SoMMME

Department of Mechanical Engineering

EMG 2519 Maintenance Engineering and

Industrial Safety

Occupational Safety and Health (OSH)

© Juni 18 MuD Universität Paderborn

James Kuria Kimotho
 SoMMME
Department of Mechanical Engineering

Content

Introduction
Basic aspects and principles of OSH
Responsibility of employer and employee
OSH Policy within an enterprise
OSH Act

© Juni 18 MuD Universität Paderborn

2 EMG 2519: Maintenance Engineering and Industrial Safety/19/05/2018
 SoMMME
Department of Mechanical Engineering

Introduction

Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) is an area concerned

with protecting the safety, health and welfare of people
engaged in work or employment.
– The goals of occupational safety and health programs include
fostering a safe and healthy work environment.
International Labor Organization (ILO) executes OSH mandate
on behalf of the international community through regional and
national governments.
In Kenya OSH is under the directorate of Occupational Safety
and Health Services (DOSHS) which is anchored in the

© Juni 18 MuD Universität Paderborn

Ministry of Labour, Social Security and Services.

3 EMG 2519: Maintenance Engineering and Industrial Safety/19/05/2018

 SoMMME
Department of Mechanical Engineering

Aspects of OSH

A multi-disciplinary activity targeting four basic aspects namely;

1) The protection and promotion of workers health by preventing
and controlling occupational diseases and accidents;
2) The development and promotion of healthy and safe work,
work environments and work organizations;
3) Enhancement of physical, mental and social well-being of
workers; and
4) Enabling workers to conduct socially and economically
productive lives and to contribute positively to sustainable

© Juni 18 MuD Universität Paderborn

development (WHO 2010).

4 EMG 2519: Maintenance Engineering and Industrial Safety/19/05/2018

 SoMMME
Department of Mechanical Engineering

OSH Principles

All workers have rights.

– Workers, as well as employers and governments, must ensure
that these rights are protected and must strive to establish and
maintain decent working conditions and a decent working
environment.
Occupational safety and health policies must be
established.
– Such policies must be implemented at both the national
(governmental) and enterprise levels. They must be effectively
communicated to all parties concerned.
A national system for occupational safety and health must

© Juni 18 MuD Universität Paderborn

be established.
– Such a system must include all the mechanisms and elements
necessary to build and maintain a preventive safety and health
culture.

5 EMG 2519: Maintenance Engineering and Industrial Safety/19/05/2018

 SoMMME
Department of Mechanical Engineering

OSH Principles
A national programme on occupational safety and health
must be formulated.
– Once formulated, it must be implemented, monitored, evaluated and
periodically reviewed.
Social partners (that is, employers and workers) and other
stakeholders must be consulted.
– This should be done during formulation, implementation and review
of all policies, systems and programmes.
Occupational safety and health programmes and policies
must aim at both prevention and protection.
– Efforts must be focused above all on primary prevention at the

© Juni 18 MuD Universität Paderborn

workplace level. Workplaces and working environments should be
planned and designed to be safe and healthy.

6 EMG 2519: Maintenance Engineering and Industrial Safety/19/05/2018

 SoMMME
Department of Mechanical Engineering

OSH Principles

Continuous improvement of occupational safety and

health must be promoted.
– This is necessary to ensure that national laws, regulations and
technical standards to prevent occupational injuries, diseases and
deaths are adapted periodically to social, technical and scientific
progress and other changes in the world of work.
Compensation, rehabilitation and curative services must
be made available to workers who suffer occupational
injuries, accidents and work related diseases.
– Action must be taken to minimize the consequences of
occupational hazards.

© Juni 18 MuD Universität Paderborn

Policies must be enforced.
– A system of inspection must be in place to secure compliance
with occupational safety and health measures and other labour
legislation.

7 EMG 2519: Maintenance Engineering and Industrial Safety/19/05/2018

 SoMMME
Department of Mechanical Engineering

OSH Policy within an Enterprise

Measures for the prevention and control of occupational

hazards in the workplace should be based upon a clear,
implementable and well-defined policy at the level of the
enterprise.
Functions of an enterprise policy:
– allocate the various responsibilities for OSH within the enterprise;
– bring policy information to the notice of every worker, supervisor
and manager;
– determine how occupational health services are to be organized;

© Juni 18 MuD Universität Paderborn

– specify measures to be taken for the surveillance of the working
environment and workers’ health.

8 EMG 2519: Maintenance Engineering and Industrial Safety/19/05/2018

 SoMMME
Department of Mechanical Engineering

Employers‘ Responsibility
Employers' responsibilities in ensuring working environment is
safe and healthy:
– Knowledge of occupational hazards and a commitment to ensure
that management processes promote safety and health at work.
• For example, an awareness of safety and health implications should
guide decisions on the choice of technology and on how work is
organized.
– Training is one of the most important tasks to be carried out by
employers.
• Workers need to know not only how to do their jobs, but also how to
protect their lives and health and those of their co-workers while
working.

© Juni 18 MuD Universität Paderborn

– Where necessary, employers must be in a position to deal with
accidents and emergencies, including providing first-aid facilities.
– Adequate arrangements should also be made for compensation of
work-related injuries and diseases, as well as for rehabilitation
and to facilitate a prompt return to work.

9 EMG 2519: Maintenance Engineering and Industrial Safety/19/05/2018

 SoMMME
Department of Mechanical Engineering

Employees‘ Responsibilities

Workers have a duty to:

– take reasonable care for their own safety and that of other
persons who may be affected by their acts or omissions;
– comply with instructions given for their own safety and health, and
those of others, and with safety and health procedures;
– use safety devices and protective equipment correctly (and not
render them inoperative);
– report promptly to their immediate supervisor any situation which
they have reason to believe could present a hazard and which
they cannot themselves correct;

© Juni 18 MuD Universität Paderborn

– report any accident or injury to health which arises in the course
of or in connection with work.

10 EMG 2519: Maintenance Engineering and Industrial Safety/19/05/2018

 SoMMME
Department of Mechanical Engineering

OSH Act

The Occupational Safety and Health Act, 2007

AN ACT of Parliament
– to provide for the safety, health and welfare of workers and all
persons lawfully present at workplaces,
– to provide for the establishment of the National Council for
Occupational Safety and Health and for connected purposes
Facility design – Part VI
Machinery safety – Part VII

© Juni 18 MuD Universität Paderborn

Report 2
– Write a term paper on the provisions of the OSH Act, 2007 on
machinery safety.

11 EMG 2519: Maintenance Engineering and Industrial Safety/19/05/2018

 SoMMME
Department of Mechanical Engineering

Thank You
for
Your Kind Attention!

© Juni 18 MuD Universität Paderborn

Dr.-Ing. James Kuria Kimotho Department of Mechanical Engineering
jkuria@eng.jkuat.ac.ke JKUAT
P.O. Box 62000-00200
Nairobi