1.0 1.

OHS Laws and Institutional Frameworks Introduction

In catering industry, Good Food Catering Company strives to provide a high standard of service to their customer. As the kitchen can be a dangerous place to work and with long working hours, it will lead to occupational accidents and diseases. To prevent all these, it was important to provide a safe and healthy working environment by complying with OHS laws. 1.2 Definition of Occupational Health and Safety (OSH)

Occupational health and safety (OHS) refers to the physical, physiological and psychosocial conditions of an organizations workforce, related to aspects of work and the work context (De Cieri et al. 2008, 62). Below is the fact sheet of Good Food Catering Company

Good Food Catering Company - Fact Sheet of OHS

The Purpose of the OHS Act In Singapore, OHS Act is known as Workplace Safety and Health Act. The Act aims to reduce risks at source by making stakeholders accountable for managing the risks they create and taking reasonably practicable steps to ensure the safety and health of workers (Tan, 2007). Responsibilities of Employer Employers have responsibilities to: Provide and maintain workplace, equipment and tools that are safe and without risk to Provide information, instruction, training and supervision necessary to ensure the Conducting risk assessment to remove or control risks to workers at the workplace. health of employees. health and safety at work of employees.

Developing and implementing procedures for dealing with emergencies that may arise while those persons are at work.

Good Food Catering Company - Fact Sheet of OHS

Provide suitable personal protective equipment and clothing where necessary.

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Provide adequate first aid facilities and treatment. Responsibilities of Employees Employees responsibilities include: Follow all safety procedures and principles introduced at the workplace, particularly

when using or operating any equipment and in other potentially dangerous situations.

Report any workplace hazards and dangerous events to their supervisor immediately. Cooperating with the employer on safety and health matters. Report any job-related injury or illness to the employer, and seek treatment promptly.

Use and wear prescribed personal protective equipment while working. Refraining from the operation of any equipment without proper instructions and

authorization. Responsibilities of Everyone in the Workplace Everyone in the workplace shall: Cooperate with his employer and any other person to such extend as will enable his Not intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything provided in the interest Not behave in a way that results risk to the safety and heath of others. Identifying Hazards and Managing Risk Definition of Hazards employer to comply with the provision of the OHS Act. of own health, safety and welfare. 2.0 2.1

A hazard is any dangerous event or situation that may lead to an emergency or disaster. It could also be a biological, chemical, or physical agent in (or a property of) an environment that may have an adverse health effect, or may cause injury or loss (BusinessDictionary.com). 2.2 Workplace Hazards in Hotel and Their Risks

Hotel employs a variety of staff and they can be exposed to wide range of safety and health hazards at work depending on the specific tasks they perform. The common workplace hazards in hotels are described as follows: 2.2.1 Chemical Hazards In hotels, chemicals are used for cleaning purpose. Persons at risk include housekeepers, laundry workers and engineering or maintenance personnel.
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Some chemicals are hazardous and may be corrosive, irritating, toxic or flammable. Direct skin contact with some chemicals may cause burns or skin rashes from irritation or allergy. Chemical spills and splashes may damage the eyes. 2.2.2 Hot Working Environment Staffs working in the kitchen, laundry and boiler rooms may be subjected to heat stress from the machinery or equipment used in these areas. Excessive exposure to a hot working environment can cause variety of heat related illness such as rashes, weakness, fainting, nausea and headache. 2.2.3 Burns and Scalds Heat related injuries such as burns and scalds are very common in hotel industry. They often are a result of contact with stoves, boiling liquid, hot oil, hot pots and utensils, pressure cookers and steam emission. 2.2.4 Strips, Trips and Falls Strips, trips and falls are the most common cause of accidents in the hotel industry. This could be due to insufficient lighting, poor housekeeping, wet and slippery floors, and a lack of handrails on platforms or staircase, unsafe use of ladder or carelessness. Workers may experience injuries involving fractures bones, muscles strains, cuts and abrasions and in extreme cases, head injury. 2.2.5 Electricity The use of electrical equipment has the potential to be a serious hazard in the hotel industry. Electricity can result in fore, explosion or serious injury such as electric shock, burns and in some cases death. 2.2.6 Fire Hazards There is a significant risk of fire in the hotel industry. The use of gas, naked flames and hot oil in kitchens, flammable substances used by cleaners and smoking by customers in restaurant, hotel rooms and cars contributes to high risk of fire.

2.3

Hazards Assessment

To identify hazards, risk assessment is generally carried out. Risk assessment is the process of evaluating the probability or likelihood of an injury occurring and the severity or consequences of the injury (Government of South Australia, SafeWork SA). The underlying

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principle of this is to determine which hazard should be controlled first and to determine the amount of control required. As there are many ways to asset the risk, one of the tools is Risk Assessment Matrix which can be used to record a risk rating for each hazard. A handout has been design by using the Risk Assessment Matrix to illustrate the main types of hazards in the hotel industry. Please refer to the Appendix 1, page 11.

3.0

Managing Psychosocial Hazards

Article: Work-Related Stress in Health Service Employees (refer to Appendix 2) 3.1 Definition of Psychosocial Hazards

Psychosocial hazards are work characteristics that have the intrinsic property or ability with the potential to cause harm (Cox, 1993). Work-related psychosocial hazards include such aspect work stress, bullying, violence at work, poor organization etc. These hazards can affect health either directly (physical pathway) or indirectly (psychosocial, stress-mediated pathway) (Cox et al. 2000). 3.2 Summary

Occupational stress has been a long-standing concern of the health care industry. A study examines the nature and source of work-related stress in 1,176 employees from the major occupational groups of one large health facility in the US, to determine whether stress has adverse effects on individual and the organization. Stress was found to be significant problem across a range of different occupational groups and their experiences of stress have many similarities. 3.3 Causes of Stress

The following workplace psychosocial hazards appear to influence the high profile and impact of stress among the different occupational group:

The administrative and clerical face low participation in decision working and lack of control over workload, which lead them have the symptoms of anxiety and depression. Anxiety occurs at ancillary staff due to threat of redundancy or having to accept similar work with less favourable rates of pay or conditions.

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There are low levels of support for problems solving and lack of social support from higher manager for professions allied to medicine, which has lead them lack of clear objective.

The result of reductions in the number of qualified staff on ward duty and shift has lead to ward-based nurse face work overload. In addition, they also required to work on long working hours.

The nature of community-based nurses work might lead them exposure to work-related violence and threats; and may have risk of personal injury.

3.4 Recommendation Possible steps for Human Resource can attack and try to reduce the causes of negative workplace stress include: Create opportunities to reduce pressure facing by the employee by focusing on teambuilding approaches or recruitment and staff development strategies to put people together who get on well.

Train overload managers to improve their ability to delegate or guide staff or hire freelances or staff who are qualified to absorb the managers extra workload. In addition, work with staff to help them learn how to ask managers for guidance or take initiative when appropriate. To implement work redesign, job rotation or flexible working hours scheme to tackle any intrinsic monotony within employees job. Provide training and education on health and safety effects of shifts work and techniques for recognition and reduction of psychosocial hazards. To improve internal communication and to provide opportunities for social interaction among employees.

Management can provide invaluable assistance to employees by setting effective stress management system. Stress management training courses are a useful component of a larger stress reduction strategy because the courses build awareness. Management may launch affordable day-care facilities for children of working parents, flexibility to support working parents for transportation and child care assistance, fitness facilities, so that to promote work-life balance prorgamme.

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4.0

Notifying, Reporting and Managing Incidents Incident and Accident Reporting

4.1

Incident Description

The truck driver was lost his balance and fell about 1.5 meters backwards onto the ground, landing on his backside while attempting to clean the chute on the back of the truck. 4.2 Types of Injuries

Suffer back pain and a tingling sensation down his legs. 4.3 Causes Contributing to the Accident

There are many factors that contribute to this accident. The direct and any contributing factors were as follows: 4.3.1 Direct Causes Most of the accident occurs due to unsafe condition and equipment. (Gary and Tan, 2005). Further interview with the driver, this accident occurs where the poor lighting at the workplace has affected his vision to see any obstacle object. On the other hand, the ladder provided was not in good condition and it was placed on the uneven ground trip. Another finding from the interview was the unsafe acts (Cascio, 2003) on the part of the driver. He doesnt wear the proper shoes and fail to clean the slippery substances which either

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individually or in combination, affect falls resistance. In addition, the driver does not put on the personal protective equipment while he is performing the cleaning duty. 4.3.2 Contributing Factors There is no other party on duty to supervise the driver while he is cleaning the chute. The lack of training on safety was also caused him fail to recognize the risk while working on the vehicle or height workplace. On the other hand, it was raining slightly at the time of accident. 4.4 Recommendation

4.4.1 Immediate Corrective Action

Manager and supervisor should ensure that all fall protection equipment is used and the components of the fall protection equipment are adequate to protect the employee. Special attention should be given to the lighting. Supervisor need to ensure there is adequate lighting for all tasks. Supervisor should ensure that the equipment provided to employee, such as ladder was good condition and secure enough to support employee.

All employees should wear proper footwear for their work. Supervisor need to be on site to supervise the work process or designate other employee to cover his duty during his absent.

4.4.2 Preventive Action Fall accident could be prevented through develop an in-house training program for fall protection. A basic training outline might include: Put a company policy in place that outlines rules for housekeeping, lighting and inspections. Identify the locations, condition and situations in the workplace where falls might be happen.

Information about equipment and training for work at height and rescue, including using safety harness systems should be provided to all new employees. Regular retraining

should also be provided for all employees.

Encourage employee to develop a strong safety sense about possible fall hazards, to take all possible precautions in potential hazards and report any unsafe conditions to their supervisor immediately. Regular frequent inspection of working areas should be conducted to identify environmental and equipment hazards which could cause slips and falls

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4.4.3 Follow-Up Action

Risk assessment should be conducted regularly to identify the environmental and

equipment hazards. Supervisor should continuously monitor the training programme to make sure that the company rules are being followed and complying with the law.

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