Management of International

Health and Safety

Element 1: Foundations in Health and
Safety

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 Learning Outcomes
• Outline the scope and nature of occupational health
and safety.
• Explain the moral, social and economic reasons for
maintaining and promoting good standards of health
and safety in the workplace.
• Explain the role of national governments and
international bodies in formulating a framework for
the regulation of health and safety.

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 Scope and Nature of
Health and Safety
Multi-Disciplinary
Barriers to Good Standards
Definitions

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 Multi-Disciplinary
Health and safety practitioners need to be familiar
with:
• Chemistry/physics/ biology.
• Engineering.
• Psychology.
• Sociology.
• Legislation:
– Standards that apply.
– Strengths and weaknesses of options.
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 Barriers to Good Standards

Complexity of the workplace.

Conflicting demands:
– Timescales.
– Standards.
– Budgets.
Behavioural issues:
– People failing to act as
desired, or making mistakes.

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 Definitions

• Health – absence of disease

or ill health.

• Safety – absence of risk of

serious personal injury.

• Welfare – access to basic

facilities.

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 Group Syndicate Exercise

Why might the management

of an organisation not
consider health and safety
to be a priority?

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 Group Syndicate Exercise – Answers

Key points include:

• Competes with other business aims:
– Requires time and resources.
• Seen as a “cost” to business:
– Ignorance of true costs of injury/illness.
• Ignorance of legal duties.
• Ignorance of hazards.

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 End-of-Section Quiz

1. What barriers might there be to good

health and safety practice?
2. Define the terms:
• Health.
• Safety.
• Welfare.

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 Unit IGC1: Element 1.2

REASONS FOR MAINTAINING AND

PROMOTING GOOD STANDARDS OF
HEALTH AND SAFETY

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 Why Manage Health and Safety?

Moral reasons.

Legal (or social) reasons.

Economic (or financial)

reasons.

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 The Size of the Problem

Global statistics from the International Labour

Organisation (ILO) SafeWork Programme:
• 270 million accidents and 160 million diseases a
year due to work.
• 2 million fatalities a year.
• 4% of global GDP is lost.
• 355,000 on-the-job
fatalities each year.

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 Group Syndicate Exercise
An employee at your workplace has been
seriously injured in a workplace accident.
In groups, as indicated by the tutor, list the
possible effects and implications of this
accident on the:
• Injured employee.
• Company.
• Line manager.

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 Group Syndicate Exercise – Answers
Key points include:
• Injured employee:
– Pain and suffering, lost time/wages, impact on
family, on-going impact on work.
• The company:
– Payment of sick pay, overtime cover for employee,
recruitment costs for replacement, insurance claims,
fines/prosecutions, increased insurance premiums.
• The line manager:
– Loss of skills from team, time and cost of retraining
replacement, effect of overtime cover on shifts.

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 The Legal and Social Expectation

International standards from the International

Labour Organisation (ILO).
A country’s own health and safety standards.

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 Who’s Responsible for
Health and Safety?
Everybody – but most of the responsibility
lies with the employer to provide:
• Safe place of work.
• Safe plant and
equipment.
• Safe systems of work.
• Training, supervision and
competency of staff.

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 The Business Case
Accidents and ill health cost money.
Costs may be:
– Direct – measurable costs arising directly from
accidents.
– Indirect – arise as a consequence of the event
but may not directly involve money.
Often difficult to quantify.
• H&S failure can affect the broader
economy, as well as individual
companies.

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 Group Discussion

An employee has been injured at work.

Identify potential:
– Direct costs of the accident.
– Indirect costs of the accident.

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 Group Discussion – Answers

Direct costs include:

– First-aid treatment, sick pay,
lost production time.
– Fines and compensation.
Indirect costs include:
– Lost time for investigation.
– Lost morale and damaged worker
relationships.
– Cost of recruitment of replacement staff.
– Lost reputation.
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 The Cost of Accidents at Work
Insured Costs £1

• Fire.
• Worker injury/death.
• Medical costs.
£8 - £36
Uninsured Costs
• Loss of raw materials due to accidents.
• Sick pay.
• Overtime.
• Equipment repairs.
• Lost materials.
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 End-of-Section Quiz

1. What are the 3 main reasons for managing

health and safety?
2. What should an employer provide to
ensure health and safety:
• Safe place of _______________
• Safe plant and ______________
• Safe _______ of work
• Training, _____ and competency of ______

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 Unit IGC1: Element 1.3

ROLE OF NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS

AND INTERNATIONAL BODIES

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 Roles of National Governments and
International Bodies
International Labour Organisation (ILO)
• Agency of United Nations.
• Most countries are members.
• Sets international standards for
H&S by publishing:
– Conventions.
– Recommendations.

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 The International Framework

Conventions
• Create binding obligations or policies to
implement their provisions.
• No legal authority, unless ratified by the
member state into its own legal structure.

Recommendations
• Provide guidance on policy, legislation and
practice.

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 Examples of Regulatory
International Frameworks
Regulations adopted by the International Labour
Organisation (ILO):
Occupational Safety and Health Convention (C155)
– a goal-setting policy for companies and nations.

Occupational Safety and Health Recommendation

1981 (R164) – supplements C155 and gives more
guidance on how to comply with its policies.

We'll talk about these a lot during the course!

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 Employers’ Responsibilities
Article 16 of C155 identifies obligations placed on employers
to:
• Ensure that workplaces, machinery, equipment and work
processes are safe and without risks to health.
• Ensure that chemical, physical and biological substances
and agents are without risk to health when protective
measures have been taken.
• Provide adequate protective clothing and equipment to
prevent risks of accidents or adverse health effects.

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 Employers’ Responsibilities
Article 10 of R164:
• Provide and maintain workplaces, machinery and equipment
and use working methods that are safe.
• Give necessary instruction, training and supervision in
application and use of health and safety measures.
• Introduce organisational arrangements relevant to activities and
size of undertaking.
• Provide PPE and clothing without charge to workers.
• Ensure that work organisation, particularly working hours and
rest breaks, does not adversely affect occupational safety and
health.
• Take reasonably practical measures with a view to eliminating
excessive physical and mental fatigue.
• Keep up to date with scientific and technical
knowledge to comply with the above.
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 Regulatory Frameworks
ILO has also published Conventions associated with
specific hazards:

• C115 – Radiation Protection (1960)

• C162 – Asbestos (1986)

• C167 – H&S in Construction (1988)

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 What Employers Must Provide

• Safe place of work – and safe access and

egress.
• Safe plant and equipment – the need to
inspect, service and replace machinery will
depend on the level of risk.
• Safe system of work – should be safe in all
circumstances – appropriate review, planning
and control ensure continued safety of
methods.
• Training and supervision to ensure
competency.
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 What is “Competence”?

K – NOWLEDGE
A – BILITY
T – RAINING
E – XPERIENCE

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 Group Exercise

Apart from employees, who else must the

employer protect?

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 Group Exercise – Answers

Anyone affected by their business activities:

• Visitors:
– Invited/uninvited.
– Lawful/unlawful (law differs from country
to country).
• Contractors.
• Members of the public.

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 Workers’ Responsibilities

Article 19 of C155 also places obligations on

workers, expanded in R164 as follows:
• Take reasonable care of their own safety and
that of other people.
• Comply with safety instructions and procedures.
• Use all safety equipment properly.
• Report any situation that they believe could be a
hazard and which they cannot themselves
correct.
• Report any work-related accident/ill health.

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 Workers’ Rights
Article 19 of C155 states that every worker must be:
• Given adequate information on actions the
employer has taken to ensure safety and health.
• Given the right to the necessary training in safety
and health.
• Consulted by the employer on all matters of safety
and health relating to their work.
• Given the right to leave a workplace that he has
reason to think presents an imminent and serious
danger to his life or health, and not be compelled
to return until it is safe.
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 Enforcement Agencies

• No harmonised global standard.

• Country-specific agencies may include:
– H&S Enforcement Agency.
– Fire Authority.
– Insurance companies.
• Police may be involved in enforcing H&S
law in some countries.

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 Consequences of Non-Compliance

Breach of H&S legislation is usually a criminal

offence, leading to:
Enforcement action:
– Improvement.
– Prohibition.

Prosecution:
– Organisation may be fined.
– Individuals may be fined or imprisoned.

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 Claims for Compensation

Fault-Based Compensation Systems

• Worker brings claim against
employer.
• Civil legal system.
• Must prove employer was negligent and
therefore to blame for injury/ill health.
• UK and USA.

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 Claims for Compensation

No-Fault Systems
• National or regional
schemes.
• No need to prove negligence.
• Decided by a panel of
experts.
• No lawyers or courts.
• New Zealand and Sweden.

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 Syndicate Group Exercise
Discuss the criminal and civil-law implications of the following:
• A technician escapes injury by diving under a bench when a
vessel blows up as a result of a design defect.
• A 12-year-old boy breaks his arm falling into a pit while
playing on an unfenced building site.
• A machine operator is blinded in one eye by a colleague
trying to help him remove a jammed machine part using a
hammer. There is a safe way to remove the jammed part,
which does not involve the use of a hammer, and the area
they are in is a mandatory eye-protection zone.
• A scaffolder is electrocuted when the pole he is carrying
touches a live overhead cable. The scaffolder works for a
company contracted to a roofing company, in turn
contracted to a factory owner.
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 Other International Standards
International Organisation for Standardisation
World’s largest developer of management
standards, for example:
– ISO 9001 – Quality Management
– ISO 14001 – Environmental Management
– ISO 12100 – Safety of Machinery

These standards are not “law”, they’re good

management practice.
They lead to a worldwide common approach to good
management.
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 Other International Standards

Internationally-recognised standard for

Occupational Health and Safety is
OHSAS 18001
Compatible with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001

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 Source Organisations
International Labour Organisation (UN agency)
www.ilo.org
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (USA)
www.osha.gov
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU)
http://agency.osha.eu.int
Health and Safety Executive (UK)
www.hse.gov.uk
Worksafe (Western Australia)
www.commerce.wa.gov.au/WorkSafe
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 End-of-Section Quiz
1. What are the two main standards that the
ILO has produced for health and safety?
What do countries do with these
standards?
2. What are employers’ responsibilities under
R164?
3. What are employees’ responsibilities
under R164?
4. What action could be taken against
organisations breaking health and safety
law?
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