Executive Diploma in Project Management Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters Lt. Kol. Ahmad Zubir JX78946HP702 Feb 23, 2009
Executive Diploma in Project Management Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters Lt. Kol. Ahmad Zubir JX78946HP702 Feb 23, 2009
Executive Diploma in Project Management Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters Lt. Kol. Ahmad Zubir JX78946HP702 Feb 23, 2009
DIPLOMA in
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
MODULE : MODULE 5:
Occupational Safety and Environmental
Parameters
MATRIX ID : JX78946HP702
Table of Contents
1 Introduction Summary..............................................................................................3
2 Occupational Safety and Health...............................................................................6
2.1 What is occupational safety and health?..............................................................6
2.1.1 Occupational Safety and Health Act............................................................7
3 Factors and failures in implementing occupational safety and health programs9
3.1.1 Attitude of Site Management Team.............................................................9
3.1.2 Lack of Enforcement by Proper Authority..................................................9
3.1.3 Ineffective Safety Campaign.....................................................................10
3.1.4 Inadequate Safety Training and Course.....................................................10
3.1.5 Incompetent Safety Officer........................................................................10
4 Steps and Measure to overcome problems of occupational safety and health...10
4.1.1 Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems (OHS-MS).........11
4.1.2 OHSAS 18001: 1996 (Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series)
12
4.1.3 Application of Occupational Safety and Health in different countries......14
5 Conclusion................................................................................................................16
6 Appendixes...............................................................................................................18
7 References..................................................................................................................20
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
1 Introduction Summary
Implementing occupational safety and health programs in many construction sites
are easier said than done. Please discuss what are the problems faced and what
steps/ measures to be taken to overcome these problems.
more commonly related to risky, hazardous and unsafe. The occupational hazard of the
industry relates to the number of high incidences of accidents and fatalities that occur
globally on construction sites. Also, situations, tools, or other elements may be either
Even with strict governing legislations and policies regarding safety and health,
high rates of injury and fatality still persists. Policies and legislation such as OSHA or
Occupational Safety and Health Act are designed to ensure that the working environment
is safe and healthy. In addition to having regulations, you have governing bodies that
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
In addition to these national regulatory bodies, we should also not discount the local
enforcement capacity to ensure safety in the workplace (Gee and Saito, 1997). Industry
themselves are not enough to bring about a desired goal of zero accidents and incidents
on construction sites.
Though regulations and legislation are not enough to ensure guaranteed safety but
by adhering to these regulation and policies, it does improve site safety. With regards to
cost, it is minimal as this can improves construction safety at minimal or no extra cost.
However, without proper codes and standard, the results can be the absolute reverse.
Increased costs and disputes can arise from delays in construction progress, penalties for
these delays, financial losses, personal injuries and fatalities. Regardless of the strictly
enforced safety and health regulations in most countries, high rates of injury and fatality
country’s economy. This is due to its labor-intensive activities and operations (Haupt
1996). In Europe, the construction industry employs about 7.5% of the total industrial
workforce (some 11 million workers). However, due to employment risk and hazards, the
industry in Europe accounts for 17.5% of all work-related accidents and injuries (some 1
million accidents per year). The industry is responsible for about 22.5% of all
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
occupational deaths, representing some 1500 fatal accidents per year (Berger 2000; Dias
In Malaysia, the construction industry has been recognized as one of the driving
factors of economic development. However, the industry in Malaysia itself is not without
its negativity, this is due to its high rates of accidents and fatalities incidences that have
occurred on sites. According to the statistics reported by the Social Security Organisation
(SOCSO) the number of fatality cases in the construction industry are among the highest
Despite the negative safety record of the construction industry, the fate of the
economy is intertwined together with the construction industry. This is because of the
consequence of the forward and backward linkages between the construction industry and
the rest of the economy. Backward linkages refer, to the materials and services sectors of
the economy and forward linkages refer to the result of economic activities from the use
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
of the constructed buildings and facilities (Drewer 1980; Ahmad and Yan 1996). In
industry. For example, in the United Kingdom, the construction industry had an
economic output estimated at $87 billion in 1998, which constitutes approximately 10%
of the GDP. In China, while the GDP was growing rapidly since 1979, the share of the
construction industry as a percentage of GDP increased as well. However, this does not
mean that safety at the workplace should be ignored as this is an issue that affects all
businesses since most companies do not feel that it is vital to the success and are afraid of
possibility of prosecution (Construction Task Force 1998; Bakri et al 2006; Ahmad and
Yan 1996).
environment where the employees will be able to contribute to the organization. For the
strategy and resolution to reducing the rate of accident occurrence as well as live saving
As a result, there exists legislation to ensuring that the workplace is a safe place of
work. In Malaysia, this legislation is called the Occupational Safety and Health Act of
1994. This important piece of legislation is to promote and encourage occupational safety
and health awareness among workers and to create organizations along with effective
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
This regulation would be carried out by self-regulation schemes that match the
industry or related organization. This Act, which contains 15 sections, is a measure that
supersedes any conflict in existing occupational safety and health laws such as the
Factory and Machinery Act 1967. The Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994
complements any existing legislative provision and if there are any conflicts, the
Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 will overcome it (Laws of Malaysia 2000).
The objectives of Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 (OSHA) as stipulated
To secure the safety, health and welfare of persons at work against risks to safety
To protect persons at a place of work other than persons at work against risks to
To provide the means whereby the associated occupational safety and health
of this Act designed to maintain or improve the standards of safety and health.
employees, self-employed workers, designers, importers and vendors. With the creation
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
of this act, it provides for the appointments of enforcement officers and the setting up of
an governmental agency called the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health.
This agency is given the powers to enforce, to inspect and the liabilities for breaking the
Manufacturing
Construction
The formation of OSHA came was upon three principles. The first was the need
for employers to develop a good and orderly management system that starts with a safety
and health policy. Secondly, employers, employees and the authorities must negotiate to
settle issues and problems relating to occupational safety and health at the workplace.
The first principle is self-regulation. To handle issues relating to occupational safety and
health, employers must develop a good and orderly management system. Starting with
formation of a safety and health policy and consequently employers have to make the
proper arrangements to be carried out. The third and last principle is co-operation, where
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
the success of the occupational safety and health programs will succeed with the co-
operation between employers and employees. With the resulting co-operation, there will
Malaysia 2000).
Despite the regulation policies and agencies being set up to meet the challenges of
providing a safe and conducive working environment, results are still unsatisfactory. The
safety regulations provided by OSHA 1994 is very comprehensive but the level of
awareness and practicability of it are generally lower than expected over the last five (5)
years (Abdul Hamid et al 2003). Below are some of the other reasons of failures of
There exists a negative attitude to the safety concerns at a construction site due to
increasing costs in construction costs as well as not investment friendly. Thus, as a result,
unsafe, old and obsolete personal safety protection equipments (PPE) are provided due to
hampers the protection of occupational safety and health. A lack of serious commitment,
insufficient workforce and government budget allocations constraints can also be added
to this matter.
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
that people will avoid any accident and injury at the workplace.
Most safety officers if are not properly trained and are not certified to provide and
enforce safety guidelines on the site. Agencies such as CIDB and NIOSH cater to
providing training for effective safety aspects at construction site. Once the safety
officers are certified they will be able to ensure that the organization would adhere to the
As required by the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) 1994, companies must
appoint a safety officer. Sadly, most companies simply do not comply due to lack of
there is safety and health on the construction project. Accidents can be avoided if all
parties to the project from project inception to execution as well as the maintenance of
the facility at post completion are involved to ensure that there is safety in a project.
Designers, architects, contractors who carry out the work as well as clients should be
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
involved in adhering to occupational safety and health programs (Joyce 1995; Berger
1999).
In the past, health and safety at the construction work place was completely
ignored. This resulted in being the main causes during accidents at the work place. As
such an approach to the issues via a team building approach from all parties directly or
to identify possible flaws and weaknesses that needs to be overcome via a process of
On a global scale, the United Nations agency, the ILO (International Labor
performance
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
• Provide guidance on the development of both national and tailored guidelines on OHS
Under the OHS-MS, it contains the main points of policy, organizing, planning
and implementation, evaluation and action for improvement for occupational safety and
regulatory in complying with OHS requirements. Under the British standard, there are six
4.1.2 OHSAS 18001: 1996 (Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series)
In avoiding confusion with the many guidelines regarding safety and health at the
workplace, OHSAS 18001: 1996 (Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series
2007) was introduced. This was developed in relations with the quality and
environmental management systems certification of ISO 9001 (Quality) and ISO 14001
(Environmental) standards. OHSAS value is that it allows the organization to control and
risk to employees and other interested parties who may be exposed to occupational safety
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
In Table 2, the OHS-MS consists of six (6) elements as follows as per the OHSAS 18001:
• General requirements
• OHS policy
• Planning
• Management review
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
Different parts of the world apply differently in applying occupational safety and
health standards. Following the basic guidelines of the OSH-MS, most counties have
similar standards that are followed. This is due to the OSH-MS being closely in line with
the quality and environmental management systems certification of ISO 9001 (Quality)
and ISO 14001 (Environmental) standards. As per the adherence to the OSH-MS, they
also closely follow according to the legal and regulatory as set by the governmental and
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
that most countries take to OSH-MS such as (Kogi 2002), the examples stated below
systems
National Occupational Safety and Health statutory bodies providing guidelines for
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
5 Conclusion
occupational health and safety should not be ignored. Having an efficient occupational
safety and health programs, workers would feel secure and comfortable working on the
constructions site (Khalid 1996). A safe and healthy environment at the workplace would
preventive measures thereby not only increasing productivity of work but also avoiding
However, should organization choose to ignore any concerns, there are laws to
protect the common worker. As stated in the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994
(Laws of Malaysia 2000), it is mandatory for all construction companies to provide a safe
and conducive working environment for their workers and subcontractors at construction
and fabrication sites. With the introduction of legislation to protect the common worker at
the construction workplace, occupational health and safety has gained an important
attention from the employers for fear of possible prosecution for non compliance. In
addition, with good safety and heath programs in the construction workplace, the
construction project stakeholders will be able to see the benefit arising from the increase
in work productivity, reduction in unnecessary costs as well as being able to meet the
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
“The most effective project managers are developed day-to-day, not year-to-year or
project mistake-to-project mistake. Mistakes will happen, even with the best of
mentoring, however, project managers with strong mentors should find their people
effectiveness continually improving. The benefit is that the company and everyone
connected to the project shares in those gains.” Neal Whitten (Whitten 1999)
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
6 Appendixes
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
Appendix 2: National strategies taken for developing occupational safety and health
management systems in Asian countries
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
7 References
1. Abdul Ghani Khalid (1996), Construction Site Injuries : The Case of Malaysia.
2. Abdul Rahim Abdul Hamid, Wan Zulkifli Wan Yusuf and Bachan Singh (2003),
3. Ahmadon Bakri, Rosli Mohd Zin, Mohd Saidin Misnan and Abdul Hakim (2006),
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
Gottfried,A., Trani, L., and Dias, L.A. (eds), Safety Coordination and Quality in
Commission 99 and Task Group 36, Milan, Italy, 22-23 June, pp. 51-60
6. Brown, P.E. (1996): ‘Total Integration of the Safety Professional into the Project
pp. 137-143
Construction Task Force to the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, on the
9. Dias, L.A. and Coble, R.J. (1999): Construction Safety Coordination in the
Commission W99
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
10. Gee, A.F. and Saito, K. (1997): ‘Construction Loads and Other Safety Measures
8-15
thesis
12. Hinze and Harrison (1981), Safety Programs in Large Construction Firm.
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
15. Kogi, Kazutaka. “Work Improvement and Occupational Safety and Health
16. Laws of Malaysia (2000). Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 (Act 514)
and Regulation and Orders, Kuala Lumpur, International Law Book Services.
18. Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series - OHSAS 18001 : 2007
19. Ratay, R.T. (1997): Construction Safety Affected by Codes and Standards,
Issues,’ In Hinze, J., Coble, R., and Haupt, T. (eds), Construction Safety and
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Module 5: Occupational Safety and Environmental Parameters
21. Social Security Organization (SOCSO) 2005, Number of death cases reported
June 2007
22. Smallwood, J. and Haupt, T. (2000): ‘Safety and Health Team Building,’ In
Hinze, J., Coble, R., and Haupt, T. (eds), Construction Safety and Health
23. Syed M. Ahmad et al (2000), Site Safety Management in Hong Kong. Journal of
24. The Business Roundtable (1983): More Construction for the Money, Summary
Report of the Construction Industry Cost Effectiveness Project, New York, The
Business Roundtable
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