Dear Friends,
Though, workplace safety is a big concern for industries but seems at times of accidents only and not otherwise. Overall safety preparedness appears to be low. Shop floor people, be it managers or workers pay less importance to perform with safety. Basically workplace safety is a culture. It is a habit which has to be ingrained among all. Safety has to come from top and every CEO has to wear the hat of chief safety Officer. It is felt that safety is more or less not practiced every moment at work but celebrated on safety day every year with slogans, posters and banners. It remains in manuals but not in practice to the extent required.
It is evident that normally accidents happen either due to unsafe technologies or work methods. Behavioural safety also plays an important role. Mindset of management and workers makes the workplace safe or unsafe.
The issue of Human safety at workplace has gone un-noticed, un-addressed and under reported. At least contradictions in data of labour Ministry, insurance companies and ESI indicates the fact. While labour ministry data indicates fall in fatal and non fatal accidents, insurance benefits claimed by companies indicate a rate of accidents that far outweigh those that are reported.
In spite of having sufficient rather stringent safety regulations in Factories Act, accidents have not reduced. Law alone can not be a remedy of every problem. Attitude of managements and workers is the core. Industries have to understand and evaluate few things like the cost of human life, amount to be paid in terms of compensation and regular investment in safety training. Employees have to be made aware of risks involved and remedial steps required. There should not be any short cut to safety. Research has shown that 96 per cent of the accidents are caused by human error with remaining caused by accidents. Managements have to realize that they can bring quality only if safety improves. Employees need to be motivated at all levels for safety and it should begin from the top. It is evident from the fact how much we are concerned for safety, is that in many organizations safety officers are appointed just to meet the compliance of provisions of Factories Act . He hardly gets any importance in the matters of safety.
March 2014 feature is centered on human safety at work-an attempt to understand the issue from different perspectives through the writings of experts and industry heads and sensitize the HR to bring it on center stage once again and increase the level of safety consciousness among all stakeholders.
regds,
Anil Kaushik
Chief Editor,Business Manager-HR magazine
B-138, Ambedkar Nagar, Alwar-301001 (Raj.)
Business Manager :: HR Magazine
From India, Delhi
Though, workplace safety is a big concern for industries but seems at times of accidents only and not otherwise. Overall safety preparedness appears to be low. Shop floor people, be it managers or workers pay less importance to perform with safety. Basically workplace safety is a culture. It is a habit which has to be ingrained among all. Safety has to come from top and every CEO has to wear the hat of chief safety Officer. It is felt that safety is more or less not practiced every moment at work but celebrated on safety day every year with slogans, posters and banners. It remains in manuals but not in practice to the extent required.
It is evident that normally accidents happen either due to unsafe technologies or work methods. Behavioural safety also plays an important role. Mindset of management and workers makes the workplace safe or unsafe.
The issue of Human safety at workplace has gone un-noticed, un-addressed and under reported. At least contradictions in data of labour Ministry, insurance companies and ESI indicates the fact. While labour ministry data indicates fall in fatal and non fatal accidents, insurance benefits claimed by companies indicate a rate of accidents that far outweigh those that are reported.
In spite of having sufficient rather stringent safety regulations in Factories Act, accidents have not reduced. Law alone can not be a remedy of every problem. Attitude of managements and workers is the core. Industries have to understand and evaluate few things like the cost of human life, amount to be paid in terms of compensation and regular investment in safety training. Employees have to be made aware of risks involved and remedial steps required. There should not be any short cut to safety. Research has shown that 96 per cent of the accidents are caused by human error with remaining caused by accidents. Managements have to realize that they can bring quality only if safety improves. Employees need to be motivated at all levels for safety and it should begin from the top. It is evident from the fact how much we are concerned for safety, is that in many organizations safety officers are appointed just to meet the compliance of provisions of Factories Act . He hardly gets any importance in the matters of safety.
March 2014 feature is centered on human safety at work-an attempt to understand the issue from different perspectives through the writings of experts and industry heads and sensitize the HR to bring it on center stage once again and increase the level of safety consciousness among all stakeholders.
regds,
Anil Kaushik
Chief Editor,Business Manager-HR magazine
B-138, Ambedkar Nagar, Alwar-301001 (Raj.)
Business Manager :: HR Magazine
From India, Delhi
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