MGMT2718

Human Resource Management

Lecture 5
Occupational Health and Safety

Introduction:
each year in Australia
2,900 work related deaths
650,000 work related injuries economic losses $34Billion

ILO 4% GDP worldwide. Aust - $60.6 billion 8% of

GDP.
Health and safety concerns reflect an organisations strategic
concern for employee productivity and quality of work life.
They should be linked with the organisation strategic
business objectives to seek competitive advantage by
promoting employee commitment, a safe culture, the
companys image as a preferred employer, reduced costs and
increased productivity. (Stone)

Introduction: Unitarism in OHS (cont)

Interests of workers and employers do not neatly coincide
although obviously there is overlap
James Reason: safety lives in the tension between
production (profits) and protection.
Cost-cutting and profit seeking can erode protections
against workplace hazards
Workplace safety is linked to public safety eg aeroplanes
are workplaces; BP Deep Water Horizon disaster
Two Definitions: OHS =
the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of
physical, mental and social wellbeing of workers in all
occupations
The physical, physiological and psychosocial conditions of an
organisations workforce, related to aspects of work and the work
context

Intro (Continued): Background

Obviously a role for state intervention/regulation fines for
violating employers, and compensation system for the
injured

Since the 1970s,

shift from detailed regulation of standards and specific
hazards (eg levels of chemical exposure)
to general duties and regulation of process (Robens)
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has coincided with work reorganisation (intensification,
outsourcing, offshoring, downsizing) and the rise of HRM
And neoliberalism: light touch regulation
This has led to new hazards especially psychosocial
hazards bullying, stress, poor life/work balance
Challenges for regulation as well as HRM

Lecture Aims and Structure

Show the importance of preventive OHS practices
Describe the major features of the legislative context for
OHS in Australia
Identify the basic features of an OHS management system,
and criteria for its effectiveness
Identify characteristics of a positive safety culture and
expose this concept to critical scrutiny
1. The ABC of OHS
2. Risk Management: The Reason Model
3. Safety Culture and the Management of OHS
4. Australian Regulation of OHS
5. Hazards Old and New

1. The ABC of OHS

Approaches
to understanding workplace injury
khin trch

Blaming the victim focuses on individual characteristics

and behaviours that contribute to injury
Blaming the system focuses on the organisational, social
and economic environments in which injury and disease
occur
the employers duty of care is the starting point
Even if worker negligence has contributed, the employer
is directly liable or vicariously liable if harm is done by
an employee to another
lm du bt
Although there may be mitigating circumstances

There are a variety of measures available to the injured

party, from common law action to workers compensation

Workplace Hazards, Risk Assessment, Risk

Management
Workplace hazards are circumstances, procedures
or environments that expose individuals to possible
injury, illness, damage or loss

Physical hazards
Chemical and other hazardous substances
Ergonomic hazards
Psychosocial hazards

Risk assessment is the process of identifying

hazards
It assesses the severity of the risk in terms of how likely the
hazard is to occur, and the severity of the hazard

Risk Management is the process managing risk

based on the assessment.

2. The Reason Model of Risk Management

Understanding safety in complex high reliability
organisations esp aircraft maintenance, nuclear
power, medical
Tension between profits/production and protection
Safety is a dynamic non event the absense of an
accident does not mean a system is safe
During the absense of a disaster, safety margins
xi mn
are being eroded and a given system may actually
be becoming increasingly unsafe!

Swiss Cheese Model

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Defences against accidents are like layers of swiss

cheese.
Holes are like breaches in the defences when they line
khi n thnh 1 hng, qu o tai nn c th xy ra
up an accident trajectory may occur

The protective layers are continually being eroded by

cost cutting
Especially by managers who dont appreciate
technicalities

Accidents come from human error (or deliberate

departures from procedure), interacting with
organisational latent factors
tim tng

such as management decisions, practices, government

policy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIQQhqpVY80
Show first few seconds, then From 30 mins > 41

Implications
Rarely one single cause - Human error involved
Latent factors
organisational characteristics, even aspects of public
policy (training or regulation) broad concept
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tht bi c h thng

The investigation pointed to systemic failures of

management in the engineering hangar nh cha my bay
Time pressure - for on time departure; supply of bolts
sao lng thiu thn trng qu trnh
Engineer departed from procedure incautiously

Not the full story in the official accident report due

to pressure from the airline
Argument the investigators denied natural justice to the
engineer by not informing him that he was under
investigation

3. Safety Culture and the Management of OHS

Positive safety culture is a set of values, perceptions,
attitudes and patterns of behaviour with regard to safety
shared by members of the organisation, reflecting a high
level of concern and commitment to the prevention of
accidents and illnesses
mc ch
objective is to create an atmosphere in which employees
are aware of the risks in their workplace, are continually on
guard against them, and avoid taking any unsafe
action (Kramer et al, 2014:123)
employees are more likely to comply with safety
procedures because they are more aware and have
greater ownership of those procedures
BUT positive safety climate cannot be developed without
consideration of the daily constraints on employees

Reporting Culture
Reporting culture is when people are prepared to
report errors, near misses, unsafe conditions,
inappropriate procedures and any other concerns
they may have about safety
Some concerns:
Reporting ones own errors can lead to disciplinary action
Importance of no blame or aka just culture (another
aspect of SC).
Yet no blame is incompatible with performance
management (accountability) culture
Tensions with pluralism unitarist assumptions
Also in tension with new HRM practices, esp PM

Elements of a safety culture

Reasons safety culture concept also contains unitarism
[in addition to] Reporting culture
Informed culture
values and propagates knowledge of safety principles
Just (no blame) Culture
People are not blamed for their errors, as long as they
own up
Flexible Culture
Delegates decision making power to expertise
Eg aircraft maintenance engineers make decisions to
release the plane to service, and will delay if there is a
safety concern
but sometimes non-technically trained managers will
contest and override

OHS safety management systems

a combination of the planning and review, the
management organisational arrangements, the
consultative arrangements, and the specific program
elements that work together in an integrated way to
improve health and safety performance
Policy and programs that cover the planning,
implementation, evaluation and improvement of OHS in
an organisation
OHS policy: a written statement approved by top
management, typically accompanied by a set of OHS
programs, rules and instructions, that identifies OHS
accountabilities and sets out how OHS compliance will
be met

OHS safety management systems

1. Organisation, responsibility and accountability

Shared among HR, Exec, Line mgt, Employees (unions?)

Overt commitment by senior mgt important, as are policies and
performance management systems

2. Consultative arrrangements

OHS representatives, committees and broad employee

participation

3. Specific program elements

OHS program: a plan designed for policy implementation that

identifies the OHS procedures, practices and people necessary
to reach policy objectives

Elements of OHS management systems

OHS program elements include:

rules and procedures, training programs

workplace inspections
incident reporting and investigation
principles for hazard prevention/control
data collection, analysis, record keeping
OHS promotion and information provision
emergency procedures
medical/first aid facilities and procedures

NB Also organisational learning feedback loops

Barriers to an effective OHS

management system
Not customising systems to organisational needs, imposition
without consultation, weak senior management commitment
and poor employee involvement
Application in hostile contexts (small business, precarious
employment, contractors and labour hire companies)
Inappropriate use of audit tools (where they become an end
in themselves, are governed by misplaced management
objectives and are conducted without sound auditor skills,
standards and criteria)
NOTE also ability of OHSMS to continuously improve, its
ability to detect hazards, assess and manage them.

4. Australian Regulation of OHS

Approaches to OHS regulation and inspection in general
have changed as the introduction said
Earlier (pre-80s) voluminous regulations detailing technical
workplace hazards
British Robens report mix of general duty of care,
performance standards and process standards
Internal processes especially worker (union?) representation
in OHS committees and other processes essential
But unitarist assumptions
Need systems to involve workers and expertise at workplace
Criticised by OHS experts as having failed
due to erosion of union influence? Representation gap?
leaning too far to self regulation especially Safety
Management Systems (SMS)
Much depends on external auditing and inspection >
regulated self regulation

Australian Regulation
Principles: Employers Duty of Care.
requirement for everything reasonably practicable to be
done to protect the health and safety of the workplace

Each state had own laws large volume of legal

requirements, particularly for employers operating in
more than one state
and own WorkCover (workers compensation) system some were stronger than others

By 2009, there were 10 OHS Acts, at least 50 other

regulatory instruments and 282 codes of practice
concerned with workplace health and safety across
Australia

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Harmonisation process
Labor 2008 began harmonisation
Used Victorian legislation as a model
NSW held out
wanted right to jail employers
Strong right of entry for unions and to close
down a business
all state governments (except Western Australia)
agreed to enact legislation identical to the federal
model Act by the end of 2011
Not completed yet complex mix of state regulations,
moving towards national harmonisation based on
Federal WHS Act

Work, Health and Safety Act 2010.

Organisations will have to ensure workplaces are safe
and without risks to all types of workers carrying out
activities on behalf of the organisation, and any other
person affected by those activities
Workers will have an obligation to undertake reasonable
care for themselves and for others, and to cooperate with
any reasonable instruction by the organisation
State and territory OHS Acts are enforced through a
process of inspection, investigation, education and
prosecution, a process that will continue under the new
national system

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Work, Health and Safety Act 2010.

Legally enforceable rights to participation, consultation
and representation for workers
Workers can elect representatives on OHS committees
Strong powers to H&S rep at workplace can order
stopwork issue Infringement Notice
Responsibilty for OHS extends down the supply chain to
contractors
principal OHS statutes throughout Australia are
accompanied by workers compensation regulation, which
sets out the rights and obligations of employers and
employees following a work-related injury

Workers Compensation
Workers compensation and rehabilitation legislation
provides for compensation to injured employees,
regardless of who is responsible for the workplace
illness or injury
Injured workers are entitled to (1) compensation for
lost wages while injured and medical and related
expenses, and (2) be offered suitable duties or their
pre-injury employment to help the rehabilitation of
injured workers and safeguard them against dismissal
Return to work approach is based on the joint
assumptions that it will benefit injured workers and
reduce the costs of compensation

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5. Workplace Hazards Old and New

Traditional falls, trips and spills, exposure to
dangerous substances, like Asbestos Smoking
including passive, and Substance abuse
New Occupational Stress
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-3wDQJEHdI
Some new hazards are exacerbated by HRM practices,
like outsourcing, offshoring, (the dark side of) flexibility
especially precarious work

Long Work Hours and boundariless work'

Obesity
Sitting is the new smoking
Muscular sceletal disorders (RSI; etc)

Some Current Health and Safety Issues (cont)

Lack of work-life balance, and Work-family
conflict
Tensions between traditional work hours, especially long
days, depends on traditional domestic role of women
career impediment for the latter
And long hours not necessarily a problem work time is
not necessarily negative some people thrive on it
Intra-family tension can create a work hazard, as well as
being the result of it, especially in case of

Home-based work
need policies because its a workplace yet employers
often cant control should they be liable?
Technology can be a trap inability to break free from
work (smartphones; iPads)

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New classes of psychosocial injury

Occupational stress: the adverse emotional and/or
physiological reaction to excessive pressures or other
types of demands placed on a worker
A condition of strain that affects ones emotions, thought
processes and physical condition
Sources of Stress = stressors
High job demands combined with inability to control
how you work (Karosek and Theorell)
Workplace bullying (next OHD)

Challenge for OHS design OHSMS and Regulatory/

auditing/inspection to manage risk of psychosocial
injury depression etc > workplace death

Management by stress - dangers

Japan in the 80s and 90s
Put people under stress (overload) so they find better
ways of organising work drives innovation but also
karoshi and suicide

Workplace Bullying
Hard to define Kramar (p. 133):
Bullying at work: workplace bullying is
any behavior that is repeated, systematic and directed towards an
employee or group of employees that a reasonable person,
having regard to the circumstances, would expect to victimize,
humiliate, undermine or threaten which creates risk to health and
safety

Can take in a lot, new forms of management as well as

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC32nbGVuJM

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cho php hoc gip ci g xy ra/ dn dn kt qu

Workplace Bullying: workplace factors conducive to

s tng ng, ging nhau

A workplace culture that promotes conformity and regards

diversity as a threat
Work organisation involving poor job design, which promotes role
ambiguities and role conflicts, coupled with a low level of individual
worker control including a lack of involvement in setting work
objectives
Leadership styles that are excessively authoritarian or laissez-faire
To deal with:
Develop a workplace bullying policy
Have a clearly stated no tolerance approach
Establish expectations of appropriate behaviours and
consequences for not meeting those expectations
Develop a complaint-handling and investigation procedure that
includes due process and natural justice

Policies to deal with workplace bullying (cont)

Provide training, information and awareness on workplace
bullying to all employees, irrespective of their level within the
organisation
Ensure all who have responsibility for employees are aware
of their need to assist their employer in complying with a
bullying-free workplace
Nominate a contact person
Provide clear job descriptions, which outline specific roles/
responsibilities
Take disciplinary action against employees and managers
engaged in bullying
Limitations on redress available tendency to fall through
the cracks see

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Case Study
View this Documentary (10 minutes): the Human Cost of
Workplace Bullying in Australia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=HA49hYJiGsU&spfreload=10
WA Ambulance will be the case study next week.
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2015/s4345509.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-24/families-of-deadparamedics-call-for-st-john-ambulance-to-change/
7244088

Conclusion
OHS is changing but its difficult to be optimistic on
the analysis of this lecture
Shift from detailed, standards regulation and
inspection, to process regulated self regulation, in
context of light touch regulation creates difficulties
At the same time, new hazards associated with work
reorganisation (outsourcing, offshoring,
intensification) and new management techniques
Psychosocial hazards particularly difficult redress
difficult to get
Continued decline in job quality likely
Not just a workplace, but a public health issue

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References
Kramar,et al, 2014, ch 4
Parliament of Australia (2012) Workplace Bullying: We just want it to
stop. House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education
and Employment, Canberra http://www.aph.gov.au/
Parliamentary_Business/Committees/
House_of_Representatives_committees?url=ee/bullying/report.htm
Quinlan, M (2007) Organisational restructuring/downsizing, OHS
regulation and worker health and wellbeing, International Journal of
Law and Psychiatry, 30, 385-399
Reason, J. (1997), Managing the Risks of Organisational Accidents,
Aldershot: Ashgate
Walters, D et al, (2011) Regulating Workplace Risks: A Comparative
Study of Inspection Regimes in Times of Change, UK: Edward Elgar,
chs 1-5, 12-13, passim

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