The failure of Health & Safety at workplace always incurs a huge cost. For the individual employer, they can also be very significant.
Legal Model:
The three main model approaches towards health and safety legislation are The European Model (goal setting); The American Model (prescriptive); and The International Labour Organization (common).
The European Model:
Within the European Union (EU), the sovereignty and right of each Member State to pass laws on safety and health, or any other subject, is not affected by the membership.
By agreement, the Member States harmonise (bring into line) their regulatory activities by proposing and discussing regulatory action in the European forum, resulting in Directives, which contain the principles and objectives to be attained by national legislation in each Member State.
There is also a timetable for the implementation of the legislation, which must be sufficient to ensure compliance with the minimum standards set out in each of the Directives. National needs vary the extent to which internal legislation in the Member States exceed, extend or vary the Directives.
Examples of relevant European Health and Safety Directives include: EC Framework Directive (89/39I/EEC); Chemical Agents Directive 98/24/EC; and Explosive Atmospheres Directive 99/92/EC.
The American Model:
Congress created the Occupational Safety and Heath Administration (OSHA) under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. It is a Federal Body, which publishes prescriptive standards that are enforced.
Examples of these prescriptive standards include the fourteen elements of the OSHA Process Safety Management (PSM) standard (29 CFR 1910.119):
- Employee participation;
- Process safety information;
- process hazards analysis;
- operating procedures;
- training;
- contractors;
- pre-start-up safety review;
- mechanical integrity;
- hot work permit;
- management of change;
- incident investigation;
- emergency planning and response;
- compliance audits; and
- trade secrets.
Any safety practitioner working within the US needs to be aware of the relevant prescriptive Federal and State OSHA Codes.
The International Labour Organization (ILO):
Affiliated to the United Nations (UN), the ILO, was founded in 1919 to promote social justice and, thereby, to contribute to universal and lasting peace.
The ILO’s Governing Body includes representatives of government, employers’ organisations and workers’ organisations. Over the years, the ILO has issued for adoption by member states a widely respected code of international labour standards on freedom of association, employment, social policy, conditions of work, social security, industrial relations and labour administration, among others.
These international labour standards, including standards on occupational safety and health, are issued in the form of:
- Conventions, e.g. C155: Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981; and
- Recommendations, e.g. R164: Occupational Safety and Health Recommendation, 1981.
Conventions and Recommendations are used frequently as models for enacting new, or amending existing, legislation.
Enforcement:
The enactment of health and safety legislation does not guarantee compliance, or effectiveness in preventing accidents and ill-‐health, therefore enforcement may be necessary.
Enforcement Authorities usually have a number of powers to deal with breaches of legislation and any situations which they consider to be unsafe. These powers often result in enforcement action, depending on the gravity of the non-‐compliance, such as:
Informal:
E.g. providing health and safety advice and guidance, verbal and / or written; and
Formal:
Which may include one, or a combination, of the following: prosecution with the intent of punishment, e.g. company or individual fines and / or imprisonment of individual/s, or ensuring legal compliance, e.g. orders to rectify a situation; issuing legal mandates (authorisation) to stop dangerous activities, e.g. prohibition notices; issuing legal mandates to comply with the law, e.g. improvement notices; and issuing a caution (warning), that can be used in evidence at a later date, often for minor repeat offences.
International and National Standards:
The term ‘occupational safety and health standards’ refers to two distinct types of standards:
Labour standards, which focus on the general conditions of occupational safety and health in the workplace to protect workers; and
Product standards, which focus on both the occupational safety and health duties of suppliers of articles and substances, and the avoidance of competitive advantage, e.g. preventing one organisation allowing the sale of a machine without guards, thus lowering the price, in order to compete with another organisation that sells the machine complete with guards at a higher price.
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