XBLR 3103

Faculty Science And Technology

Semester January 2019

XBLR 3103

OSH LEGISLATION

MATRICULATION NO : 911129015025-001
IDENTITY CARD NO. : 911129-01-5025
TELEPHONE NO. : 017-4620901
E-MAIL : najibroslan91@oum.edu.my
LEARNING CENTRE : JOHOR BAHRU
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Introduction

Occupational health and safety (OSH) at the workplace is important because it protects people,
and nothing is more valuable than lives. It influences the company’s productivity by affecting
motivation in employees, if employees know workplace is safe, they are willing to work. Unsafe
or risky working conditions will contribute to accidents which cause losses in man hours and
increase indirect company cost.

Few reasons for creating a good safety and health standards at a workplace are:

 An employee should not have to risk any injury or fatality at work, nor should others
related with the work environment.

 Poor occupational safety and health performance results in cost to the government.
Organizations also sustain costs in the event of an incident at work

 Occupational safety and health requirements may be reinforced in civil law and/or
criminal law. It is well known that without proper law that has potential regulatory action
or litigation, many organizations would not act upon their implied moral obligations.

Construction Site

AME Construction was incorporated in 1993 to provide high quality construction

services to a wide range of clients, specialising in the construction of purpose-built buildings,
mainly on factory and warehouse buildings. We work with our client closely and thoroughly
understand their business objectives, we work in locations and industries where they our clients
need us to be, and we position ourselves to serve clients ‘customized needs effectively.
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Vision To be leader in the builder industry

Mission Quality construction, timely delivery, safe working environment, cost effective and
customer satisfactory.
Core People
Value • We challenge ourselves to excel and believe that everyone has opportunities for
career growth.
• We hire and train the most capable staff and reward superior performance.
• We work with our client, consultants and subsidiary as a team basis, and mutual
respect to bring success.

Quality
• We assure quality and timely delivery that meets customer satisfaction
• We continuously upgrade our performance and communication through active
participation and teamwork of all our people, with improve commitment
• We benchmarking our Quality Management System work processes base on or
exceeding the requirement

Health, Safety and Environment

• We recognizes that Health, Safety and Environment at work is one of most
important in our organisation.
• We placed highest priority in protecting the Health and Safety of all personnel
from recognized hazards while preventing damage to the environment.
• We are committed in ensuring that all personnel enjoy a safe, health and
conductive working environment.

Board Of Director
Managing Director Kelvin Lee Chai
Director Kang Ah Chee, Lim Yook Kim, Simon Lee, Eric Kang
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Hazards at construction site

Working at height is a hazard, falling. You do not have to fall from a

great height to be injured; the severity of it depends on many factors like
weight, age, how you land, and the surface on impact. Must take the proper
safety precautions, it is necessary to do a height risk assessment. The
workplace must be stable and of sufficient strength and rigidity for their
purpose. Head injuries, traumatic brain injury, hip fractures, back and spinal
cord injuries, shoulder injuries, sprains and fractures are all injuries that’s
possible from falling. Falling objects such as tools or machinery can also cause injury to the
other person below, or even worse, it can cause death.

Another hazard is heavy machinery such as Lorries, tractors,

steam roller, cranes and so on. All heavy machineries need their proper
licensing, this is for everyone’s safety, and it shows that the operator for
the machine is competent enough. High pressure machines are also
dangerous such as compressors, they have high potential kinetic energy
in store, which if explodes can cause catastrophic damage.

Heat is also another hazard at site, exposure to extreme heat can result in occupational
illnesses caused by heat stress, including heat stroke, heat exhaustion, heat syncope, heat cramps,
heat rashes, or death.

Noise-related hearing loss is one of the most common

occupational health issues; exposure to workplace noise hazards
(high noise levels) can cause permanent hearing loss.
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OSHA 1994

The Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 covers a

wide range of basic safety, health and welfare issues and apply to
most workplaces (with the exception of those workplaces on board
ships or armed forces). Employers have a general duty under
Section 15 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 to
ensure; so far as is practicable, the safety, health and welfare at work of all the employees. It is
also the duty of employers under Section 17 of the same Act that other persons of not being his
employees may be affected are not exposed to risks. The Act expands on these duties and is
intended to protect the health and safety of everyone in the workplace, and ensure that adequate
welfare facilities are provided for people at work. Workers at state and local government
agencies are not covered by federal OSHA but are protected under the OSH Act if they work in
states that have OSHA-approved state programs. States and territories may also develop plans
that cover only public sector (state and local government) workers.

The Act does not cover:

 Self-employed persons;
 Farms which employ only immediate members of the
farmer's family
 Working conditions for which other Federal agencies,
operating under the authority of other Federal laws,
regulate worker safety. Such as conditions in mining,
nuclear energy and nuclear weapons manufacture,
and many aspects of the transportation industries
 Employees of state and local governments, unless
they are in one of the states operating an OSHA-
approved state plan
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Scope and Objectives of OSHA

 Secure the safety, health and welfare of a person at work against any risk or work
hazard coming from any activities at work.
 Protect any person at work against risk to safety or health from the activity in
their jobs
 Encourage a safe work environment
 To provide the means to be progressively replaced by a system of regulations and
approved industry codes, to maintain or improve the standards of safety and
health.
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OSH Act Legal Register

No Laws & License/Permit/ Act/Regulation Title Spec Area PIC Remarks
Regulations Approval
Part Sect. Sub-
section
1. OSH Act 1994 -NA- IV 16 - Duty to formulate  Prepare general Office Safety Safety rep
safety and health statement of intent Representat to discuss
policy. (policy) including ive with MD.
management’s
commitment.
 Provide list of goals
and objectives.
 List of responsibilities
and accountabilities
for achieving those
goals and objectives
including those of
management,
supervisors and
workers;
 Prepare an outline of
the safety program and
procedures;
 Identify the method of
review the policy.
2. OSH Act 1994 -NA- IV 15 (1), (2) General duties of  Provide and maintain a Office MD and Safety rep
and (3). employers and self- safe and healthy Safety rep to assist
employed persons to working environment MD to
their employees. in the office. identify
 Provide adequate suitable
training in related to trainer.
the safety and health to Safety rep
all workers. to assist
MD of
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 Prepare safety and document

health procedures or preparation
manuals. .
 Provide and maintain
adequate facilities and
welfare for the
workers.
3. OSH Act 1994 -NA- VI 24 (1) and General duties of  Co-operate with Office Safety All
(2). employees at work. employer in Representat employees
maintaining safety and ive to attend
health requirements. training.
 Wear any PPE
provided by employer.
 Comply with any
instruction on OSH
imposed by employer.
4. OSH Act 1994 -NA- VIII 32 (1) and Notification of  Notify DOSH office Office MD Safety rep
(2). accidents, dangerous on occupational to assist
occurrence, accident, dangerous MD
occupational poisoning occurrence, poisoning
and occupational and disease at
diseases, and inquiry. workplace using
approved form.
5. OSH -NA- II 5 (1) Notification and  Send report to DOSH Office MD Safety rep
(NADOPOD) reporting of accident office in 7 days in to assist
Regulations and dangerous which any staff MD
2004 occurrence. involved in accident
absent from work for 4
calendar days.
 Write to DOSH within
1 year in the event of
accident causing death.
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OSHA contributes to a positive safety culture in construction sites

Fast economic development has not only led to the significant improvement in
incomes and the quality of life, but also resulting in great increases in the number of
people killed and injured at work and that is where OSHA stepped in to protects the
workers.
OSHA was enacted on 25th February 1994 with the intent to ensure safety,
health and welfare of all persons at all places of work. Think about it, without any
law’s regarding employee’s health and welfare, all employers would not even look at
the employee, let alone spend money to make sure all work is safe. Employers can
save money on cost cutting any safety measurements but since OSHA has been
implemented, company nowadays put safety and health a part of their budget. It is
created to sort of promote and encourage occupational safety and health awareness
among workers and to create organization along with the effective safety and health
measures such as qualified and experienced safety officers, authorized gas tester and
so on.
A highly skilled and experienced worker is important to any company, if that
person is injured due to dangerous working condition, If such an injury occurs, the
company has to deal with an employee being out of work for a period of time, and
during that period you may have to hire someone else to fill in. The drop in
productivity during the transition can cost serious money. Without OSHA, company
do not know what is safe for the workers and what isn’t, therefore OSHA can save
money for any company by protecting their employees from hazard. Any lawyers
involved in any case of accidents can also cause the company money, even if the
company wins the cases and the employees lose, the fee for the lawyer, the delay in
production and also the reputation of the company being tarnished can lose any
company a lot of money, or it can even go bankrupt since a tarnished reputation is
hard to recover from. If an employee does have an accident at work, however all
safety regulations is laid out, and the employee does not follow them, then it is no
longer the company’s fault. Employers also have to provide required OSHA training,
train employees in the safety and health aspects of their jobs
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A set of tools can differentiate a task being done

dangerously and damaging the equipment or it can make
the task done easier without damaging anything. Lets
take an example, a hammer to nail a screw , and a
wrench to hammer down nails, even though these two
might do the job, they will however damage the tools,

damage the nails, and damage the surface that the nails are
on, and they risk to injure the employees are high, under
the OSH law however, employers must make sure all
employees have and use safe tools for any task and
properly maintain this equipment. Employers also have to
use color codes, posters, labels or signs to warn employees
of potential hazards, this makes the workplace a lot safer,
within a quick glance employees can detect whether any
chemical is explosives, flammable, toxic and so on. And
employee can look at a glance and straight away know and avoid the chemicals if
needed.
Basically, OSHA contributes to job safety and health by enacting
regulations that forward this ideal. Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CF),
Parts 1902 – 1990, houses all the OSHA standards, though OSHA also states to enact
occupational safety and health laws of their own under federally-approved plans.
State-run programs are at least as strict, and sometimes more so, than federal
standards. This ensures a minimum standard of job safety and health that all
employers must follow to protect employees. The OSH Act covers all employees
except public employees in state and local governments and those who are self-
employed. Public employees in state and local governments are covered by their
state’s OSHA-approved plan
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Suggestion of improvements for safety and health practices in the construction industry

One of the ways to improve in terms of safety and health in the construction industry is
through communication, clear and effective communication is needed at all times, make sure all
employees has clear explanation for any work, has standardised hand signals for example making
an “X” with the hand means close and so on, when we communicate through walkie talkies,
make sure the employees use straight forward and short words. For on-demand custom, site-
specific procedures and instructions, use printers and supplies are a reliable safety
communication solution. All supplies are built to last in the harsh conditions that exist in the
construction industry. Comply with OSHA and ANSI standards and reinforce safety anywhere
on the work site with easy to install premade construction labels and signs

Another way is always encourage employees to speak up when they see something going
wrong; this can significantly help to avoid incidents, injuries, and fatalities. To increase chances
of participation, ensure workers feel comfortable to ask questions and raise safety concerns
without fear of retaliation or bullying, do not patronize the employee if they ask a seemingly
simple question, not everyone knows the same thing . This will make it easier and quicker to
address issues head on to prevent them down the road. OSHA finds that managers often avoid
giving feedback to prevent any uncomfortable or heated confrontations. If improvements to a
worker’s performance can be made, approach them in a constructive, positive way, be gentle and
friendly. Make sure to avoid judgmental statements and criticisms and focus on the behaviour
itself, not the person and their values or personality, be professional, put aside and personal issue
aside.
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Technology has many uses and one of them is to make our lives safer, digitization in
construction now makes it possible to make real-time decisions remotely. Unmanned aerial
vehicles known as drones are already in use in the industry and provide an easier way to conduct
site inspections, observations, and safety audits. Managers can use smartphones, tablets, and
project management software to share project data instantaneously from remote work sites and to
workers and other onsite supervisor. Allowing everyone to have immediate access to the same
information eliminates costs of equipment that must be updated and maintained, and it keeps
everyone consistently on the same page. A recent report by Dodge Data & Analytics found that
82% of contractors who use wearable technology see instant site-safety improvements. These
devices have the ability to alert managers to activities going on in the field and even improve
response time when injuries occur, like the ability to detect when an employee slips, trips, and
falls, triggering an automatic alert to designated site personnel, including medics. These devices
also keep track of locations of workers and procedures on the job site. Trigger alarms exist to
streamline evacuation procedures in the event of an emergency. These capabilities offer
immediate safety benefits. All employees need to be held accountable for safety and safety rules
should be consistently enforced

Conclusion

In conclusion, construction is hazardous work and always will be, and OSHA is working
very hard to protect workers in this industry with standards, enforcement, outreach, education,
and consultation. We are hopeful that the current record low numbers of fatalities and injuries are
more than an indication of low construction levels associated with economic difficulties,
however low that number is, even one fatality cannot be just a number, it must be taken with
care, and our ultimate goal is zero fatality and zero injury, how impossible it seems, it can be
done, and that safer and more healthful construction work will help keep the toll of these
accidents down as the economy and construction industry recover.