Some risks are just not worth the gamble. One of these is risking the safety and health of those who work for you. Safety organizations, states, small business owners and major corporations alike now realize that the actual cost of a lost workday injury is substantial. For every dollar you spend on the direct costs of a worker's injury or illness, you will spend much more to cover the indirect and hidden costs.
Consider what one lost workday injury would cost you in terms of:. If you would like to reduce the costs and risks associated with workplace injuries and illnesses, you need to address safety and health right along with production.
Setting up an Injury and Illness Prevention Program helps you do this. In developing the program, you identify what has to be done to promote the safety and health of your employees and worksite, and you outline policies and procedures to achieve your safety and health goals.
For your convenience Section General Industry and Section Construction are reproduced here. Your Injury and Illness Prevention Program must be a written plan that includes procedures and is put into practice. These elements are required:. Your commitment to safety and health shows in every decision you make and every action you take. Your employees will respond to that commitment. The person or persons with the authority and responsibility for your safety and health program must be identified and given management's full support.
You can demonstrate your commitment through your personal concern for employee safety and health and by the priority you place on these issues. If you want maximum production and quality, you need to control potential work-place hazards and correct hazardous conditions or practices as they occur or are recognized. You must commit yourself and your company by building an effective Injury and Illness Prevention Program and integrating it into your entire operation.
This commitment must be backed by strong organizational policies, procedures, incentives, and disciplinary actions as necessary to ensure employee compliance with safe and healthful work practices. Your program must include a system for communicating with employees - in a form readily understandable by all affected employees - on matters relating to occupational safety and health, including provisions designed to encourage employees to inform the employer of hazards at the worksite without fear of reprisal.
While this section does not require employers to establish labor-management safety and health committees, it is an option you should consider.
If you choose to do so, remember that employers who elect to use a labor-management safety and health committee to comply with the communication requirements are presumed to be in substantial compliance if the committee:.
If your employees are not represented by an agreement with an organized labor union, and part of your employee population is unionized, the establishment of labor-management committees is considerably more complicated. If you elect not to use labor-management safety and health committees, be prepared to formalize and document your required system for communicating with employees. Periodic inspections and procedures for correction and control provide a method of identifying existing or potential hazards in the workplace, and eliminating or controlling them.
Hazard control is the heart of an effective Injury and Illness Prevention Program. If hazards occur or recur, this reflects a breakdown in the hazard control system. The required hazard assessment survey of your establishment, when first developing your Injury and Illness Prevention Program, must be made by a qualified person. This survey can provide the basis and guide for establishing your hazard assessment and control system. The survey produces knowledge of hazards that exist in the workplace, and conditions, equipment and procedures that could be potentially hazardous.
An effective hazard control system will identify: hazards that exist or develop in your workplace, how to correct those hazards, and steps you can take to prevent their recurrence. If you have an effective system for monitoring workplace conditions:. A primary tool you should be using in an effort to identify and recognize the areas responsible for accidents is a thorough and properly completed accident investigation. It should be in writing and adequately identify the cause s of the accident or near-miss occurrence.
Accident investigations should be conducted by trained individuals, and with the primary focus of understanding why the accident or near miss occurred and what actions can be taken to preclude recurrence. In large organizations this responsibility may be assigned to the safety director. In smaller organizations the responsibility may lie directly with the supervisor responsible for the affected area or employee.
Questions to ask in an accident investigation include:. Corrective action should be identified in terms of not only how it will prevent a recurrence of the accident or near miss, but also how it will improve the overall operation. The solution should be a means of achieving not only accident control, but also total operation control. If you have a safety and health committee, its members should review investigations of all accidents and near-miss incidents to assist in recommending appropriate corrective actions to prevent a similar recurrence.
Thorough investigation of all accidents and near misses will help you identify causes and needed corrections, and can help you determine why accidents occur, where they happen, and any accident trends.
Such information is critical to preventing and controlling hazards and potential accidents. Planning for safety and health is an important part of every business decision, including purchasing, engineering, changes in work processes, and planning for emergencies. Your safety and health planning are effective when your workplace has:. Training is one of the most important elements of any Injury and Illness Prevention Program. It allows employees to learn their job properly, brings new ideas into the workplace, reinforces existing ideas and practices, and puts your program into action.
Your employees benefit from safety and health training through fewer work-related injuries and illnesses, and reduced stress and worry caused by exposure to hazards. You benefit from reduced workplace injuries and illnesses, increased productivity, lower costs, higher profits, and a more cohesive and dependable work force. An effective Injury and Illness Prevention Program includes training for both supervisors and employees. You may need outside professionals to help you develop and conduct your required training program.
Outside trainers should be considered temporary. Eventually you will need your own in-house training capabilities so you can provide training that is timely and specific to the needs of your workplace and your employees.
An effective Injury and Illness Prevention Program requires proper job performance by everyone in the workplace. As the employer, you must ensure that all employees are knowledgeable about the materials and equipment they are working with, what known hazards are present and how they are controlled. Your supervisors must recognize that they are the primary safety trainers in your organization.
Encourage and help them by providing supervisory training. Many community colleges offer management training courses at little or no cost. A professional training person, an outside consultant or your supervisors may provide injury and illness prevention training to your employees. Put the elements see page 7 of an Injury and Illness Prevention Program together, and come up with a plan to suit your individual workplace.
Decide exactly what you want to accomplish, and determine what steps are necessary to achieve your goals. Then plan out how and when each step will be carried out and who will do it and put this plan in writing. In developing the plan, consider your company's immediate needs and provide for ongoing worker protection.
A Consultation Service consultant can help you determine what is needed to make your Injury and Illness Prevention Program effective. The consultant will work with you on a plan for making these improvements, and assist you in establishing procedures for making sure your program remains effective. The following sections describe the process you might go through in establishing an Injury and Illness Prevention Program.
Remember that you do not have to do everything described in this manual at once. Decide who in your company will be given responsibility and authority to manage this program. In many cases, it's the owner. Sometimes the plant manager or a ranking member of the management team is the one to develop and set up the program. It could even be an engineer, personnel specialist or other staff member. The person assigned must be identified by name in your program. Remember, though, that even when you appoint someone as your safety manager and delegate authority to manage the program, the ultimate responsibility for safety and health in your workplace still rests with you.
When considering responsibility, do not forget to include all of your employees. All employees must be informed of their responsibility under Labor Code Section The recordkeeping section requires that the IIP Program administrator select and implement the category appropriate for your establishment.
Managers and supervisors are responsible for implementing and maintaining the IIP Program in their work areas and for answering worker questions about the IIP Program. A copy of this IIP Program is available from each manager and supervisor. Our system of ensuring that all workers comply with these practices include one or more of the following checked practices:.
All managers and supervisors are responsible for communicating with all workers about occupational safety and health in a form readily understandable by all workers. Our communication system encourages all workers to inform their managers and supervisors about workplace hazards without fear of reprisal. Periodic inspections to identify and evaluate workplace hazards shall be performed by a competent observer in the following areas of our workplace:. Periodic inspections are performed according to the following schedule: When we initially established our IIP Program; When new substances, processes, procedures or equipment which present potential new hazards are introduced into our workplace; When new, previously unidentified hazards are recognized; When occupational injuries and illnesses occur; and Whenever workplace conditions warrant an inspection.
Hazard Correction Unsafe or unhealthy work conditions, practices or procedures shall be corrected in a timely manner based on the severity of the hazards. Workers who are required to correct the hazardous condition shall be provided with the necessary protection. Training and Instruction All workers, including managers and supervisors, shall have training and instruction on general and job-specific safety and health practices.
General workplace safety and health practices include, but are not limited to, the following: Implementation and maintenance of the IIP Program.
Emergency action and fire prevention plan. Provisions for medical services and first aid including emergency procedures. Prevention of musculoskeletal disorders, including proper lifting techniques. Proper housekeeping, such as keeping stairways and aisles clear, work areas neat and orderly, and promptly cleaning up spills.
Prohibiting horseplay, scuffling, or other acts that tend to adversely influence safety. Proper storage to prevent stacking goods in an unstable manner and storing goods against doors, exits, fire extinguishing equipment and electrical panels. Proper reporting of hazards and accidents to supervisors.
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