Employee Safety and Health

2. EmployeeSafetyandHealth Chapter 16

3. Chapter Overview • Occupational Safety and Health Act • The Causes of Accidents • How to Measure Safety • Organizational Safety Programs • Employee Health • Violence in the Workplace • Summary of Learning Objectives 16-3

4. Employee Safety and Health • Employee safety and health are important concerns in today’s organizations • Indirect costs include employers’ costs for health insurance and workers’ compensation • Health costs have escalated dramatically in recent decades • Occupational injuries and illnesses have always been common • U.S. Congress passed Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970 16-4

5. Occupational Safety and Health Act • Occupational Safety and Health Act • Federal law enacted in 1970 to ensure safe and healthful working conditions for every working person • Applies to all businesses with one or more employees (except self-employed persons) • General-duty clause • Clause in the Occupational Safety and Health Act covering those situations not addressed by specific standards • Requires employers to comply with the intent of the act 16-5

6. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Responsibilities • Encourage employers and employees to reduce workplace hazards and to implement new safety and health management systems or improve existing programs • Develop mandatory job safety and health standards and enforce them through worksite inspections, employer assistance, and, sometimes, by imposing citations, penalties, or both • Promote safe and healthful work environments through cooperative programs, partnerships, and alliances • Establish responsibilities and rights for employers and employees to achieve better safety and health conditions • Support the development of innovative ways of dealing with workplace hazards 16-6

7. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Responsibilities • Support the development of innovative ways of dealing with workplace hazards • Establish requirements for employers to keep records of injury and illness and, monitor certain occupational illnesses • Establish training programs to increase the competence of occupational safety and health personnel • Provide technical and compliance assistance and training and education to help employers reduce worker accidents and injuries • Work in partnership with states that operate their own occupational safety and health programs • Support the Consultation Programs offered by all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands 16-7

8. OSHA Standards • Establishes legally enforceable standards relating to employee health and safety • Currently OSHA issues standards for a wide variety of workplace hazards including • Toxic substances • Harmful physical agents • Electrical hazards • Fall hazards • Hazardous wastes • Infectious diseases • Fire and explosion hazards • Dangerous atmospheres • Machine hazards 16-8

9. OSHA Standards • Most OSHA standards and forms can be obtained online • The Federal Register, regularly publishes all OSHA standards and amendments • Human resource department is responsible for being familiar with these standards and ensuring that organization complies with them 16-9

10. Establishment of Standards • OSHA can initiate standards on its own or on petitions from other parties, including • U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) • National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) • State and local governments • Nationally recognized standards-producing organizations, employers, labor organizations, or any other interested party • NIOSH, which was established by the act as an agency under HHS, • Conducts research on various safety and health problems • Recommends most of the standards adopted by OSHA 16-10

11. Workplace Inspections • OSHA compliance officers (inspectors) are authorized under the act to conduct workplace inspections • It conducts inspections without advance notice • Employers do have the right to require that OSHA obtain a search warrant before being admitted • Originally employers were not given advance notice of inspections and could not refuse to admit OSHA inspectors • Marshall v. Barlow’s Inc. – Court ruled that employers are not required to admit OSHA inspectors onto their premises without a search warrant • At the same time, however, the court ruled that the probable cause needed to obtain a search warrant would be much less than what would be required in a criminal matter 16-11

12. Inspection Priorities • The agency inspects under the following conditions • Imminent danger, or any condition where there is reasonable certainty that a danger exists that can be expected to cause death or serious physical harm immediately or before danger can be eliminated through normal enforcement procedures • Catastrophes and fatal accidents resulting in the death of any employee or the hospitalization of three or more employees • Employee complaints involving imminent danger or an employee violation that threatens death or serious harm • Referrals from other individuals, agencies, organizations, or the media • Planned, or programmed, inspections in industries with a high number of hazards and associated injuries • Follow-ups to previous inspections 16-12

13. Inspection Procedures • Representatives of employer should first ask to see the inspector’s OSHA credentials • Inspector conducts a preliminary meeting with top management of organization • Manager of human resource department is usually present • At this time, the inspector explains the • Purpose of the visit • Scope of the inspection • Standards that apply • Inspector then usually requests an • Employer representative – Often someone from human resource department • Employee representative – Usually selected directly by employees or union if one is present 16-13

14. Inspection Procedures • Under no circumstances may the employer select the employee representative • Inspector proceeds with inspection tour, which may cover part or all of the facilities • Inspector meets again with employer or the employer representatives • Inspector discusses what has been found and indicates all apparent violations for which a citation may be issued or recommended 16-14

15. Citations and Penalties • Citations • In some cases, inspector has authority to issue citations at the work site immediately following the closing conference • Normally citations are issued by the OSHA area director and sent by certified mail • Once the citation is received, employer is required to post a copy of the citation at or near the place where violation occurred • For three days • Or until violation is corrected; whichever period is longer • Penalties • Under certain conditions some proposed penalties can be adjusted downward • Additional penalties may be imposed 16-15

16. Types of OSHA Violations 16-16

17. Reporting/Record-Keeping Requirements • All employers must report to OSHA within eight hours of learning about • The death of any employee from a work-related incident or • The in-patient hospitalization of three or more employees as a result of a work-related incident • Employers must report all fatal heart attacks • Deaths/Accidents that do not need to be reported include • Deaths from motor vehicle accidents on public streets (except those in a construction work zone) • Accidents on commercial airplanes, trains, subways, or buses 16-17

18. Reporting/Record-Keeping Requirements • Employers of 11 or more persons must meet certain record-keeping requirements specified by OSHA. These include • Maintaining records in each establishment of occupational injuries and illnesses as they occur and making those records accessible to employees • Keeping injury and illness records and posting from February 1 through April 30 an annual summary of occupational injuries and illnesses for each establishment • A company executive must certify the accuracy of the summary • Complying with any additional record-keeping and reporting requirements in specific OSHA standards 16-18

19. Reporting/Record-Keeping Requirements • Recording any fatality regardless of the length of time between the injury and death • Providing, upon request, pertinent injury and illness records for inspection and copying by • Any representative of the Secretaries of Labor or HHS, or • State during any investigation, research, or statistical compilation 16-19

20. Reporting/Record-Keeping Requirements • Many OSHA standards have special record-keeping and reporting requirements • All employers covered by the act must maintain certain forms • Currently, three record-keeping forms are required • OSHA Form 300, Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses • OSHA Form 300A, Summary of Work-Related Injures and Illnesses • OSHA Form 301, Injury and Illness Incident Report 16-20

21. Reporting/Record-Keeping Requirements • Form 300 – Requires employers to log each recordable occupational injury and illness within six working days from time employer learns of it • Form 300 includes • All occupational illnesses, regardless of severity • All occupational injuries resulting in • Death • One or more lost workdays • Restriction of work or motion • Loss of consciousness • Transfer to another job • Medical treatment other than first-aid 16-21

22. Reporting/Record-Keeping Requirements • Form 300A – Designed to make it easier to post and calculate incident rates • Employers must post copies of the previous year’s records no later than February 1 and keep them up at least through April 30 • Form 301 – Includes more data about how injury or illness occurred • Must be completed within seven calendar days from time employer learns of work-related injury or illness • These forms must be retained for five years by the organization and must be available for inspection 16-22

23. The Causes of Accidents – Personal Acts • Estimated that unsafe personal acts cause as much as 80 percent of organizational accidents • Unsafe personal acts include • Taking unnecessary risks • Horseplay • Failing to wear protective equipment • Using improper tools and equipment • Taking unsafe shortcuts • Difficult to determine why employees commit unsafe personal acts. Potential reasons include • Fatigue • Haste • Boredom • Stress • Poor eyesight • Daydreaming 16-23

24. The Causes of Accidents – Personal Acts • These reasons do not totally explain why employees intentionally neglect to wear prescribed equipment or do not follow procedures • Most employees think of accidents as always happening to someone else • Such an attitude can easily lead to carelessness or a lack of respect for what can happen • Some people get a kick out of taking chances and showing off • Research studies have also shown that employees with positive attitudes have fewer accidents than employees with negative attitudes • This is not surprising when one considers that negative attitudes are likely to be related to employee carelessness 16-24

25. The Causes of Accidents – Physical Environment and Accident Proneness • Physical environment • Accidents can and do happen in all types of environments, such as offices, parking lots, and factories • Certain work conditions, however, seem to result in more accidents • Accident proneness • Certain people are accident prone • Some employees, due to their physical and mental makeup, are more susceptible to accidents • This condition may result from inborn traits, but it often develops as a result of an individual’s environment • However, this tendency should not be used to justify an accident • Given the right set of circumstances, anyone can have an accident 16-25

26. Unsafe Conditions in theWork Environment 16-26

27. How to Measure Safety • Two most widely accepted methods for measuring an organization’s safety record include • Accident frequency • Accident severity • Frequency rate – Used to indicate how often disabling injuries occur • Disabling injuries – Cause an employee to miss one or more days of work following an accident • Also known as lost-time injuries • Severity rate – Indicates how severe the accidents were by calculating the length of time injured employees were out of work • Only disabling injuries are used in determining frequency and severity rates 16-27

28. How to Measure Safety • Neither frequency rate nor severity rate means much until they are compared with similar figures • For other departments or divisions within the organization • For the previous year • For other organizations • It is through these comparisons that an organization’s safety record can be objectively evaluated 16-28

29. Formulas for Computing Accident Frequency Rate and Severity Rate 16-29

30. Organizational Safety Programs • Major objective of any safety program is to get the employees to “think safety” • Accident prevention • Designed to keep safety and accident prevention on employees’ minds • Four basic elements are present in most successful safety programs • It must have the genuine (rather than casual) support of top and middle management • It must be clearly established that safety is a responsibility of operating managers • A positive attitude toward safety must exist and be maintained • One person or department should be in charge of safety program and responsible for its operation 16-30

31. Promoting Safety – Suggestions • Make the work interesting • Attempts to make jobs interesting usually successful if they add responsibility, challenge, and other similar factors that increase employees’ job satisfaction • Establish a safety committee composed of operative employees and representatives of management • A rotating membership of 5 to 12 members is desirable • Normal duties include inspecting, observing work practices, investigating accidents, and making recommendations • Committee meetings should be held at least once a month on company time, and attendance should be mandatory • Feature employee safety contests • Reward for having best safety record for a given time period, safety knowledge, for submitting good accident prevention ideas 16-31

32. Promoting Safety – Suggestions • Publicize safety statistics • Monthly accident reports should be posted • Ideas as to how accidents can be avoided should be solicited • Use bulletin boards throughout the organization • Pictures, sketches, and cartoons can be used • Change bulletin boards frequently • Encourage employees, including supervisors and managers, to have high expectations for safety • Recognize positive safety actions, and acknowledge those who contribute to safety improvements • Periodically hold safety training programs and meetings • Have employees attend and participate in these meetings as role players or instructors 16-32

33. Establishing a Safety Training Program • Assess training needs by examining accident and injury records and talking to department heads about their perceived needs • Regardless of severity, try to find out • Where problems are located • What the potential causes might be • What has been done in the past to correct them • Gauge level of employees’ safety skills • Use written tests, employee interviews, and general observations to determine level of employee knowledge about their job • Design a program to solve the program • Outside resources such as consultants, equipment vendors, and even OSHA can be helpful • Use a variety of teaching methods and involve employees as much as possible 16-33

34. Establishing a Safety Training Program • Get line managers on board • Once top management has embraced a safety philosophy, inform line managers about safety problems throughout the organization • Emphasize that they can help set the proper tone through example and instruction • Evaluate the program’s effectiveness • Try to answer two basic questions • Did the program change employees’ behavior? • Did the program impact business results in a positive manner? • Fine-tune the safety process • Periodically review training program and make adjustments • To incorporate new safety standards • To account for business and industry changes 16-34

35. Employee Health • Recently, there has been a lot of attention on employee health • Statistics show occupational diseases may cost industry as much or more than occupational accidents • Although total number of nonfatal job-related injuries and illnesses in the U.S. has dropped in certain recent years, the total number of illnesses has risen over the same periods • There are many diseases and health-related problems that are not necessarily job related but that may affect job performance • Many organizations now attempt to • Remove health hazards from the workplace • Investigate programs to improve health 16-35

36. Occupational Health Hazards • Defined as any abnormal condition or disorder (other than that resulting from an occupational injury) caused by exposure to environmental factors associated with employment • Approximately 242,500 new cases of occupational illnesses were reported among U.S. employees in private industry during 2005 • In 2005, the overall incidence rate of nonfatal occupational illnesses was 26.7 per 10,000 full-time employees in private industry • U.S. Department of Labor currently uses four major categories to classify occupational illnesses • Occupational skin diseases or disorders • Respiratory conditions due to toxic agents • Poisoning (systemic effects of toxic materials) • All other occupational illnesses • Increased awareness of occupational diseases contributed to passage of OSHA 16-36

37. Occupational Health Hazards • Toxic Substance Control Act of 1976 • Requires pretesting of certain new chemicals marketed each year • A 1980 OSHA rule requires organizations to • Measure for safety • Record employee exposure to, certain potentially harmful substances • Medical records must be made available to • Employees • Their designated representatives • OSHA • These records must be maintained for 30 years, even if the employee leaves the job • Additional rules have been issued related to specific hazards 16-37

38. Hazard Communications • Right-to-know rule • Purpose is to ensure employers and employees know • What chemical hazards exist in their workplace • How to protect themselves against those hazards • Goal • Reduce incidence of illness and injuries caused by chemicals • Hazard Communication Standard ensures uniform requirements • To ensure hazards of all chemicals imported into, produced in, or used in workplace are evaluated and evaluated results are transmitted to affected employers and exposed employees • OSHA has developed a variety of materials to help employers and employees implement effective hazard communication programs • www.eduwhere.com 16-38

39. Stress in the Workplace • Mental and physical condition that results from a perceived threat of danger (physical or emotional) and the pressure to remove it • Potential exists when an environmental situation presents a demand threatening to exceed a person’s capabilities and resources for meeting it • Stress manifests itself among employees in several ways, including • Increased absenteeism • Job turnover • Lower productivity • Mistakes on the job • Excessive stress can result in both physical and emotional problems 16-39

40. Stress in the Workplace • Some common stress-related disorders include • Tension and migraine headaches • Coronary heart disease • High blood pressure • Muscle tightness in chest, neck, and lower back • Gastritis, indigestion, ulcers, diarrhea, constipation • Bronchial asthma • Rheumatoid arthritis • Some menstrual and sexual dysfunctions • From a psychological perspective, inordinate or prolonged stress can adversely affect personal factors such as • Concentration, memory • Sleep, appetite • Motivation, mood • Ability to relate to others 16-40

41. Stress in the Workplace • Recent reports by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) cites the following • 40 percent of employees reported their job was very or extremely stressful • 25 percent view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives • 75 percent of employees believe that employees have more on-the-job stress than a generation ago • 29 percent of employees felt quite a bit or extremely stressed at work • 26 percent of employees said they were “often or very often burned out or stressed by their work” 16-41

42. Stress in the Workplace • American Institute of Stress states that cost of stress for employers is currently estimated at over $300 billion annually as assessed by • Accidents • Absenteeism • Employee turnover • Diminished productivity • Direct medical and insurance costs • Workers’ compensation • Other legal costs • 60 to 80 percent of accidents on job are stress related • Many organizations conduct training programs designed to help reduce employee stress • Most attempt to teach employees self-help techniques for individually reducing their own stress 16-42

43. Common Sources and Suggested Causes of Job-Related Stress 16-43

44. Burnout • Occurs when work is no longer meaningful to a person • Can result from stress or a variety of other work-related or personal factors • Certain related myths have surfaced • Myth 1: Burnout is just a new-fangled notion that gives lazy people an excuse not to work • Myth 2: As long as people really enjoy their work they can work as long and hard as they want and never experience burnout • Myth 3: Individuals know when they are burning out and, when they do, all they need to do is take off for a few days or weeks and then they’ll be as good as new • Myth 4: Individuals who are physically and psychologically strong are unlikely to experience burnout • Myth 5: Job burnout is always job-related 16-44

45. Burnout • From organization’s viewpoint, to reduce burnout • Identify those jobs with highest potential for burnout • Air traffic controller • Certain computer- related jobs • Several actions are possible, once those have been identified • Redesigning jobs • Clarifying expectations • Changing work schedules • Improving physical working conditions • Training jobholders 16-45

46. The Path to Professional Burnout 16-46

47. Alcoholism and Drug Abuse • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration estimated for year 2005 • Nearly 19.7 million people in the U.S. used illicit drugs • 55 million people were alcohol binge drinkers • 16 million people were heavy drinkers • National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence estimates alcohol and drug abuse costs American economy $276 billion per year in • Lost productivity • Health care expenditures • Crime • Motor vehicle crashes • Other conditions 16-47

48. Alcoholism and Drug Abuse • Compared to most employees, substance abusers • Are late 3 times more often • Request time off 2.2 times more often • Have 2.5 times as many absences of eight days or more • Use 3 times the normal level of sick benefits • Are 5 times more likely to file a workers’ compensation claim • Are involved in accidents 3.6 times more often • Substance abuse results in • Reduced productivity • Reduced work quality • Damage to property and equipment • Theft • Lower morale • Safety violations • Poor decision making 16-48

49. Alcoholism • Historically, people viewed alcoholics as people lacking self-control and morals • Alcoholism is recognized as a disease with no single cause • Does not strike any particular group • Approximately 80 percent of all adult binge and heavy drinkers are employed • Estimated that economic loss to employer of an alcoholic employee amounts to 25 percent of the employee’s wages • Compared to nonalcoholic employees, alcoholics incur twice the rate of absenteeism caused by illness • Alcoholics are also two to three time more likely to be involved in a work-related accident • Some estimate that as many as 50 percent of all problem employees in industry are actually alcoholics 16-49

50. Alcoholism • Organizations have only recently undertaken widespread efforts to reduce employee alcoholism • Many have established in-house alcoholic treatment programs • Indicated that in-house alcoholic treatment programs achieve a high rate of success, based on • Recovery rates • Cost-effectiveness measures • Programs normally administered as part of an employee assistance program (EAP) 16-50