CHAPTER 14 - OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY Flashcards
Lost time injury rate
- Measures occupational injury/illness that means someone cannot do their work
- Does not include fatalities
3 categories of OHS laws
1) General health and safety rules
2) Industry specific rules
3) Hazard specific rules
Occupational health and safety legislation
Laws with the goal of protecting employees by minimizing workplace injury and illness
Joint responsibility
Shared responsibility between workers, supervisors, employers to maintain a hazard-free work environment, enhance health and safety in the workplace
Due diligence
Employers have the responsibility to take every reasonable precaution to ensure health and safety of their workers
Employer’s role in safety
- due diligence
- filling out reports, maintaining records, training employees etc.
- disciplining employees that don’t follow safety rules
Supervisor’s role in safety
- advise and instruct workers on safety
- due diligence
Employee’s role in safety
- take reasonable care to protect own health and safety and that of others
- 3 rights of employees under joint responsibility model
- right to know about workplace hazards
- right to participate in OHS process
- right to refuse unsafe work if they have reasonable cause to believe it’s dangerous (can’t be disciplined for doing so)
Reasonable cause
- complain about the hazard has not been resolved
- safety problem places employee in immediate danger
When is a joint health and safety committee required?
Minimum number of employees (10 or 20)
- 6 characteristics of a safety-oriented workplace
- teamwork (safety involvement)
- communication and collaboration (on safety matters)
- shared vision (of safety excellence, and the belief that all accidents are preventable)
- assignment (of safety function to specific people)
- a continuous effort (to correct hazards)
- encouragement (of incident reporting)
WHMIS
workplace hazardous materials information system
3 components of WHMIS
- labelling of hazardous material containers
- material safety data sheets (MSDS)
- employee training to apply 1 and 2
3 basic causes of workplace accidents
1) chance occurrences
2) unsafe conditions
3) unsafe acts on the part of employees
5 employee characteristics that can lead to unsafe acts
1) personal characteristics
2) vision
3) literacy
4) age
5) perceptual vs motor skills
4 steps for guiding young workers in OHS
1) assign suitable work
2) understand young workers 3) provide training
4) supervise
- 4 ways to reduce unsafe acts
1) selection testing (don’t hire accident prone individuals)
2) leadership commitment
3) training and education
4) positive reinforcement
BBS
behaviour-based safety:
- increase safety behaviours and conditions
- reduce risky behaviours
- 3 C’s of returning to work
1) Commitment (to keeping in touch with the worker)
2) Collaboration (with all parties involved including medical and workers’ comp)
3) Creativity (giving employees different work based on their remaining abilities)
FAEs
functional abilities evaluations
3 goals of a FAE
1) improve chances that injured worker will be safe on the job
2) identify problem areas -> address with physical therapy or job modification
3) determine disability level
- 5 costs of workplace incidents
1) incident costs
2) investigation costs
3) replacement costs
4) damage costs
5) productivity costs
- 8 employee health issues
1) substance abuse
2) stress/burnout
3) PTSD
4) repetitive strain
5) workplace toxins
6) workplace smoking
7) pandemics
8) workplace violence
