Occupational Health and Safety is associated with the physical, physiological and psychosocial conditions of an organisation’s workforce, allied to aspects of work and the work context (De Cieri & Kramar, 2003, pp. 99). Occupational health and safety is a necessary and fundamental aspect in any productive organisations. Work-related injuries, diseases and stress and quality of the working-life of the employees are related to the employees’ effectiveness.
(Stone, 2002, pp. 646). Barling (2004) stated that occupational health and safety is a major issue for employees, and how management deals with this issue of both academic and practical significance. The most frequent organizational approaches used to produce a sufficient level of safety have focused on the optimal design of equipment (i. e. , an ergonomic approach), adherence with government-imposed standards (i. e.
, a legislative approach), or compliance with the terms of collective agreements. Therefore, systematic approaches to occupational safety and health are rapidly emerging internationally as the pre-eminent strategy for employers to reduce occupational illness and injury. In addition, Schulte (2002) stated that the aim of the pre-eminent strategy is to improve knowledge, increase understanding, and apply information to specific problems.
There are three topics that are emerged in this paper, those are: the significance of Occupational Health and Safety management and planning, Occupational Health and Safety Hazard example (work-related stress) and the development Occupational Health and Safety cultures in each organization as the solutions in preventing the Occupational Health and Safety Issues. The Significance of Occupational Health and Safety Management and Planning All researchers proved that how important OH&S knowledge is by the global burden of occupational death rates.
The workforce of the world is approximately 2. 9 billion out of a total of 6. 2 billion people, and they work in a range of situations from pre-industrial to high technology and information (Schulte, 2002). Moreover, in between year 1996 to 1998, there were 47,803 workplace major injuries (Kleiman, 2000). Statistics suggest that each year the cost to the Australian community resulting from occupational illness, injury and disease is approximately $3 billion (Kleiman, 2000). Prevention is always better than cure (Deitchman et al.
, 2001). While an employer’s manners after an accident can have significant ongoing consequences for the conduct of a suit, this should not distract the employer from the primary objective of preventing accidents in the first place (Pearn, 2002). Ideally, Deitchman et al. (2001) suggested that work-related injuries and illnesses should be prevented rather than relying leading treatment. In theory, Macintosh and Gough (1998) have found that accident prevention is the foundation and nobody wants workers to be injured.
Health and Safety programs reflect the organisation’s strategic concern for employee productivity and quality of life (Stone, 2002). Therefore, various countries particularly the United States, Canada, Australia, and European countries foster international collaboration in research and training. With the OH&S programs, they are linked with the organisation’s strategic business objectives to seek competitive advantage by promoting employee commitment, the company’s image as a preferred employer, reduced cost and increased productivity.