Workplace Study and Health Flashcards
What is the land area of Singapore?
719.7 km2
Total Population of Singapore:
5.607 million
Total employment of Singapore:
Employment: 3.673 million
Key Sectors (by % Employment)
- Manufacturing:14.1%
- Construction: 13.7%
- Services: 71.5%
- Others: 0.7%
Workplace Fatalities Rate in 2013 and 2016
- 2013: 2.1 per 100,000 workers employed
* 2016: 1.9 per 100,000 workers employed
What is the workplace safety and health act 1 Sep 2006
Under the regulations, employers, self-employed persons and principals (including contractors and sub-contractors) are responsible for identifying safety and health hazards at workplaces and to take appropriate actions to eliminate or reduce the risks associated with the hazards.
Under the rules, a first-time offender is liable to a fine not
exceeding $10,000 while a repeat offender could be fined up to $20,000 or imprisoned for a term not exceeding six months or both.
What are the 3 principle of the new framework for the workplace safety and health act?
It requires every person at the workplace to take reasonably practicable steps to ensure the safety and health of every workplace and worker
The 3 principle of the new framework are:
- Reducing risk at source by requiring all stakeholders to eliminate or minimise the risk they create at the workplace;
- Instilling greater industry ownership of OSH standards. The focus will be shifted from complying with the prescriptive requirements to making employers responsible for developing work and safety procedures suited to their particular situations in order to achieve desired safety outcome;
- Preventing accidents through higher penalties for poor safety and health management
What is the coverage of the workplace safety and health act
The WSH initially covered the more high-risk industries
Six new sectors were covered in the expanded Workplace Safety and Health Act in Mar 2008. They included:
• Services allied to the transport of goods, such as logistics, freight forwarding and cargo surveying services;
• Landscape care and maintenance service activities, such as grass-cutting;
• Water supply, sewerage and waste management, such as refuse disposal;
• Hotels and restaurants;
• Healthcare activities such as hospitals; and
• Veterinary activities.
Who is exempted from the workplace safety and health act
- The Singapore Armed Forces
- The Singapore Police Force
- The Singapore Prison Service
- The Internal Security Department
- The Central Narcotics Bureau
- The Immigration and Checkpoint Authority
- The Singapore Civil Defence Force.
Introduction of New Principles: To Change Mindsets & Culture
What are they?
- Reduce risk at source by requiring all stakeholders to minimise or eliminate risks which they create Occupiers, employers, suppliers, manufacturers, designers and persons at work will have responsibility to identify & prevent or mitigate risks at source
- Industry will be required to take greater ownership of safety outcomes From Prescription to Goal Setting for safety Standards and practices. Employers must develop actionable plans to achieve OSH desired outcome.
- Prevent accidents through higher penalties for poor safety management Greater financial incentives, disincentives and penalties
What are the 4 key features of the workplace safety and health act
The WSH Act has four Key Features:
• It places responsibilities on stakeholders who have it within their control to ensure safety at the workplace.
• It focuses on workplace safety and health systems and outcomes, rather than merely on compliance.
• It facilitates effective enforcement through the issuance of remedial orders.
• It imposes higher penalties for non-compliance and risky behaviour.
Who are the main stakeholders? (Of the WSH)
Employer
As an employer, you must protect the safety and health of your employees or workers working under your direction, as well as persons who may be affected
by their work.
Principal
A principal is any person or organisation who engages another person or organisation to supply labour or perform work under a contract for service.
Occupier
In workplaces registered or notified as a factory, the occupier is the person who holds the certificate of registration. In all other workplaces, the occupier is
the person who has control of the premises, regardless of whether they are the owner of those premises.
Manufacturer or supplier
As a manufacturer or supplier, you must ensure that any machinery and equipment or hazardous substances you provide are safe.
Employee
Self - employed
What falls under Critical Area # 1 – Effective Governance and Enforcement
(a) A Flexible and Practical Regulatory Framework
• Focus on reinforcing concept of ownership
• Placing responsibility for workplace safety on all stakeholders
(b) Delivering Practical Assistance
- Guidelines
- Technical advisors
- Approved code of practice
(c) Robust Inspection Framework
• ensure that basic safety standards are not compromised.
What falls under Critical Area # 2 – Creating a Progressive and Pervasive WSH Culture
Elevating awareness of WSH among new sectors
• A year-long engagement programme for face-to-face outreach to new sector employees and heartland employers
• HOW it is executed?
o Guerilla-style awareness building
o Performances in companies/association events
What falls under Critical Area # 3 – Embracing New Challenges in Safety and Health
Better Defined Liability Regime to Reduce Risks at Source
Factories Act imposed liability primarily on the registered factory occupier.
The WSHA assigns legal responsibility to those who create and have management and control over safety and health risks Occupier / Employer / Principal / Employee / Manufacturer & Supplier / Erectors & Installer
Legal Requirement Workplace Safety & Health Act
It requires every person at the workplace to take “reasonably practicable” steps to ensure the safety and health of every workplace and worker.
What is considered as reasonably practicable?
An action is considered to be practicable when it is capable of being done. Whether it is also reasonable usually takes into account:
• The severity of any injury or harm to health that may occur;
• The degree of risk (or likelihood) of that injury or harm occurring;
• How much is known about the hazard and the ways of eliminating, reducing or controlling it (what others’ practising, standards..); and
• The availability, suitability and cost of the safeguards.
What are the 3 sub tasks of risk assessment?
• Risk determination the probability of occurrence of risky
events and the likely consequences;
• Risk evaluation may be further divided into risk avoidance and risk outcome;
• Risk measurement usually involving complex quantitative measures of risk.
What is the definition of identified risk?
Identified risk: That risk that has been determined to exist using analytical tools. The time and costs of analysis efforts, the quality of the risk management program, and the state of the technology involved affect the amount of risk that can be identified.
What is the definition of unidentified risk?
Unidentified risk: That risk that has not yet been identified. Some risks are not identifiable or measurable, but are no less important. Mishap investigations may reveal some previously unidentified risks.
What is the definition of total risk
Total risk: The sum of identified and unidentified risks. Ideally, identified risks will comprise the larger proportion of the two.
Total risk = identified + unidentified risk
What is an acceptable risk?
Acceptable risk: The part of identified risk that is allowed to persist after controls are applied.
Risk can be determined acceptable when further efforts to reduce it would cause degradation of the probability of success of the operation, or when a point of diminishing returns has been reached.
What is an unacceptable risk?
Unacceptable risk: That portion of identified risk that cannot be tolerated, but must be either eliminated or controlled.
What is residual risk?
Residual risk: The portion of total risk that remains after management efforts have been employed.
Residual risk comprises acceptable risk and unidentified risk.
Hidden risks: What are some Organisational Factors Associated with HUMAN RESOURCE
- Staff Morale
- Inadequate manpower
- Insufficient training leading to incompetence
- Industrial culture not conducive to promoting safety
- Reporting Culture
- Administrative Policy – Just Culture
- Succession Planning
What is the Just Culture?
Just Culture: they are not blamed for ‘honest errors’, but are held accountable for wilful violations and gross negligence.
What is the definition of benefits?
Benefits are not limited to reduce mishap rates or to decrease injuries, but may also be realised as increases in efficiency or mission effectiveness.
Benefits are realised through prudent risk-taking. Risk management provides a reasoned and repeatable process that reduces the reliance on intuition.
What is the acceptability of risk?
Risk management requires a clear understanding of what constitutes unnecessary risk, i.e., when benefits actually outweigh costs.
There are cases where risks were taken with no tangible benefits at all.
Accepting risk is a function of both risk assessment and risk management, and is often complex with many variables to consider, some of which has very high uncertainties.
What are the types of societal risks?
- Real risk to an individual – determined on the basis of future circumstances
- Statistical risk – meant for other people, eg fatal accidents on motorways
- Predicted risk – from models, e.g. global warming, volcanic ash, asteroid, …
- Perceived risk – intuitively felt by individual – Fear of flying
The Safety Risk component can be divided into 3 areas:
- Hazard identification processes.
- Risk assessment and mitigation processes.
- Internal safety investigation.
What are the three considerations during the risk Assessment and Mitigation Process
a) Probability: The probability of the hazard causing adverse consequences.
b) Severity: The severity of the potential adverse consequences.
c) Exposure: The rate of exposure to the hazard.
What is the role of the risk assessment and mitigation process?
Risk Assessment and Mitigation Processes analyse and eliminate or mitigate to an acceptable level risks that could threaten the capabilities of an organisation.
What are the 4 stages of risk management?
Stages of Risk Management
- Identifying Hazards
- Assessing their implications
- Deciding on a course of action
- Evaluating the results.
What happens during stage 1 of risk management - identifying hazards?
The most important step in any Risk Assessment –
hazards can only be controlled if they are identified
➢ Each step is analysed for potential inherent hazards
➢ Decision on the relevance of any particular hazard
come later in the risk assessment processes
What happens during stage 2 of risk management - assessing their implications?
Identifying what adverse conditions may arise due to the hazard present in your experiments, laboratory or environment.
1) identify source of harm
2) identify who may be harmed
3) Identify how harm could occur
What happens during stage 3 of risk management - deciding on a course of action?
Risk management also includes control and monitoring of risks, as well as communicating these risks.
- IDENTIFY the hazards
- ASSESS the risks and available control measures
- MANAGE the risk
What are the 3 categories in a risk evaluation?
1) minor
2) moderate
3) major
what are the Likelihood Categories & Description in risk evaluation?
1) remote
2) possible
3) frequent
What are high consequence industries?
High consequence industries shared resources in risk management.
Traditionally, high consequence operations include Nuclear Power Station, Aircraft Carrier, Aviation, Petrochemical Plant and Offshore Oil Drilling Platform
Research and experience from catastrophic failures over the years have helped to improve the safety level.
What are the 3 main risk classifications?
Acceptable
Risk
Unacceptable
What is risk assessment
Risk Assessment involves taking into account the probability and severity of any adverse consequences resulting from an identified hazard.
Risk Matrix is useful for assessing hazard. While the severity of the consequences can be defined, the probability of occurrence may be more subjective, based on the maturity of the organisation’s operational activities.
What is risk mitigation
Risks should be managed to be as low as reasonably practicable. Risk must be balanced against the time, cost and difficulty of taking measures to reduce or eliminate the risk. The level of risk can be lowered by reducing the severity of the potential consequences, reducing the probability of occurrence or by reducing exposure to that risk.
How is risk calculated (formula)
Risk = occurrence x severity
What are the 6 kinds of risk controls?
• Elimination – eliminate the hazard from the workplace
• Substitution – substituting a hazardous substance or
process with a less hazardous one.
• Engineering controls – e.g. installing machine guarding
or enclosing a noisy machine.
• Administrative controls – e.g. applying a permit-towork system or lock-out and tag-out procedures.
• PPE – provision and use of these equipment, and
• SWP – Safe Work Procedures
What are engineering controls?
- Consist of substitution, isolation, ventilation, and equipment modification.
- These controls focus on the source of the hazard, unlike other types of controls that generally focus on the employee exposed to the hazard.
- The basic concept behind engineering controls is that, to the extent feasible, the work environment and the job itself should be designed to eliminate hazards or reduce exposure to hazards.
What are Management/Administrative Controls
Management controls may result in a reduction of
exposure through such methods as changing work
habits, improving sanitation and hygiene practices,
or making other changes in the way the employee
performs the job.
What are some examples of additional controls?
Responsible person and timeline
• Additional control for risk rated more than 3 (medium
& high risk)
o REDUCE the risks to as low as reasonably practicable
• Who and When?
o Responsible person to implement the identified control
measures and
o Timeline for completion update the risk assessment
upon completion of the additional control measures
What are the three components for safety intervention?
1) behaviour
2) SMS
3) engineering controls
What are the three components of the safety culture trilogy?
1) Safety attitude
2) HFEM skills (Human factors and error management)
3) Discipline
What are the 7 key areas of SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM INTERVENTION
1. Management leadership • vision, values, commitment • safety goals & objectives • costs of safety performance 2. Responsibility & accountability • defined for management & employees • accountable for performance 3. Safety organisation • safety committees • safety staff resource • safety budget 4. Safe work practices & procedures • general & job specific • housekeeping • contractors • Emergency 5. Safety review & improvement • a Plan / Do / Check / Act process • accident investigation process • safety audit / inspection process 6. Safety training • Based on needs assessments • Designed & presented effectively • For both management & employees • Results in observable changes in behaviour on the job 7. Safety communications • Internal & external • Appropriate for audience • Effectiveness of communication methods
