Health and occupational safety

Health and occupational safety is a term where two important factors- Health and Safety play an important role.

A safe and healthy work environment is a human right and is a foundational element for sustainable development.

Health refers to the protection of the body and mind of people from any illness, resulting from the materials, processes, and procedures in a workplace, whereas, Safety is protection from physical injury and the mental well-being of an individual. Health and Occupational safety is a major concern globally.

Global Data

According to the ILO data, 2.7 million workers die each year from work-related injuries and illness, and around 2.4 million die from work-related diseases. The global economic impact due to these illnesses and deaths estimate to amount to 3.94 percent of the annual global GDP. Such numbers, along with the growing body of evidence of the benefits of sound Health and occupational safety practices have resulted in a steadily increasing demand for qualitative improvement in the safety and health of all at work.

Why Health and Occupational Safety is important?

Apart from the yearly estimated casualties, there are huge numbers of global unreported deaths due to the effect of occupational hazards and illness. These numbers can easily be manipulated and fewer numbers come into notice. Appointing safety officers and safety experts in an organization is very important to control these losses. Loss of life of workers is unrepairable and apart from that organizations also suffer a great amount of loss affecting their overall performance. Occupational safety is a discipline with a broad scope.

There are different types of hazards predominant in a working environment. These hazards are- Physical hazard, Chemical hazard, Biological hazard, Psychological hazard, and Ergonomic hazard.

Health and Safety in India

India is a developing nation and infrastructure development is taking place all over the country. Construction of New buildings, roads, dams, power supply stations, etc takes place almost every day which involves a huge amount of labor force. Hazard and casualties are in huge numbers in the construction industry, therefore, there is a rise in demand for having skilled safety professionals. Safety officers help an organization in its smooth operations and functioning. They are appointed to keep track of all the safety matters and identify and eliminate any kind of risks and hazards involved in the process.

Why do organizations spend so much money on health and occupational safety?

Every organization or company spends a lot of money on hiring these safety professionals. When we hear this, the only thing that comes to our mind is ‘’why”? Why do they spend so much money on safety and how does this help the organization?

Now let us understand this using an example: Let’s say a company XYZ manufacturing ltd. is spending 10 Lacs INR annually on Health and safety. There are different types of hazards and risks at workplaces. There are machines and other technologies used in the process which require human involvement to run these machines and carry out other work. There are work-related accidents and injuries which kill time and also give rise to workers’ absenteeism or leave due to work.

Suppose the company employs 100 workers and their per day productivity is 5000 INR per 1 person. Therefore, 100*5000 is 500000. If 95 workers are present in a factory and 5 workers are unattended due to injury, illness, or other reasons then the production will be 95*5000= 475000, which also means the company is at a loss of 25000 INR on daily basis and faces a monthly loss of 750000, and yearly 90,00,000. Therefore, hiring safety officers helps in reducing these hazards and risks at workplaces and helps in attaining a clean and healthy working environment. This results in the overall performance of the company and well being of the workers. It encourages the positive, personal and psychological well-being of an individual and is hence important to meet organizational goals. By spending 10 lakhs annually XYZ manufacturing ltd. is saving its 90 lacs annually.

A worker using all personal protective equipment while working.

Conclusion

It is mandatory for all organizations and manufacturing units to appoint safety officers and experts to look into the safety matters of an organization and eliminate the risks and hazardous situations.

Risk assessment and identification of hazards are performed from time to time. The safety of workers and employees should be the top priority for any organization.