LABOUR LAWS AND MEANING AND IMPORTANCE OF OCCUPATIONAL

UNIT 4 SECTION
INDUSTRIAL 1
RELATIONS Unit 4, section
HEALTH 1: Meaning and importance of occupational health and safety
AND SAFETY

You are warmly welcome to this first section of this unit which deals with
the meaning and importance of Occupational Health and Safety. Like any
other subject, you first need to understand what health and safety at work
means only then can you grasp the import of any other discussion on the
subject. In this unit, you will get exposed to Occupational Health and Safety
and its importance.

By the end of the section, you should be able to:

 define concepts like health, safety, hazards and risk
 outline the importance of Occupational Health and Safety.

Now read on……………..

The meaning of Concepts in Occupational Health and Safety

Health
Health is a general state of physical, mental and emotional well-being. A
healthy person is one who is free of illness, injury or mental and emotional
problems that impair normal human activity. However, the question of what
is exactly healthy or normal behavior is open to various interpretations.
Occupational health therefore is concerned with the prevention of ill-health
arising from working conditions.

Safety
Safety is a condition in which the physical well-being of people are
protected. Occupational safety then is also interested in the prevention of
accidents and with minimizing the result loss and damage to life. Thus,
Health and Safety programmes are concerned with protection against
hazards and their aims and methods are closely interlinked.

Hazards
A hazard is anything that has the potential to cause harm. Occupational
hazard therefore is anything at the workplace or an aspect of work that has
the potential to cause harm. It is important to know the difference between
health hazards and safety hazards.

Safety hazards – are aspects of work environment that have the potential of
causing immediate and sometimes violent harm or even death. Examples of
safety hazards are presented in the table below.

Safety hazards Potential problems

 Strong chemicals  Burns
 Excessive noise  Loss of hearing
 Height  Loss of body parts
 Faulty equipments  Electric shock

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Health hazards – on the other hand are aspects of work environment that
slowly and cumulatively (often irreversible) lead to deterioration of health.
Examples of health hazards are presented in the table below.

Health hazards Potential problems

 Toxic and carcinogenic dust  Respiratory diseases
 Chemicals  Cancer
 Stressful conditions  Depression
 Excessive temperature  Impotency and infertility.

Risk
A risk is the chance, large or small, of the potential harm being actually
done by the hazard. A work condition or environment can be described as
risky when the chance of the potential harm actually occurring is high.

The importance of Health and Safety in the Workplace

Health and safety issues are sadly often under emphasized by both some
management as well as some workers. Yet, health and safety considerations
are important for a number of reasons ranging from moral to legal reasons.
So that ignoring health and safety as important could lead to human
suffering and financial loss. Close and continuous attention to health and
safety is important because ill-health and injuries cause:
 Suffering to individual – The pain and suffering the human mind and
body suffers. In addition to the pain, the victim may be incapacitated for
life, may never be able to work, walk, see, hear nor live normally.
 The death of individuals – This is the worst effect of any workplace
health damage or injury. Nothing can be done to replace or revive or
compensate for the life lost.
 Suffering to the dependent of victims – Once a victim of workplace
injury is unable to work or dies his or her dependent such as spouse and
children may be doomed for life. They may not be able to have basic
necessities of life and children may drop out of school.
 Loss of human resources to the firm – Once the victim takes time off
work to heal or is permanently absent, a gap is created at the workplace.
The firm looses the skills, knowledge and competences of the victim.
 Financial loss to the firm – since the firm is required by law to pay for
the medical cost of the victim. Sometimes the case ends up in the law
courts leading to more loss to the firm, both financially and in terms of
loss of productive time.

It can be seen from the above list that there are ‘business’ reasons as well as
‘human’ reasons why health and safety at work is important. The most
important and the most significant consideration is the ‘human’ reasons
given above. The ‘business’ reason though less significant, also serves as
good reasons why workplace health and safety issues should be considered
as very important.

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LABOUR LAWS AND
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS Unit 4, section 1: Meaning and importance of occupational health and safety

Occupational health is concerned with the prevention of ill-health arising

from working conditions whiles occupational safety is also interested in the
prevention of accidents and with minimizing the resulting loss and damage
to life. Health and safety programmes are therefore concerned with
protection against hazards and their aims and methods are very similar if not
the same. It is for this reason that they are often put together and called
Occupational Health and Safety. Occupational health and safety is
essentially a preventive issue. There are both business and human reasons
why OHS is very important but the most significant consideration is the
human factor.

Self-Assessment Question
1) There is no difference between a harzard and a risk.
2) True or False
3) State two financial reasons why employers take OHS serious
4) List one human reason why OHS is important.

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