Occupational health and safety Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Occupational health and safety - Essay Example OSH increases workplace productivity. This is because OSH stipulates that all organizations have the duty of care of ensuring that employees and other parties who may be affected by organizations undertaking are safe at all times. Moral obligations in this case involve the protection of the lives and health of employees. Because of measures that are put in place in respect to moral obligations, employees become less susceptible to injuries and harm and thereby making the realization of a more secure, sustainable and healthier workforce. This in turn leads to abated levels of absenteeism, heightened motivation and ultimately, improved productivity. It is against this backdrop for instance that the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EASHW) established the finding that for every Euro that is invested in OSH, the Return on Investment (ROI) that is realized falls between 3 and 5 Euros, due to reduced costs that stem from reduction in absenteeism. In the US, the issue of absent eeism is underscored by the data that released to the same effect. Specifically, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics established that machine-related accidents and injuries alone claimed 64,170 cases that required long sick-offs, in 2008 alone. Similarly, more than a fourth of these injury cases required more than 30 days being spent away from work (Reese, 2008). The fact that following OSH stipulations entails the installation of workplace risk prevention and the enhancement of proper health and safety management means that cases dealing with serious harm and injuries on employees are assuaged. Cases where these injuries are commonly recurrent are concomitant with high employee turnover, as organizations are compelled to look for another source of manpower or skilled labor. Adhering to OSH in turn alleviates cases of terminal injuries and thereby reducing the chances of high employee turnover that would be incurred as an organization tries to replenish the size of its work force. In a closely related wavelength, adhering to the standards and stipulations set by OSH gives organizational productivity the quality of continuity and stability. With the aforementioned abated cases of injuries and harm on employees, a corporate entity is succored from the task of having to retrain and nurture fledgeling personnel to acquire the necessary skills and experiences that an injured team possessed. This is significant, since training and nurturing organizational workforce entails numerous workshop drives and training programs. Reese (2008) points out that an organization also benefits directly when it adheres to OSH regulations and standards. This benefit takes the form of increased security from the ravages of workplace accidents, malfunction and human error. This is because; OSH is broad enough to include interactions with other subject areas such as safety engineering, chemistry and industrial engineering. This is especially more pronounced in industries that ha ve inherently high proclivity to accidents such as mining, construction and crisis management which have over time developed safety procedures and methods as a way of managing physical danger at the workplace. For instance, since 1992, engineering workshops specializing in welding of components are to adhere to the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) regulations, and thereby curtailing high chances for