Ch 8 - Creating a safe and healthy work environment Flashcards
What are the different types of healh accidents related to work?
Occupational Injury: cut, fracture, sprain, or amputation resulting from a workplace accident or from an exposure involving an accident
Occupational illness: abnormal condition or disorder cause by exposure to environmental factors associated with employment
Industrial disease: disease resulting from exposure relating to a particular process, trade, or occupation in industry
What are the employers’ duties and responsibilities towards health and safety around their work environment?
- Provide a hazard free environment
- Comply with regulations
- Take every precaution to ensure employee safety and health
- inform employees of h & s requirements
- investigate accidents
- compile annual summary of work injuries
- report incidents
- provide training
What are the workers’ duties towards health and safety at work?
What are the workers’ rights?
Duties:
- Comply with acts and regulations
- Report hazardous conditions or defective equipment
- Follow the rules and training
Rights:
- Request and receive information about health and safety conditions
- Refuse unsafe work (with reason/exceptions)
What are the supervisors’ duties ?
- Advise employees of potential hazards
- Ensure workers wear safety equipments, devices, or clothing
- Provide written instructions
- Take every precaution to guarantee workers’ safety
What are the Joint Health and Safety Committee’s duties?
- Advise employer
- Create non-adversarial climate: employer and employees both together create a safe environment
- Investigate accidents
- Train others in health and safety obligations
Explain the penalties possible for employers not following the legal safety requirements?
Employers will be charged fines for every offense, they vary accross provinces.
Criminal charges can also be brought upon employers, employees, co workers or executive if a worker is injured or killed on the job.
What are some of the offered workers compensations due to accidents/illnesses related to work?
What is the goal?
- Cash payout (for permanant disability)
- Wage loss payments : if worker no longer earns as much
- Unlimited medical aid
- Vocational rehabilitation: : physical, social, psychological
GOAL: to return the employee to the original job as soon as possible
What are some of the ways to reduce workers’ compensation costs?
- Perform an audit to assess high-risk areas within work
- Prevent injuries by proper ergonomic design of the job
- Provide quality medical care to injured employees by physicians
- Provide extensive worker training in all related health and safety areas
What measures can be taken to create a safe work environment?
Promote Safety Awareness
Implement Safety awareness programs
Supervisor emphasizing importance of safety
Safety training programs including: first aid, accident investigation, accident prevention techniques, hazardous materials, and emergency procedures
Use Safety management systems
Enforcement of safety rules : communicate expectations and penalise when rules not followed
Investigate accidents and keep records: Keep incident rates: ((# of injuries/illnesses x 200,000) / total hours worked during the period.)
What are some types of physical health issues and what can you do to improve the work environment?
- Workplace hazardous materials: WHMIS –> info system about these materials, based on labels, data sheet, training
- I_ndoor Air quality_: sick building syndromes. –> Include adequate ventilation, remove sources of pollution, eliminate tobacco smoke
- Technology: musculoskeletal injuries due to computer use
- Cumulative trauma disorders: caused by repetitive movements of arms, fingers, or hands. injuries of the muscles, nerves, tendons, etc. –> Ergonomics, furniture, video terminals, etc design equipment and systems to help
- Communicable diseases: SARS, AIDS, herpes, etc. Covered under public health legislation. Employers have been banning trips and avoiding some areas for their employees.
Define workplace violence and some of the warning signs?
physical assaults, threats, harassment, verbal abuse…
Warning signs :
Crying, sulking or temper tantrums
Excessive absenteeism
Disregard for h & s of others
Disrespect for authority
Increased mistakes or errors
Refusal to acknowledge performance problems
Overreacting to criticism
Define stress and what are the causes for it in the work place?
Anything changes requiring the worker to cope with some new behaviour, either physical, mental, or emotional.
- High workloads (role overload)
- Unclear expectations (role ambiguity)
- Incompatible demands (role conflict)
- Poor work-life balance
- Lack of resources, autonomy, communication, recognition
- Org. changes
- Excessive job pressures
- Precarious employment, concerns about income
- Conflict with others, etc.
Define stress and
How can a company create a healthy work environment, and what sources must they reduce?
Organizations can build better heatlh by developing and maintaining a culture of health for employees.
They should use a multidimensional approach by addressing physical, psychological and social health.
Organizations can reduce sources of :
- Physical health issues
- Psychological health issues
- Workplace violence
What are the services and programs that an organization can provide to build better health?
Health Services: from first-aid kit to complete diagnosis. Will depend on the type of organization
Alternative approaches: empower the patient by enlisting patient participation in health-care decisions –> relaxation techniques, special diets, herbal therapies.. etc
Wellness programs: programs that emphasize exercise, nutrition, weight control, etc. Flexible hours, fitness facilities, health groups and professionals…
DIsability Management: Graduating return to work, creating an environment where employees want to return as soon as possible
Employee Assistance programs: provide short-term councelling and referrals. Deal with psychological/mental health such as depression, stress, personal crises, substance abuse, emotional problems…
