wellness programs
• Employee wellness programs are popular for a good reason – people love
the idea of getting their employees to exercise more or think about their
eating habits – and assume this will translate into healthier employees. The
problem is, they often don’t work.
• A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association
tracked warehouse workers. Those who used the wellness program did
exercise at a higher rate, but “but there were no significant differences in
other self-reported health and behaviors; clinical markers of health; health
care spending or utilization; or absenteeism, tenure, or job performance
after 18 months.”
• Regular exercise will benefit employees in the long run, but not within the
18 months of the study.
• Wellness programs can be fun but aren’t necessarily the best choice for
improving employee health.
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• Nike’s Wellness Program
• As is to be expected from a company in
the sportswear business, Nike – or at least
its world headquarters in Beaverton,
Oregon – has an impressive fitness center
at the disposal of its employees.
• The ‘Bo Jackson Center’ boasts weight
rooms, yoga studios, and a cross-training
room. On top of an indoor basketball
court and a turf field that is. Elsewhere on
the 200-acre Nike campus employees get
to enjoy an Olympic sized swimming pool
and, believe it or not, a rock climbing wall.

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2. Encourage vacation time
• Vacation time (preferably paid) remains one of the benefits employees
value most.
• Europe has a considerable advantage over the United States, which has
no mandatory vacation time.
• Stepping away from work and taking a vacation reduces stress, lowers
the risk of burn out, and increases productivity.
• Being and HR Manager Make sure your employees take the vacation
time they are entitled to. Change your policies to encourage vacation
usage.
• The senior team needs to take their vacation time as well.

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3. Encourage preventative health care
• Step one: offer free flu shots at the office. In the United States, the flu
costs $10.4 billion per year. Remember that employers pay for
healthcare as well, so much of that cost is directly on business
shoulders. Preventative care saves lives and money.
• Other preventative care can also reduce costs. If your employees have
chronic conditions, making sure they have the time to see their
doctors can help keep their conditions under control and your
employees at work.
• Make sure you encourage your employees to have regular checkups.

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4. Focus on Mental Health
• Depression costs 617 billion euros per year in Europe.
• Stress is a substantial, contributing factor to depression and burnout.
• Do you have adequate staffing levels? Are people working 60 hour
work weeks? Do your HR managers have proper training so that they
can support their staff? Remember, managing isn’t just about doing
the work, but leading the team.
• If your HR managers and Team Leaders create a toxic environment,
the stress levels will increase.
• Managers who bully or ignore bully employees create a toxic
environment that damages your employees, lowers productivity, and
increases turnover.

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