J-value analysis of different regulatory limits for workers and the public

The J-value technique allows an objective determination to be made of the resources that should be applied cost effectively to improve heath and safety. This is essential if capabilities are to be employed optimally and risks reduced in a way that reflects their severity. Although other considerations such as good practice and socio-political influences may affect a final decision on the resources to be sanctioned, the incorporation of these additional factors should be made transparent if the decision is no longer to be based on cost effectiveness. The J-value provides an objective criterion by which to judge when “reasonable practicability” has been achieved in committing resources for safety improvement, which is the legal requirement under health and safety law in the UK.Moreover, the J-value methodology also allows other related issues to be addressed objectively. Regulatory bodies apply different limits for workers and the general public, with higher risks being permitted for workers. Although a factor of about 10 has been used in several contexts, no objective rationale has been developed for this particular figure until now. However, it is shown that application of the J-value analysis can provide a justification for a ratio of workers’ risk to public risk of approximately this size if certain reasonable assumptions are made. Thus the paper provides the first quantitative explanation for the different levels of protection demanded by regulators nationally and internationally for workers and public.     

中日合作项目职业安全卫生法规与标准体系初步研究

按照中日合作项目《加强中国安全生产科学技术能力计划》,分析了中国职业安全卫生法规标准体系现状,提出了中国《安全生产法》和日本《劳动安全卫生法》的各自特点与不同点。同时,系统梳理了中国危险化学品、机械安全和职业卫生等领域安全生产法规标准体系,分析了其中存在的主要问题,提出了针对性对策和建议。这对健全中国职业安全卫生法规体系建设具有重要的借鉴和参考意义。     

Small enterprises – Accountants as occupational health and safety intermediaries

Small enterprises face serious occupational health and safety challenges. The occupational risks are high and resources to control the risks are low. There is an ongoing search for ways that authorities and professional bodies can efficiently reach out to small enterprises with preventive measures. It has been suggested in the literature that accountants could act as intermediaries on health and safety. A pilot project was carried out in Denmark to test this possibility. State-authorized accountants were invited to training seminars to give them the necessary health and safety knowledge to provide advice to small enterprises. 164 accountants participated in the seminars and 74 accountants replied to a follow up questionnaire about their experience of advising their small enterprise clients about health and safety. Most of the accountants had actually given health and safety advice and for most of them it was a positive experience. However, they also faced constraints due to the relatively minor role health and safety played in their agendas with their clients and their own limited knowledge about health and safety even after taking part in the training seminars. This study concludes that it is possible for accountants to act as health and safety intermediaries, but that institutional support for the training activities is important to secure a broader application of this approach.     

中国职业安全的现实问题

中国职业安全现实引起社会关注,特别是务工农民伤亡事故的数字背后,隐含着对职业安全的认识,职业人群的安全健康理念,职业安全健康的法规基础等深层次问题。笔者指出了现代职业安全存在的现实状况;提出需要关注的难点;强调人的安全健康是职业安全的实质;给出了职业安全与安全生产的差异,分析了务工农民的安全意识与安全文化冲突,呼吁职业安全需要法律保障,建立一体化的职业安全健康法律法规体系,以《宪法》为基础,以人为本,保护从业人员的安全健康。     

National culture and safe work behaviour of construction workers in Pakistan

It is widely accepted that unsafe behaviour is intrinsically linked to workplace accidents. A positive correlation exists between workers’ safe behaviour and safety climate on construction sites. Construction workers’ attitude towards safety is influenced by their perception of risk, management, safety rules and procedures. Pakistan, a developing country, is currently experiencing a strong growth in its construction activities. Unfortunately, the enforcement of safety regulations in Pakistan is not widespread. Indeed, some relevant regulations are both outdated and irrelevant to daily construction operations. This paper investigates local construction workers’ behaviour, perception and attitude toward safety, and attempts to link the research findings to the influence of national culture. A three-part interview-based questionnaire survey has identified that the majority of workers have a good degree of risk awareness and self-rated competence. Additionally, workers’ intentional behaviour was empirically explained by their attitudes towards their own and management’s safety responsibilities, as well as their perception of the risk they are generally exposed to in their workplace. The paper also reveals that workers operating in a more collective and higher uncertainty avoidance environment, are more likely to have safety awareness and beliefs, which can exhibit safer on-site behaviour.     

Identifying management practices that drive production-line workers’ engagement through qualitative analysis

Introduction: Engagement research - most often defined by a worker’s psychological state of vigor, dedication, and absorption - pays little attention to production-line workers. This study therefore explores factors that drive workers’ engagement with health and safety (H&S) in a production-line context as well as their perception of managerial influence Furthermore, the study adds to the body of research by exploring H&S engagement concepts through the use of qualitative research methods. Method: 38 semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed through template analysis to identify themes that promote and hinder engagement. Results: The main engagement drivers were found to be: (a) the displayed safety focus of the company in organizational and social aspects; (b) the quality of the communication approach with respect to quality, consistency and direction; and (c) the environment encompassing the relationship between workers and supervisors and peers as well as the psychological environment. Notably, a trusting relationship between supervisors and workers appeared to be the most influential driver in determining engaged H&S behavior. Discussion and impact in industry: The study highlights factors that could be adapted to improve engagement and consequently enhance H&S approaches. Originality: The study reported in this paper offers a unique insight into individual production workers’ perceived drivers of H&S engagement using Qualitative Analysis. Practical applications: The study identified the important role that supervisors play in workers’ H&S engagement levels and what skills they need to employ to enhance workers’ engagement in general and in the context of H&S behavior and performance. Furthermore, the importance of psychological and sociological factors in safety approaches are highlighted and were found to be key for creating safer workplaces.     

中小企业员工安全参与行为演化路径研究

员工积极参与企业安全生产活动有助于营造良好安全生产氛围,提高安全生产水平。为弄清中小企业员工安全参与行为演化规律,充分调动员工安全参与积极性,借助演化经济学理论与方法,构建员工与中小企业交往支付矩阵。通过分析交往过程演化模型,揭示个体不同策略选择对群体行为的影响。用数值仿真,演示群体不同初始比例和不同参数变化对演化趋势和结果的影响。研究结果表明,"不认真参与,不考核"模式为"不良锁定"模式,参数的大小影响系统收敛速度和收敛结果;改良安全活动内容、效果以及构建规范的考核机制,有助于强化中小企业员工的安全参与行为。     

The Relationship Between Workers’ Safety Culture and Accidents,Near Accidents and Health Problems

One of the dimensions treated as part of a company’s safety culture or climate is workers’ attitudes towards risk and safety. In the present study these personal aspects are defined as workers’ safety culture, which is understood as a way of acting focused on life and taking care of one’s health. A questionnaire on safety culture was filled out by 200 employees of a metallurgical enterprise. Factor analysis was used to determine empirical scales of the questionnaire, whereas variance analysis was used to test hypotheses. The results confirmed the hypotheses that people who experienced accidents, dangerous situations, and—to a lesser extent—health problems had a lower level of safety culture. Nevertheless not all of the scales determined during factor analysis turned out to be significant as far as all kinds of those undesirable situations are concerned. Proposals for future studies are formulated in the conclusion.     

对乡镇企业职工的职业安全卫生知识、态度、行为的调查

从对某市部分乡镇企业职工的职业安全卫生知识、态度、行为所进行的调查看,不同状况的人群对职业安全卫生知识、态度、习惯有显著性差异。为此,提示职业安全卫生监督管理部门及企业的有关职能部门在职工的职业安全卫生教育中,要加强对文化程度低、年轻、工龄较短的职工的教育,并采用形式多样化手段。另外,职业安全监督管理部门还要加强监督外资企业做好职工的职业安全卫生教育。从职工对职业安全卫生的态度及行为结果看,提出在进行职业安全卫生教育时,要有针对性。不仅要给职工配备劳保用品,更重要的是监督职工经常和正确地使用劳保用品,并养成良好的卫生习惯     

Values-in-action that support safe production

Introduction: Safe production is a sustainable approach to managing an organization’s operations that considers the interests of both management and workers as salient stakeholders in a productive and safe workplace. A supportive culture enacts values versus only espousing them. These values-in-action are beliefs shared by both management and workers that align what should happen in performing organizational routines to be safe and be productive with what actually is done. However, the operations and safety management literature provides little guidance on which values-in-action are most important to safe production and how they work together to create a supportive culture. Method: The researchers conducted exploratory case studies in 10 manufacturing plants of 9 firms. The researchers compared plant managers’ top-down perspectives on safety in the performance of work and workers’ bottom-up experiences of the safety climate and their rates of injury on the job. Each case study used data collected from interviewing multiple managers, the administration of a climate survey to workers and the examination of the plant’s injury rates over time as reported to its third party health and safety insurer. Results: The researchers found that plants with four values-in-action —a commitment to safety, discipline, prevention and participation—were capable of safe production, while plants without those values were neither safe nor productive. Where culture and climate aligned lower rates of injury were experienced. Discussion and conclusion: The four value-in-actions must all be present and work together in a self-reinforcing manner to engage workers and managers in achieving safe production. Practical application: Managers of both operations and safety functions do impact safety outcomes such as reducing injuries by creating a participatory environment that encourage learning that improves both safety and production routines.     

我国部分保健与安全活动经济代价的初步评价

社会中的许多卫生保健活动都需要在经济代价和人的安全健康之间作出权衡。这种权衡往往需要确定危害人们健康和安全的经济价值。笔者从人力资本和支付意愿两个方面,对我国卫生、环保、安全有关的经济数据进行了评价分析。在人力资本方面,考虑了人均终生的国民生产总值、国民收入、消费水平、职工工资、城乡居民收入。在支付意愿方面,考虑了医疗救治的费用、社会保险费用、司法赔偿、职业劳动保护费用、降低辐射危害的费用以及政府采用数值等。根据这些分析评价,笔者建议：我国卫生保健有关的人的社会经济价值,若以１９９０ 年可比价格计算,分布在（９～４０）万元之间,适中的估计为２０ 万元。     

Occupational and public health and safety in a changing work environment: An integrated approach for risk assessment and prevention

During recent years the work environment has undergone significant changes regarding working time, years of employment, work organization, type of employment contracts and working conditions. In this paper, consequences of these changes on occupational and public health and safety are examined. These include the disruption of human biological rhythms, the increase of workers fatigue due to changes in patterns of working hours and years of employment, job insecurity and occupational stress, which have a serious impact on workers’ health and may result in an increase in occupational accidents. Unsafe work practices related to workload and time pressure, the impact of work changes on public safety and the deterioration of workers’ living conditions with respect to income, social-family life, health and insurance benefits, are also described. In this context, difficulties that occur due to the changing work environment in conducting effective occupational risk assessments and implementing OSH measures are discussed (for example, frequent changes between tasks and workplaces, underreporting of occupational accidents and diseases, lack of methodological tools, etc.). A fundamental criterion used while studying consequences on health and safety and the relative preventive measures is that health and safety must be approached as ‘the promotion and maintenance at the highest degree of the physical, mental and social well-being of workers’ and not only as retention of their work ability. Limits in combining “flexibility” at work and overall protection of occupational and public safety and health in a competitive market are put forward for discussion.     

环境和职业安全健康管理体系的整合及一体化

随着世界经济一体化进程的加速，企业开始认识到，要在全球经贸活动中生存、竞争和发展，环境和职业安全健康已成为他们必须重视和要解决的问题，但是在环境管理体系(ISO l4001)和职业安全健康管理体系的先后建立、认证和持续改进的实践中。他们也看到了一些重要的问题，如有些要素的重叠和重复，资源(人、财、物)的浪费，管理效率低等。基于上述情况。笔者提出了两大管理体系的一体化问题；分析了两大体系一体化的可行性和方法；探讨了两体系一体化的基本思路和应注意的问题。     

我国煤矿安全问题与工会参与研究

中国的煤矿安全问题比较严峻。中国工会一贯高度重视煤矿企业职工的生命健康与安全,在促进煤矿安全生产中扮演着重要的角色,发挥着举足轻重的作用。在煤矿安全生产方面,中国工会主张要抓紧完善《安全生产法》及配套的法规规章;切实把"预防为主"方针放在煤矿安全生产工作的首位;加大对煤矿企业安全生产的资金投入和人员配备;高度重视工人与工会组织在安全生产中的作用;强化对煤矿管理人员和职工的安全培训和教育;加强煤矿行业管理与监督,合理有序开发煤炭资源。     

Occupational health and safety issues in the informal economic segment of Pakistan: a survey of construction sites

This research covers the current status of occupational health and safety (OHS)-related practices in the informal construction segment of Pakistan. Data were collected, through interviews, from 316 construction sites employing 3577 workers. The results of the study reveal that both employers and workers lack knowledge of OHS laws/standards and no practices of this nature are enacted at these construction sites. Alarmingly, work-related accidents, whenever they happen, are not given due attention and there is no formal injury-report system. The informal construction industry employs a huge portion of the informal workforce, and lack of OHS happens at tremendous human cost. These research findings may thus play their role in strengthening the case for reforms in the sector. This study, if properly utilized, may also enable employers of the sector by increasing their knowledge about OHS practices and, as a result, trying to offer safer environments for their workers.     

Assessment and improvement of integrated HSE and macro-ergonomics factors by fuzzy cognitive maps: The case of a large gas refinery

This study analyzes and assesses the integrated health, safety, environment (HSE) and ergonomics (HSEE) factors by fuzzy cognitive maps (FCM) approach. This is achieved through integrating ergonomic and macro-ergonomic as well as occupational health and safety arrangements in an integrated modeling for assessment of their multi-faceted impact on workers' productivity, injury rate and satisfaction. This paper uses FCM to assess the direct and indirect effects of HSEE factors on system performance indicators. The results of FCM are used to develop leading indicators useful for proactive management of productivity, injury rate, and job satisfaction. The result of a comprehensive survey of 37 experts in control rooms and maintenance activities in a large gas refinery is used to show the applicability and usefulness of FCM approach. Moreover, FCM results are used to determine the causal structure of HSEE factors and system performance indicators. It is concluded that macro-ergonomics factors such as instructions and education, familiarity with organization's rules, and proper communications most contribute to improve workers' safety, satisfaction, and productivity.     

Developing a standard for psychosocial risk management: PAS 1010

The nature of work has changed dramatically due to globalisation, migration, technological advances and the emergence of the knowledge-based economy. These changes have been accompanied by the increased prevalence of new and emerging types of risk to workers’ health and safety, such as psychosocial risks. This paper reviews the key regulatory and voluntary standards on occupational health and safety of relevance to the management of psychosocial risks in the workplace that are applicable to the European Union member states. The review indicates that regulatory standards set the minimum level of protection for workers and voluntary standards may further enable organisations to go beyond their legal obligations. However, the review also highlights that the terms ‘stress’ and ‘psychosocial risks’ are not mentioned explicitly in most pieces of legislation leading to lack of clarity on the terminology used. While voluntary standards seek to address this, very few provide specific guidance on the process of psychosocial risk management to enable organisations to manage psychosocial risks successfully. On the basis of the review, the case for the development of a voluntary standard for psychosocial risk management is presented. The paper further discusses the recent development of such a standard and its implications at the European level.     

On Evaluation and Localization of Auditory Warning Devices for Adequate Audibility

This paper presents an analytic procedure to assist safety practitioners in evaluating the audibility of an existing auditory warning system in their workplaces. Two alarm location models are described: (a) a model with an unknown signal sound level, and (b) a model with a known signal sound level. A heuristic algorithm to determine a minimum number of alarm devices and their locations so that the warning signals can be clearly heard by workers is also proposed. The algorithm considers the ambient noise level, noise levels generated by individual machines, locations where workers are likely to be present, and noise levels at worker locations. From the numerical examples and the computation experiment, both the optimization and heuristic approaches yield solutions that satisfy the 15-dBA constraints. The heuristic approach is efficient in solving large alarm location problems due its capability to find near-optimal solutions within reasonable computation time.     

Assessing safety management systems

Traditionally, both academe and practitioners have tended to address fire safety by focusing on technical aspects and looking for the immediate causes of fire incidents or accidents after they have taken place. More recently, organisations have focused on assessing the consequences of the fire risk inherent in their operations pro-actively. However, fire safety still tends to be addressed in isolation, though fire loss is an emergent property. An organisation's emergent property results from the interrelated activities of people who design it, manage it and operate it. There is still a need for a systemic approach to understand the systemic nature of fire safety. This paper describes a fire safety management system (FSMS) model that aims to maintain fire risk within an acceptable range in an organisation's operations in a coherent way. This systemic approach can be used as a diagnostic tool to assess the effectiveness of existing safety management systems (SMS). It is hoped that this approach will lead not only to more effective management of fire safety, but also to more effective management of safety, health and the environment for any organisation.     

The role of behavioral factors on safety management in underground mines

Traditional approaches on the prevention of accidents/injuries in mines reached its limit of effectiveness in improving safety performance and a fresh approach is utmost required. Behavioral safety analysis has been identified as an effective alternative in many industries. This paper is therefore sought to examine the role of behavioral factors on the occurrence of mine accidents and injuries through a case study. Data were collected from two neighboring underground coalmines operating under a large public sector organization of India. High–low plots and t-test were done to explore the differences between behavioral characteristics of accident involved (case) and non-involved (control) workers. How these differences could cause accidents/injuries in mines was estimated through structural equation modeling. The case study results show that accident group of workers (cases) are more job dissatisfied, negatively affected, and highly risk taking compared to the non-accident group of workers (controls). The accident model path analysis shows that negative affectivity, job dissatisfaction, and risk taking behaviors predict an increased number of injuries in mines. Apart from direct influences to work injuries, negative affectivity and job dissatisfaction make workers to take more risks and behave unsafely. These findings contribute to the design of safety programs including safety training, which should be behaviorally motivated. Mine safety management of the case study mines should outskirt their age old belief that accidents/injuries are due to hazardous nature of mining and only engineering control and regulatory monitoring are sufficient for improving safety of the mines. The multivariate analysis also shows that experience bears no relationships with work injury indicating that a less experienced worker is equally likely to be injured as an experienced worker. It implies that experience though helps workers in understanding the physical hazards, however, avoiding the imminent danger is much more behavioral. The variables negative affectivity, job dissatisfaction, and risk taking behaviors are therefore crucial in avoiding accident/injuries in mines.