Managing Occupational Safety And Health Towards Business Competitiveness

The Chairman of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, (NIOSH) emphasized today the importance of Managing Occupational Safety and Health Towards Business Competitiveness and called on employers to see training as an INVESTMENT and not an EXPENSE.

There is a need to turn the current thinking on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) from a negative to a positive one and take a rational and practical approach in addressing the management of this issue.

Management or employers must recognise OSH of employees as an integral part of business management. Concerns for the bottom line must be looked at with equal gravity with OSH issues at the workplace. After all they are both concerned with the viability of the business enterprise.

Employees are often regarded by management to be the most important asset of any organization. Hence, it makes sense that this particular asset should be protected in terms of health and safety and nurtured to ensure that it continues to be productive.

In any business enterprise, the issue of preserving and retaining the employees is most urgent. Management must now step back and take a hard look at their asset and actively show how much they value their employees with a responsible OSH Policy backed up by the necessary organisation and systems to implement accident prevention programmes.

Many people are not conscious of the importance of occupational safety and health (OSH) until an accident, injury or fatality occurs.

There are industries which do not want to invest in safety and health at the workplace because of the cost factor.

They do not seem to realize that if accidents or fatalities occur due to their disregard for OSH the costs they have to bear will even be much heavier.


Safety is Good Business

Common sense tells us that “Safety is Good Business”. If industries give priority to safety issues at the workplace it will certainly be beneficial to the business.

There must be greater commitment by industries, particularly the SMI/Es to adopt a work-safety culture and do more to prevent or minimize industrial accidents through good OSH practices.

OSH training for SMIs is of paramount importance and SMI operators should see training as an investment and not an expense.
In the global economy OSH issues are among the key determinants to a company’s competitiveness through productivity enhancement and efficiency.

Observations and evidence had shown that an increase in productivity and an improvement in workplace environment were the results of good safety and health work practices and the adoption of a work safety culture.

OSH must therefore be treated as an investment and not an expense and this is in line with the maxim that ‘SAFETY IS GOOD BUSINESS’.


Compromising OSH Incurs Additional Costs

NIOSH is aware that the present economic hardship and uncertainty experienced by Malaysia and elsewhere has had a significant impact on our industries as a whole.

Many companies have had to tighten their budgets. This measure is unavoidable. However, in the process, a number of questions come to mind:

a) Should a company cut back on the safety and health budget in the workplace during this economic downturn ?

b) Is this a logical or viable step to take ?

If you stop to think for a moment, compromising safety and health at the workplace is tantamount to incurring additional costs to a company. Why do I say that ? Can a company afford to :

1) Have an unwanted accident which might disrupt production ?

2) Be distracted with having to investigate the accident whereas it should be occupied with other scheduled productive duties ;

3) And in the worst case scenario, be issued with a stop-work order where productivity will be affected.

These are few examples of what accidents can do to the bottomline and productivity of a company.





So how do we address OSH issues in these difficult times?

The answer lies in the development of a “good OSH management system.” This responsibility lies with the management team, which must accord serious attention to the aspect of how to manage OSH appropriately.
The very objective of good OSH management is to provide the required investment in terms of commitment – financial, human resources and equipment in systematic OSH strategies – in order to secure the highest rate of return on investment such as zero accident without jeopardising the company’s overall profit performance.

Good OSH management is therefore an integral part of a good overall company management system.

Occupational safety and health should not be seen as a profit-sapping factor for the management of industries, but be regarded as a productivity booster. Industries must realize that accident prevention is no longer a fringe benefit but a prerequisite to a profitable operation.

Industries and employers must realize that four fundamental factors justify OSH management. These are, corporate social responsibility, social and moral obligation, good business sense and legal obligation.

Common sense tells us that effective OSH management not only reduces the risk to safety and health but also ensure high returns to the company in terms of productivity and profitability.

Managing OSH is not only essential for business competitiveness but also ensuring the well-being of the workforce.

Statistics on Industrial Accidents

Since the introduction of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) in 1994, the number of accidents at workplaces has shown a significant reduction. According to statistics compiled by the Ministry of Human Resources, the number of industrial accidents reported to SOCSO and the Labour Department for all sectors decreased from 86,589 in 1997 to 56,339 in 2007. This is a substantial reduction of over 35 percent over a period of ten years.

Although there is a decline in the average number of industrial accidents from 10 per 1,000 workers in 1997 to 6.8 in 2007, we should strive against the benchmark of developed countries which only have 3-4 accidents per 1,000 workers.

However, this does not mean that there is room for complacency. As Malaysia moves towards industrialised nation status, we must continue to strategise new approaches to meet the challenges of occupational safety and health.
Seen from an overall perspective, occupational health should be defined as the promotion of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well-being of workers in all occupations.