HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORKPLACE

Has your employer shown concern about your health and safety in this covid-19 pandemic?

Let me take a minute of your time to discuss with you; Health and Safety at Workplace. You may agree with me that every employer needs employees to help achieve Business agenda or vision and mission with remuneration. You may also agree with me that employees are great assets of every company. So what measures or policies and strategies apart from Government restrictions are you to safeguard the life of your employees while expecting high productivity?

I am certain that some employers have ignored their sole responsibility toward the well-being of their employees; meanwhile they are expecting their employees to achieve result.

According to Envico, occupational Health and Safety refers to programs, guidelines and procedures that protect the Safety, Welfare and Health of any person engaged in work or employment. The overall goal of any health and safety program is to create the ultimate safe working environment and to reduce the risk of accidents, injuries and fatalities on the job.

It is therefore behoves on both the employer and employee to play their role to ensure safety at the workplace environment. As an employee, you should always follow the correct health and safety procedures laid out by your employer. Do not be tempted to cut corners to make your job easier, as you might end up putting yourself in a very serious danger. In view of this, if your employer is asking you to do a job that is health and safety consequences, you must decline it. This does not mean that you have acted arrogantly. Your health matters and therefore you need to protect yourself. If this covid-19 your employer has not provided you with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), it means that your employer is interested in the job you are doing but not your health and safety. Health and Safety must be a priority of employers before considering engaging personnel.

As an employer, it is your responsibility to ensure the safety of your workers. Make sure that they are properly trained in the appropriate courses and that they have been fully briefed on the regulations of their specific jobs. Ensure the workplace is kept in safe conditions at all times and never ask your workers to do a task that violates health and safety regulations. Set a good example and foster a healthy and safe workplace. Therefore at some workplaces, employees have to buy PPE for themselves; meanwhile, the employer and all the supervisors are well protected in this covid-19 pandemic.

Since every business is expecting to make profit or increase productivity, I will suggest that; employers should regularly engage staff in conversation on health and safety issues and encourage them to share their ideas on how they can work in safety. In this covid-19, employers should have PPE at any vantage point and have staff temperature tested regularly at least every three hours as well as their Blood Pressure (BP) due to stress. If possible, employee should be given one day off during this pandemic to rest.

Let us remember that in everything, safety first. Having this healthy and safety culture and ethics, will save all stakeholders from any hazardous condition at the workplace.

 Author: Daniel Nii Saka Addo (BBA, PgCHRSM, MA), is an HR Advisor specialized in employee relations, recruitment/hiring, labour law, training and development and career guidance and counselling.

Health and Safety at Workplace

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 Reference

1.     Small Business BC (https://smallbusinessbc.ca/article/seven-steps-improving-health-and-safety/)

2.     Envico (https://www.healthandsafetycourse.co.uk/articles/what-is-health-and-safety-and-what-does-it-mean-for-me/)

3.     Indirect Government Services (https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/)

https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/health-and-safety