Transcript Document

Human Resource Management
EMPLOYEE HEALTH AND
SAFETY
Chapter18
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Introduction
• Poor occupational health and safety performance
equates with poor human resource management,
and poor legal and social responsibility.
• Occupational health and safety problems account
for eleven times more lost production time in
Australia than industrial disputes.
• The ultimate responsibility rests with the employer.
• Health and safety performance is intimately linked
to organisational performance and culture.
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The Benefits of a Safe Work Environment
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Improved personal safety
Reduced overheads
Reduced claims
Insurance premium control
Reduced uninsured losses
Reduced retraining and relocation
Improved production
Reduced spoilage and wastage
Reduced machine shut-down
Reduced re-work
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Government Regulation
• Because of constitutional limitations, most legislation
continues to be generated by the states. As a consequence,
a major obstacle to improving overall occupational health
and safety performance has been the lack of consistency
across Australia.
• The titular head of the Australian system is the National
Occupational Health and Safety Commission (now called
Worksafe Australia).
• Under its auspices, all Australian states have now adopted
similar health and safety legislation which emphasises a
duty of care on employers and workers through education
and information rather than detailed regulation.
• Worksafe Australia sets national standards.
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Employer Duties
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Provide and maintain safe plant and systems of work
Arrange safe systems of work with plant and substances
Provide a safe working environment
Provide adequate welfare facilities, i.e change rooms, dining
areas and lockers
Provide adequate information on hazards, instruction, training
and supervision to enable employees to work safely.
Monitor the health of their employees
Keep information and records relating to the health and safety
of their employees
Employ or engage suitably qualified persons to provide advice
to employees the health and safety
Monitor conditions at any workplace under their control and
management
Provide information to employees in appropriate languages. 5
Employee Duties
• To take care of their own health and safety, and the
health and safety of any other person.
• To cooperate with their employer with respect to any
action the employer has taken to meet their legal
responsibilities under the Act.
• E.g., the Act requires employees to follow the safe
working procedures set by the company, to wear any
personal protective clothing and equipment provided
and to adhere to site safety rules which might cover
things such as speed limits, not smoking and so on.
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Workplace Consultative Structures
There are two types of consultative structure:
• health and safety representatives each
representing the interests of a group of
workers (designated work group/DWG)
• a health and safety committee covering the
workplace as a whole.
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Designated Work Groups
• Under section 29 of the Act, an employee
may ask the employer to establish
designated work groups or the employer
can initiate these negotiations.
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Election of Health and Safety
Representatives
• Section 30 of the Act provides for the
election of a health and safety representative
(HSR) within each designated work group.
• All workers in the group are entitled to vote
in the election for the health and safety
representative.
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Functions of HSRs
• Inspect any part of the workplace at which a member of
the representative’s designated work group works.
• Accompany an inspector during an inspection of the
workplace.
• With the consent of the employee, be present at an
interview between the employee and an inspector, or
employer, concerning a health and safety matter.
• Issues provisional improvement notices after
consultation with the person to whom the notice is to be
issued.
• The employer must allow HSRs to take paid time off
work as necessary to perform their duties or to take part
in any approved training course.
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Occupational Health & Safety Committees
• Longer term issues relating to workers’ health and
safety in a workplace may be dealt with by a joint
employer–worker health and safety committee.
• Essentially, the role of a health and safety
committee is to look at the broader policy matters
relating to health and safety in the workplace, and
to review existing policies and procedures.
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Managing Health and Safety Issues
• Organizations are required to have agreed procedures for
dealing with health and safety issues, and to nominate
management representatives who are responsible for
dealing with specified health and safety issues.
• Section 33 of the Act provides that health and safety
representatives can issue provisional Improvement Notices
(PINs). These are legal directions which assert noncompliance with a provision of the Act and/or regulations,
and require that the contravention be remedied.
• An employer may appeal against a PIN within seven days
of its being served.
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Advantages of a Safe & Healthy Work Place
• more productivity due to fewer absenteeism
• more efficiency from workers who are more involved with
their jobs
• reduced medical and compensation rates and direct
payment because of fewer claims being filed
• lower rates of turnover and absenteeism due in part to
increased worker satisfaction and involvement
• greater flexibility and adaptability in the workplace as a
result of increased participation and feeling of ownership
• greater selection ratios because of the increased
attractiveness of the organisation as a place to work
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Evaluation of Health and
Safety Performance
 Workplace inspections
 Safety tours
 Safety sampling
 Behaviour sampling
 Probabilistic risk assessments
 HAZOP/HAZAN techniques
 Management Oversight and Risk Tree (MORT)
 Job Safety Analysis (JSA)
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Sexual Harassment
• Sexual harassment includes unwelcome sexual advances,
unwanted and persistent physical contact, indecent sexual
language and offensive comments, open discussion of a
person’s sexual behaviour and the unnecessary display of
sexual material.
• Victims often suffer low self-esteem, anger, stress,
humiliation, disinterest in the job and a feeling of
powerlessness.
• HR managers need, therefore, to introduce appropriate
policies, training and supervision to guarantee every
employee’s right to work in an environment free from
sexual harassment.
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Smoking
• More companies are enacting workplace
smoking policies
• Demands by employees and customers for a
smoke-free environment, the risk of health
care costs, increased government regulation
and concerns over potential sizeable legal
liabilities if sued by employees who
develop illnesses from passive smoking.
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Substance Abuse
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Address the problem of alcohol and drug abuse squarely.
Establish clear rules and enforce them consistently.
Conduct proper investigations of suspected violations.
Follow appropriate disciplinary guidelines.
Train supervisors and educate employees.
Develop a policy on rehabilitation or employee assistance.
Be sensitive to employees’ privacy rights.
Take reasonable steps to protect employees and others
from harm caused by substance abusers.
• Know the applicable statutes and regulations.
• Practise good employee relations.
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Workplace and Domestic Violence
• All types of employees can encounter anger and
aggression in the workplace — police, parking officers,
nurses, receptionists, teachers, domestic helpers —
virtually anyone in a regulatory, social or service role.
• With the present labour market turbulence, a new type of
violent behaviour is being expressed by workers who
have been dismissed, retrenched or demoted.
• The challenge exists for HR managers not only to find
ways of protecting employees from violence but of
addressing the pervasive fear and anxiety these incidents
induce.
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Workplace Bullying
• Bullying includes:
– persecuting or ganging up on an individual,
– making unreasonable demands or setting impossible work
targets,
– restrictive and petty work rules,
– constant intrusive surveillance, shouting, abusive language,
– physical assault: and
– open or implied threats of dismissal or demotion.
• The incidence of bullying is higher in workplaces
with autocratic and arbitrary management.
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Work–Family Conflict
People do not work in isolation. Everyday events affect them
such as:
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the birth of babies
coping with infertility
women re-entering the work force
adolescent troubles, within the normal to crisis range
•mid-life stresses, including marriage breakdown, living alone
and re-marriage.
More and more organisations are reorganising the traditional
way work has been structured because it is no longer
compatible with the needs of today’s working families.
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Employee Stress
What Is Stress?
• Stress has been described as the rate of
wear and tear on the body caused by living.
• In itself, stress is neither good nor bad.
• In fact, some degree of stress is normal and
necessary for day-to-day survival.
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Sources of Stress
Work factors
• Work load
• Relationships
• Organisational climate
• Change
• Physical environment
• Role ambiguity
Personal factors
• Needs
• Type A behaviour
STRESS
External factors
• Economic conditions
• Government laws and
regulations
• Travel
• Climate
• Community values
• Crime
• Personal and family
affairs
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Stress and performance curve
Optimum stimulation
High
Performance
Low
Low
Stress
High
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Decision Making and Stress
• One of the most common causes of stress in managers is
the inability to make decisions and take action.
• As stress inhibits decision making, a vicious cycle can
quickly be established.
• The manager puts off decisions and then becomes
overwhelmed with a backlog of problems. Procrastination
in decision making may totally immobilise a manager.
• It is a myth that delay improves the quality of a decision.
• It is not a myth, however, that delay in decision making is
a sure way to increase stress.
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Symptoms Of Stress
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a general washed-out feeling
feeling ‘nervy’, tense or ‘uptight’
indigestion
high blood pressure
insomnia
restlessness and a general inability to concentrate
increase in use of drugs, including alcohol
increase in smoking
change in eating habits
inability to relax
aches and pains
sexual difficulties
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How to Reduce Employee Stress
1. Allow employees to talk freely with one another.
2. Reduce personal conflicts on the job.
3. Give employees adequate control over how they
do their work.
4. Ensure that staffing budgets are adequate.
5. Talk openly with employees.
6. Support employees’ efforts.
7. Provide competitive personal leave and vacation
benefits.
8. Maintain current levels of employee benefits.
9. Reduce the amount of red tape for employees.
10.Recognise and reward employees for their
accomplishments and contributions.
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The Management of Stress
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Relaxation
Exercise
Diet
Talk
Planning and time management
Delegation
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Living With Stress
• All employees need to recognise that stress
need not be destructive.
• Awareness of the symptoms and causes of
stress permits appropriate interventions.
• Too much stress can cause employee
inefficiency and physical and mental
breakdown.
• However, employee burnout is avoidable.
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