Regulation for a Changing World of Work - Case Study Example

WНS оf Tertiary Eduсаtiоn Name: Course: Professor: University: Date WНS оf Tertiary Eduсаtiоn Introduction According to the Australian Occupational Health and Safety Act, every learning institution is obliged to ensure that its employees and all the people interacting with the various elements of its vicinity are protected from any potential. It is, thus, the duty of the management to ensure that there are constant risk management policies and procedure that enable the function of a safety management system. The campus has to follow the stipulations of the Occupational Health and Safety enactments to ensure that potential risks in the institution are managed. The risk management is vital aspect as it averts the imminent injury to the staff, students and other persons in the institution (Mclain, 1995, p.1730). The pedestrian crossing at the Bypass road has been identified as a risky zone as many near miss accidents scenarios have been witnessed. It poses a safety concern for the lecturers and student going to and from the lecture halls to the administration blocks. The purpose of this paper is to establish viable risk control recommendations to the management that can enable them eliminate the current risks that the staff, students and the general public are exposed to. The assurance of the workers, students and the general public’s safety on the campus premises is paramount in boosting the staff morale. It shows that the management appreciates and values them. The risk management policies and procedures enable the work health and safety managers, Occupational Health and Safety auditors, and other stakeholders to ensure that every work environment is safe for the employees and the general public. Background The Organization Context Normally, all the institution’s staffs are highly exposed to the risk of carnage along the road from unintended accidents or hit-and-run scenarios due to drivers’ recklessness. The campus’ staffs are, however, at the highest risk of being hit by the vehicles at the pedestrian crossing due to their frequency of using it. About 10 to 20 staff members have been observed to use the crossing per hour from Monday to Saturday. Generally, about sixty to a hundred individuals use the pedestrians’’ crossing on working days. It has been estimated that about 60 to150 vehicles pass by the pedestrian crossing per hour. The high traffic flow indicates that a high likelihood of accident occurs along the spot. As accidents are not selective of individuals, anyone crossing the road at that point in the institution risks being hit by the vehicle, thus, the institution’s managements should be able to eliminate the occurrence of risks to avert costly accidents that may even lead to fatalities. Risk assessment The pedestrian crossing between the offices complex and the lecture theatres along the bypass road has been identified as an imminent accident site due to its nature. The pedestrian crossing poses a high likelihood of accidents occurring, as it is the only way to access the lecture theatres. The recklessness of some drivers, who are oblivious of the road signs, endangers the pedestrians. Strategic road signs indicating the maximum speed limit on the road stretch to be 40 kilometres per hour and others indicating pedestrian crossing at the particular spot have been ineffective. The menace is amplified by the commercial vehicles whose drivers tend to over speed. Another aggravating factor is the recklessness of the private vehicles drivers who might be under the influence of alcohol, especially at night. The near miss scenarios are mostly due to these motorists. All lecturers who tutor evening classes have at one time had a near-miss event, whereby the drivers do not observe the traffic rules concerning a pedestrian crossing. During rainy season or other times of poor road visibility, drivers are unable to observe darkly clothed pedestrians crossing the road, thus, risking them to being hit by the vehicles. Other than the orthodox controls, such as the speed bumps before the pedestrian crossing and road signs compelling drivers to lower their speed, no other controls exist that may protect the individuals using the road-crossing point other than trust that drivers will adhere to the traffic rules when they reach the black spot. However, these controls have proven to be inadequate because some drivers are reckless while driving and fails to realize that there are people crossing the road. The risk may be aggravated by the involuntary elements such as poor road visibility due to the poor weather such as rainfall or fog. The failure of these controls, therefore, necessitates implementation of stringent measures that can eliminate the risk or reduce it to insignificant levels. This will ensure that the working health and safety of the institutions staff and other persons using the pedestrian crossing is guaranteed (Hale et al, 1997, p.126). Risk control It is crucial to develop a risk management system that will ensure that the risk of a pedestrian being hit by a speeding vehicle is averted. Using the recommended framework of the Occupation Health and Safety enactments, the management can eliminate the likelihood of risks occurring, or keep them at minimal levels. The adopted framework is applicable to the situation of the tertiary institution. The strategies adopted can adequately solve the work Health and Safety concern under study (Dembo et al, 2001, p.93). a) Elimination of risk This option requires that the risk to cross the unsafe pedestrian crossing be removed by provision of alternative routes to enable the access of the lecture theatres from administration complex. If people were prohibited from using the pedestrian crossing, then the risk would be averted. However, this option is the most expensive and may require a significant resource input by the management to implement. Though adoption of this option has cost implications, it is beneficial in the long-run (Smith, 1976, p.21). Risk elimination is the total avoidance of the hazard or the control of the hazard in such a way that the risks of injuries or accident are reduced to reasonable levels in the work environment (Goetsch, 1996, p151). It is the commended initial option to risk control. Therefore, the campus management may consider relocation to another part of the city that doesn’t have public roads having to pass through the institution premises. The hazard of dangerous traffic would, thus, be eliminated. This option would also be multi-productive as it would remove the noise nuisance caused by speeding traffic on the campus premises. Though this option is quite significant for impromptu changes, it is advantageous in the long run. External OHS auditors, in their annual audits, continue to insist that the layout of the institutions be re-examined to remove the risk and ensure comfort of both the staff and student. Alternatively, the institution may petition the local authorities responsible to create a bypass that ensures that the road does not pass near the campus premises. The local authorities may overlook this option due to their political affiliations, thereby forcing the management to look for other options available. b) Substitution This option entails the use of a less hazardous chemical or substance, instead of another one. In the case study, the substitute to a pedestrian crossing is not envisaged. However, the management should consider abandoning the lecture facilities on the other side of the road and procure some space on the same side as the administration block. The abandoned lecture halls can be rented out; therefore, the process of acquiring new space for lecture theatres would be less costly. This option would ensure that lecturers do not hurriedly walk across a busy road in order to catch up with time. c) Engineering Controls Redesign This option involves altering the nature of the hazardous aspect of the workplace to eliminate its hazardous nature or to make hazardous activity less risky. However, the modification may pose other hazards; thus, it is wise to assess critically the redesign option to ensure that it doesn’t bring forth other intricate hazards to the work environment (Viscusi, 1981, p.124). Options for redesigning the pedestrian crossing would involve building a flyover or subway where the staff and the students can pass through, thus, avoiding the interaction with vehicle traffic. However, this option may bring about increased noise incidences due to the leeway for vehicles to speed along the road stretch as there would be less human traffic on the pedestrian crossing. Isolation This is the development of structures that limit the workers contact with the hazard by inhibiting them to access the hazardous element. In the case study, the pedestrian crossing can be fenced-off using an appropriate method after establishing alternative routes to access the institution’s building. d) Administrative controls The administration adopts policies and procedure that influence the code of conduct while undertaking activities that expose the workers to the risk. The administration may need to adopt strategies that would ensure that the risks are minimized significantly (Bluff and Neil, 2004. p.17) Therefore, the administration in this case may need to warn pedestrians to exercise caution while crossing it. The administration may also request the allocation of full-time police surveillance on the crossing spot to control vehicular and pedestrian movement. e) Personal Protective Equipment(PPE) PPE entail the protective gear that can be worn to prevent exposure to the hazards. They ensure that inherent exposure to a hazard does not result to an injury as it gives the worker time mitigation risks. In this case, the protective gear in the institution is not provided. The pedestrians should ensure visibility on the road by wearing bright or reflective clothing tape that enables motorists enhance their visibility in dangerous or dark conditions. Such action would ensure protection of the pedestrians from being hit by the motorists at times when roads have low visibility. Conclusion The management should ensure prompt implementation of the chosen controls. The responsible members should be committed and conversant with the intricate details of the chosen controls to ensure their effectiveness. There should be a constant review of the adopted controls to ensure that they remains effective in ensuring the workers’ health safety. Constant research on the most effective controls and periodic adjustments to the risk management controls should be carried out to enhance safety of the students, lecturers and other stakeholders (Goetsch, 1996, p. 384). Reference List Bluff, E &Neil, G 2004, "Principle, process, performance or what? New approaches to OHS standards setting." OHS Regulation for a Changing World of Work, Federation Press, Sydney (2004): pp.12-42. Dembo, Ron, et al. 2001, "Risk management system, distributed framework and method." U.S. Patent Application 09/811,684, filed March 20, 2001. Goetsch, D 1996, Occupational safety and health in the age of high technology, Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Hale A.R, Heming B.H.J, Carthey J, and Barry K.1997, "Modelling of safety management systems." Safety Science 26, no. 1. pp.121-140. Mclain D. L. 1995, "Responses to health and safety risk in the work environment." Academy of Management Journal 38, no. 6 (1995): pp.1726-1743. Smith R.S. 1976, The occupational safety and health Act: Its goals and its achievements. Vol. 25. American Enterprise Institute Press. Viscusi, W. K. 1981, "Occupational safety and health regulation: Its impact and policy alternatives." Research in public policy analysis and management 2. pp.281-299. Read More