Duties of Workers in Management of OH&S

Introduction

Regardless to the type and nature of the job you do, occupational health and safety is an important issue and needs a particular attention. Rates of work-related illnesses and injuries are slowly decreasing worldwide but still they are great in number. The International Labour Organization (ILO) reports that the number of deaths caused by occupational accidents and work related illnesses worldwide is higher than those of war. 

This is not related to any specific industry. Although they are more likely to happen in certain high-risk jobs, work-related injury and illness can happen in most workplaces. Even in lower-risk workplaces, such as offices, shops or libraries, workers are exposed to some kinds of workplace hazards. 

Occupational health and safety (OH&S) covers all conditions and factors that affect, or could affect, the health and safety of employees or other workers, visitors, or any other person in the workplace.

Almost every country has regulations regarding workplace health and safety. These regulations make employers responsible to provide and maintain a safe and healthy work environment for their employees. However, employees have also duties related to workplace health and safety.

Duties of workers in management of OH&S

In provision of a healthy and safe work environment, management of occupational health and safety is a shared responsibility of employer and employees. Both sides have their own duties. For example, employers hold the responsibility to provide training as are necessary to the health and safety of the employees; however, employees are responsible for participating in these trainings and get informed about the health and safety matters. While the employers’ duty of care is of much more significance, the duties of employees should in no way be neglected.

Here are top and the most important duties of employees regarding health and safety at the workplace. Employees must:

• perform work safely to protect themselves and others from injury, by avoiding any behavior that puts themselves or others at risk;
• follow all health and safety procedures, including wearing of personal protective equipment, obeying the safety signs, following machine instructions, etc.;
• not intentionally tamper or misuse equipment, devices or other means provided by the employer that is used to keep the workplace safe;
• report all defects and actual of potential hazards observed in the workplace;
• inform supervisors about any workplace injury, illness or near misses; and
• be familiar with the emergency and evacuation procedures and the location of the emergency equipment (fire extinguishers, first aid kit, etc.) in order to be able to protect themselves in the event of emergency.

The well-known and internationally applied standard, ISO 45001, outlines requirements intended to provide organizations with the elements of an effective OH&S management system (OHSMS) that can be integrated with other business requirements and enable organizations to achieve their OH&S goals.

As occupational health and safety is becoming an increasing concern, companies are taking steps towards demonstrating sound occupational health and safety (OH&S) performance by developing their OHSMS. The increasing consideration/attention given to occupational health and safety is reciprocally increasing the necessity for experts in this field.

How can PECB help?

PECB is a certification body for persons on a wide range of professional standards. Among other international standards, it also offers ISO  training and certification services for professionals wanting to gain a comprehensive knowledge of the main processes of an OHSMS, project managers or consultants wanting to prepare and to support an organization in the implementation of an OHSMS, auditors wanting to perform and lead OHSMS certification audits, and staff involved in the implementation of the ISO 45001 standard.

ISO 45001 and Occupational Health and Safety Training Courses offered by PECB:

• ISO 45001 Lead Implementer (5 days)
• ISO 45001 Lead Auditor (5 days)
• ISO 45001 Foundation (2 days)
• ISO 45001 Transition (2 days)

Narta Voca is the Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Product Manager at PECB. She is in charge of developing and maintaining training courses related to HSE. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact her at training@pecb.com.