An evaluation of occupational accidents in the wooden furniture industry - A regional study in South East Asia

Studies on the rate of occupational accidents among workers in the wooden furniture industry is sparse, although the industry is deemed to be highly accident prone. Therefore, the rate of occupational accidents among workers in the wooden furniture industry in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam were studied, in 240 furniture manufacturing factories, using a structured questionnaire. The findings of the study suggest that contract workers are less prone to occupational accidents compared to their permanent counterparts, and hence, are more productive. Further, the results also revealed that the contract workers have a more positive attitude towards the work, and hence, pick up the essentials of safe working practices quickly. It must therefore be recognized that the “production oriented mentality” prevalent in the wooden furniture industry, which has been argued to compromise occupational safety and health standards in the industry may be debatable. In this context, it is essential for the policy makers to re-examine the employment of contract workers for the furniture manufacturing industry, as changing the psycho-economic parameters of the industry may be warranted before the industry is deemed attractive to a permanent workforce.     

煤炭行业推行安全生产责任保险作用及问题探讨

为了减少事故及其造成的损失,使企业不致因灾后赔付而陷人困境和摆脱“企业赚钱,政府发丧”的怪圈,在煤炭行业推行安全生产责任保险,把商业保险模式引入安全生产领域,分散转移风险,并运用保险行业风险管理方法,规避、控制和管理风险,强化事故预防,以达到安全发展、可持续发展的目标。笔者在认真研究有关政策法规,搜集整理相关资料,实地凋研考察的基础上,结合我国煤炭行业安全生产以及煤炭行业责任风险管理现状,对我国煤炭行业推行安全生产责任保险的作用以及试点省市安全生产责任保险实施过程中遇到的问题进行了分析探讨。     

我国工伤保险费率机制的探讨

工伤保险费率机制是工伤保险制度的核心问题 ,对工伤保险基金的稳定性、工伤预防效能的发挥和企业参与的积极性等多方面产生直接影响。笔者在调查和研究我国工伤保险现状的基础上 ,结合欧美等国的成功经验 ,分析了我国工伤保险费率机制存在的问题 ,并在差别费率划分、档次、费率调整、风险共担模式、收支平衡和促进工伤预防等方面提出了独自见解和相应的建议。     

从《矿山安全和卫生公约》剖析我国矿山安全卫生立法

国际劳工组织制定的劳工标准在国际上被认为具有高度的权威地位,日益成为各国制定法律法规的标准文书。176号《公约》的目的是为了促进各国在矿山职业安全和卫生方面采取行动,制定国家矿山安全和卫生政策、法规和实施制度,并要求政府、主管部门、雇主、工人承担各自的职责,确保矿山职工拥有安全与健康的工作环境和体面的工作,促进采矿业的可持续发展。通过我国矿山法律法规与176号《公约》的比对分析,本文提出了应进一步完善访协商机制,明确主管部门职责,以法律法规形式明确义务,赋予工人安全与已生权利和义务等方面完善我国矿山安全和卫生法律法规建议。     

A comparative study of vocational education and occupational safety and health training in China and the UK

In order to enhance Chinese workers’ occupational safety awareness, it is essential to learn from developed countries’ experiences. This article investigates thoroughly occupational safety and health (OSH) in China and the UK; moreover, the article performs a comparison of Chinese and British OSH training-related laws, regulations and education system. The following conclusions are drawn: China’s work safety continues to improve, but there is still a large gap compared with the UK. In China a relatively complete vocational education and training (VET) system has been established. However, there exist some defects in OSH. In the UK, the employer will not only pay attention to employees’ physiological health, but also to their mental health. The UK’s VET is characterized by classification and grading management, which helps integrate OSH into the whole education system. China can learn from the UK in the development of policies, VET and OSH training.     

A systems approach to extraordinarily major coal mine accidents in China from 1997 to 2011: an application of the HFACS approach

This study aimed to provide a greater understanding of the systemic factors involved in coal mine accidents and to examine the relationships between the contributing factors across all levels of the system. Ninety-four extraordinarily major coal mine accidents that occurred in China from 1997 to 2011 were analyzed using the human factors analysis and classification system (HFACS). The empirical results showed that the frequencies of unsafe behaviors, inadequate regulation and failure to correct hidden dangers were the highest among five levels, 14 categories and 48 indicators, respectively. The odds ratio technique was applied to quantitatively examine the relationships between contributing factors. Various statistically significant associations were discovered and should receive greater attention in future attempts to develop accident measures. In addition, several strategies concerning the main contributing factors and routes to failure are proposed to prevent accidents from reoccurring in an organization.     

从提前调整费率论日本劳灾保险与劳灾预防相结合

如何建立工伤保险与工伤事故预防有机结合的机制 ,不仅是我国工伤保险制度改革的重要课题 ,也是日本工伤社会保险改革过程的重要内容之一。日本打破了每隔 3年对费率进行一次调整的惯例 ,从2 0 0 3年度开始 ,提前一年执行了平均被下调了 1‰的新的劳灾保险费率体系。笔者对此举动阐述了以下观点 :除从厚生劳动省说明的近年来劳灾事故大幅度减少及为减轻企业主的负担等原因外 ,还应从处理劳灾保险制度与劳灾事故预防工作的关系上分析提前调整费率的动机。即这个重要决策旨在强调劳灾保险与事故预防的有机结合、利用保险费率的经济杠杆作用 ,借“第 10个防止劳动灾害五年规划”启动之良机 ,全面提高劳动安全卫生管理水平。     

香港特区建筑安全管理的探讨与借鉴

近年来 ,香港特区的建筑业安全状况有了长足进步 ,由于香港的发展既长期受到西方国家先进技术和知识的影响 ,同时又具有中国的传统文化背景 ,因此 ,研究其成功的经验对内地的建筑安全工作有着十分重要的借鉴意义。笔者主要从香港政府部门 (劳工处和环境运输工务局 )对建筑安全的管理和非政府机构 (职业安全健康局、绿十字会等 )对建筑安全的作用两方面进行探讨 ,总结香港特区在建筑安全方面的成功做法 ,最后对内地的建筑安全工作提出了一些建议。     

The oil and gas industry,the Offshore Installation Manager (OIM) and the management of emergencies - Changes necessary to achieve effective competence assessment of OIMs in controlling emergencies

Within the UK offshore oil and gas industry all installations require to be under the charge of a ‘competent’ installation manager in accordance with the Offshore Installations and Pipeline Works (Management and Administration) Regulations (MAR) 1995. The Offshore Installation Manager (OIM) is responsible for the safety of all persons onboard and within 500 m of an installation. Should an incident arise, the OIM performs one of the most critical roles within the offshore industry - management of the response to the emergency to mitigate and make safe the installation to secure a place of safety for persons onboard or organise their safe evacuation. The emergency response also includes limiting the loss of hydrocarbons to the environment.Research at the University of Aberdeen has identified 8 potential barriers to the effective competence assessment of OIMs in controlling emergencies. These underlying barriers are a consequence of current UK legislation and industry practices in the assessment of OIM competence and result from:

• •multiple definitions of competence,
• •competence assessment predominantly by observation,
• •lack of specific and unambiguous competence requirements for trainers and assessors,
• •complexity in UK legislation and complicated interpretation of terms,
• •lack of statutory competence requirements for OIMs in controlling emergencies,
• •lack of ownership of OIM competence and competence assessment,
• •complex interactions across multiple UK Government departments, and
• •lack of regulation and independent audit of the competence assessment process of OIMs in controlling emergencies.

The potential barriers were identified by qualitative analysis of key documentation, including legislation, using a critical hermeneutic approach. Hermeneutics has historically been used to analyse texts within the domains of theology, business and law. It arguably, however, represents a powerful approach to the study of documents within the engineering domain and the offshore oil and gas industry.This paper discusses the identified potential barriers, research conclusions and recommendations and represents the culmination of three years of doctoral research investigating the competence assessment of OIMs in controlling emergencies within the offshore oil and gas industry. The research, in particular, is relevant to Duty Holders within the offshore industry, safety engineers and UK Government departments.     

An evaluation of risk assessment framework for industrial accidents in India

Due to rapid industrialization, with high population density and constraints of land, it is expected that level of risks arising from the hazardous industries will increase in India in the coming decades. However, 30 years after the Bhopal accident (1984), except a few discrete regulations, there is as yet no integrated system for assessing and managing risks arising out of these hazardous industries in India. The gravity of aspects related to the management of industrial risk still remains crucially important. In particular, there is no standard guideline on risk analysis methodology, acceptability or tolerability criteria, nor is there an accident database or a risk reduction strategy for the areas where risk levels are already high. On top of this, there are technical and legislative gaps in the institutional framework to implement any of the above mentioned issues. With the backdrop of the Bhopal gas tragedy, the objective of this paper is therefore to evaluate the effectiveness of a comprehensive risk assessment framework for the emerging economy of India, in order to control and/or to reduce the risk level that exists. In this context, regulations and policies pertaining to industrial risk assessment were reviewed.     

Analysis of underlying causes of investigated loss of containment incidents in Dutch Seveso plants using the Storybuilder method

In the Netherlands there are around 400 “Seveso” sites that fall under the Dutch Major Hazards Decree (BRZO) 1999. Between 2006 and 2010 the Dutch Labour Inspectorate's Directorate for Major Hazard Control completed investigations of 118 loss of containment incidents involving hazardous substances from this group. On the basis of investigation reports the incidents were entered in a tailor-made tool called Storybuilder developed for the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment for identifying the dominant patterns of technical safety barrier failures, barrier task failures and underlying management causes associated with the resulting loss of control events. The model is a bow-tie structure with six lines of defence, three on either side of the central loss of containment event. In the first line of defence, failures in the safety barriers leading to loss of control events were primarily equipment condition failures, pre start-up and safeguarding failures and process deviations such as pressure and flow failures. These deviations, which should have been recovered while still within the safe envelope of operation, were missed primarily because of inadequate indication signals that the deviations have occurred. Through failures of subsequent lines of defence they are developing into serious incidents. Overall, task failures are principally failures to provide adequate technical safety barriers and failures to operate provided barriers appropriately. Underlying management delivery failures were mainly found in equipment specifications and provisions, procedures and competence. The competence delivery system is especially important for identifying equipment condition, equipment isolation for maintenance, pre-start-up status and process deviations. Human errors associated with operating barriers were identified in fifty per cent of cases, were mostly mistakes and feature primarily in failure to prevent deviations and subsequently recover them. Loss of control associated with loss of containment was primarily due to the containment being bypassed (72% of incidents) and less to material strength failures (28%). Transfer pipework, connections in process plant and relief valves are the most frequent release points and the dominant release material is extremely flammable. It is concluded that the analysis of a large number of incidents in Storybuilder can support the quantification of underlying causes and provide evidence of where the weak points exist in major hazard control in the prevention of major accidents.