Employee Safety and Health

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Employee SafetyandHealth
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Occupational Safety and Health Act

• Occupational Safety and Health Act (1970)
• Federal law to ensure Safe and Healthful Working
  Conditions.
• Applies to all businesses with one or more
  employees (except self-employed persons).
• General-Duty Clause

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OSHA Responsibilities

• What are OSHAs
• key responsibilities?

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OSHA Standards

• Legally enforceable standards related to
  employee health and safety.
• OSHA issues standards for workplace hazards
• Where can standards be found?

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Establishing OSHA Standards

• OSHA can initiate standards on its own or on
  petitions from other parties.
• National Institute for Occupational Safety and
  Health (NIOSH), an agency under HHS
• Conducts research on safety and health
• Recommends most OSHA-adopted standards

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Workplace Inspections

• OSHA compliance (inspectors)
  authorized to conduct workplace inspections
  without advance notice.
• Marshall v. Barlows Inc. Employers have the
  right to require that OSHA obtain a search
  warrant before being admitted ---- although few
  employers do so.

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Inspection Priorities

• Imminent danger
• Catastrophes fatal accidents
  (death or hospitalization of 3 or more)
• Employee complaints
• Referrals
• Planned, or programmed
• Follow-ups

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OSHA Inspection Procedures

• Inspectors OSHA credentials
• Preliminary meeting with top management
• Employer representative
• Employee representative

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Citations

• In some cases, issued at the work site
  immediately following closing conference.
• Normally citations are issued by the OSHA area
  director and sent by certified mail.
• Employer must post a copy of citation at (or
  near) violation site
• For 3 days, or until violation is corrected
  whichever period is longer.

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OSHA Reporting Requirements

• Employer must report to OSHA within 8 hours of
  learning about
• Work-related employee death.
• In-patient hospitalization of 3 (or more)
  employees from work-related incident.
• Employer must report all fatal heart attacks.
• Deaths/Accidents not needing to be reported?

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OSHA Record-Keeping Requirements

• Employers of 11 or more must
• Maintain records of occupational injuries
  and illnesses
• Post (February 1 - April 30) annual summary of
  occupational injuries and illnesses.

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OSHA Record-Keeping Requirements

• Record any fatality --- regardless of time
  between injury and death.
• Provide injury and illness records for inspection
  and copying by
• Representative of Secretaries of Labor or HHS, or
  
• State

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OSHA Record-Keeping Requirements

• 3 Record-Keeping Forms are required
• OSHA Form 300 Log
• OSHA Form 300A Summary
• OSHA Form 301 Report
• These forms must be retained for 5 years by the
  organization and available for inspection.

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OSHA Form 300

• Employer must log each occupational injury and
  illness within 6 working days from time employer
  learns of it.

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OSHA Forms 300A and 301

• Form 300A Employer must post copies of previous
  years records no later than
  February 1, and keep them through April 30.
• Form 301 More data on how injury/illness
  occurred
• Completed within 7 calendar days from time
  employer learns of work-related injury/illness.

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Causes of Accidents Personal Acts

• As much as 80 of organization accidents are
  caused by Unsafe Personal acts.
• Potential Reasons?

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How to Measure Safety

• Frequency How often disabling injuries occur
• Disabling injuries Cause employee to miss one or
  more days of work following an accident
  Lost-Time injuries.
• Severity rate length of time injured employees
  were out of work.
• Only disabling injuries are used to determine
  frequency and severity rates.

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Organizational Safety Programs

• 4 Elements in most successful safety programs
• Genuine Support of top and middle managers.
• Safety is a clearly established responsibility of
  operating managers.
• Positive attitude toward safety exists.
• One person (or department) is in charge of safety
  program and responsible for its operation.

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Establishing a Safety Training Program

• Assess Training Needs
• Where problems are located
• What potential causes might be
• What was done in the past to correct them
• Gauge level of employees safety skills

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Employee Health

• Occupational Diseases may cost industry as much
  -- or more -- than occupational accidents.
• Many diseases and health-related problems not
  necessarily job related but affect job
  performance.

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Occupational Health Hazards

• Department of Labor 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

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Occupational Health Hazards

• Toxic Substance Control Act (1976) Requires
  pre-testing of certain new chemicals.
• OSHA requires organizations to
• Measure for safety.
• Record employee exposure to certain potentially
  harmful substances.
• Medical records must be made available to
• Employees, their Representatives, and OSHA.
• Records must be maintained for 30 years, even if
  employee leaves the job.

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Hazard Communications

• Right-to-Know Rule - to ensure employers and
  employees know
• What chemical hazards exist in the workplace
• How to protect themselves against hazards

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Stress in the Workplace

• What is Stress?
• When is there Potential for Stress?

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Stress in the Workplace

• How does Stress manifest itself in the workplace?
• Excessive stress can result in both physical and
  emotional problems.
• What are some stress-related disorders?

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National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health (NIOSH)

• 40 of employees reported their job was very or
  extremely stressful.
• 25 view their jobs as 1 stressor in their
  lives.
• 75 of employees believe that employees have more
  on-the-job stress than a generation ago.
• 29 of employees felt quite or extremely stressed
  at work.
• 26 of employees said they were often or very
  often burned out or stressed by their work

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Stress in the Workplace

• Cost of Stress for employers is estimated at
  over 300 Billion annually due to
• Accidents
• Absenteeism and Employee Turnover
• Diminished Productivity
• Direct medical and insurance Costs
• Workers Compensation
• Other Legal costs
• 60 to 80 of Accidents on job are stress related

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Burnout

• When work is no longer meaningful to a person.
  Can result from stress or other work-related or
  personal factors.
• To reduce burnout Identify jobs with highest
  potential for burnout.
• Actions to reduce burnout potential?

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Alcoholism and Drug Abuse

• Estimates that alcohol and drug abuse costs U.S.
  economy 276 billion per year in
• Lost productivity
• Health care expenditures
• Crime
• Motor vehicle crashes

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Alcoholism and Drug Abuse

• Substance Abuse results in
• Reduced productivity
• Reduced work quality
• Damage to property and equipment
• Theft
• Lower morale
• Safety violations
• Poor decision making

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Alcoholism

• Approximately 80 of all adult binge and heavy
  drinkers are employed.
• Economic loss to employer of alcoholic estimated
  at 25 of employees wages
• Alcoholics incur twice the rate of absenteeism
  for illness.
• Alcoholics are 2 to 3 times more likely to be
  involved in work-related accidents.
• Estimated 50 of problem employees in industry
  are alcoholics.

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Other Drugs

• Other drug usage falls into 3 categories
• Marijuana
• Prescription drugs
• Hard-drugs
• Estimated 75 of drug users are employed.
• Often more difficult to detect than alcohol.
• Estimated that 10 of fulltime employees in U.S.
  currently use illicit drugs.

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Drug Testing

• Many companies use drug testing for job
  applicants and current employees.
• Drug Testing less prevalent in small businesses.
• Certain legal risks involved in drug testing.

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Drug Testing

• Criticism of drug-testing programs tend to focus
  on off-duty conduct
• Performance or impairment testing New form

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Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)

• Company-sponsored programs designed to help
  employees with personal problems. Examples?
• Help is not purely altruistic largely based on
  Cost Savings.

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Costs of Personal Problems

• Reduced Productivity
• Absenteeism and tardiness
• Increased costs of Insurance programs
• Lower Morale
• Friction among employees
• Grievances
• Permanent loss of trained employees due to
  disability, retirement, and death
• Loss of Business and/or damaged
  public Image

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Work/Life Programs

• Helps balance work and non-work demands.
• Programs include
• Flexible work schedules and Job sharing
• Telecommuting
• Flexible Benefits
• Wellness programs
• Child-care and Elder-care assistance
• Sick-leave policies

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Wellness Programs

• Designed to prevent illness and enhance employee
  wellness.
• Examples?

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Wellness Programs

• Benefits of wellness programs
• Fewer sick days
• Reduced coronary heart disease
• Lower major medical costs
• Increased employee productivity

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Workplace Violence

• Homicides
• Physical attacks and Rapes
• Aggravated and other assaults
• All forms of harassment
• Any act creating a hostile work environment
• Nearly 5 of U.S. private businesses experienced
  a violent incident in past 12 months
• 5,500 incidents of workplace violence every day,
  with 17 workplace homicides per week.

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Workplace Violence

• Only 1 of companies have written policies on
  workplace violence.
• Companies need to avoid or prevent violence Best
  protection may be the corporate culture.
• Violence much less likely in environment where
  employees feel appreciated and are treated with
  respect.

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Reducing Workplace Violence

• Hire carefully Screen out potential employees
  whose histories show propensity to violence.
• Reporting requirements for both violence and
  threats of violence.
• Adopt a zero tolerance policy
• Perpetrator of violence faces consequences.

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Article 25 Putting the Hurt On

• How is OSHA enforcement changing (regulation by
  shaming)?
• How would the proposed Protecting Americas
  Workers Act impact OSHA?

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Article 26 Workplace Bullying

• Anti-bullying legislation is being considered in
  several states.
• Should HR managers be concerned about proposed
  legislation?
• Is bullying a problem in the U.S. workplace?

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