HRM554 Health and Safety Practices Plan WK6

Health and Safety

HRM554 Health and Safety Practices PlanWk6

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Health and Safety Practices PlanWk6

In order to ensure Honda is compliant with the safety regulations of OSHA it is important to develop internal and external groups responsible for ensuring these regulations are followed. Internally there will be a safety team in charge of ensuring the workplace safety policy of Honda is followed. Secondly to ensure the organization is compliant an external safety auditor will be hired to assess current safety measures in order to determine their effectiveness as well as to identify any gaps in safety that could result in an incident or other safety accident. The internal group and the external auditor will ensure the workers at Honda are as safe as possible in the automobile manufacturing environment.

When a business does not take the steps needed to ensure workers are safe they have failed to meet their legal obligation and ethical obligation to their workers. The company’s ethical obligation is to ensure no harm comes to the worker when performing their duties. In the United States businesses must be responsive to OSHA regulation or they will face potential consequences in the form of fines and in the worst case having the business shut down until the safety protocols are met. OSHA requires a company to meet specific safety requirements that involve the industry and its dangers.

The automobile manufacturing industry is fraught with dangers that must meet these safety requirements. The internal team will be responsible for ensuring these measures are in place. This includes being responsive to required safety regulations. The safety team at Honda is required to establish all of the safety measure outlined by OSHA and recognized in the industry. And the external auditor will be tasked with assessing these measures to determine their compliance and their effectiveness. This includes clearly marking machines and other areas of danger to requiring workers to be trained on these dangerous and the methods that will be applied in the event one of these safety issues surface.

The internal group is important to implementing the proper safety measures and then the external auditor assesses the effectiveness of the measure and suggests alternative approaches. The benefits of the internal safety group are the safety team develops safety standards and puts necessary working procedures into place. The benefits of the external auditor are they will provide unbiased and expert recommendations and the auditor will have the necessary experience to conduct health and safety audits within various industries (Burgon, 2013). While the internal and external groups are necessary they come with challenges. The internal safety group could be costly and overtime could become ineffective. The external auditor would identify any failures of the internal group but could also be a costly expense for the organization.

OSHA supports the efforts of the business to create a safe workplace. OSHA's mission is to assure safe and healthful workplaces by setting and enforcing standards, and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance (2014). When a company fails to comply with OSHA safety regulations, they face an investigation from OSHA. When a report is made OSHA conducts an investigation to determine if there is a violation. The types of violation OSHA looks for include willful, serious, repeated, failure to abate, and De minimis violations. The internal safety group is responsible for making sure none of these violations are in the workplace.

When the safety team does not ensure the necessary safety measures are in place and a violation is located the company will be forced to prominently display the violation until it is addressed but in serious violations they will be forced to pay fines. Repeated fines could result in a payment of $70,000 for each violation. Not only does the company have to be responsive to the regulations established by the government by establishing a safe work environment they also must establish illness and injury prevention polices and program that will guide the behavior of employees.

Injury and illness prevention is an essential part of any safety initiative. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that approximately 3.3 million serious work-related injuries and about 4,300 fatalities occurred in 2009 (OSHA, 2014). The end result of these injuries and illnesses is a cost of well over 50 billion dollars in workers compensation fees paid out by the business. If the company has an injury and illness prevention programs the likelihood of the business having to payout this high cost will be cut well in half. The negative consequences related to organizational risk and regulatory risk from not adopting a company plan include the high cost of workers’ compensation because there are a higher number of costly accidents and the costs associated from a high number of employee sick days being used and a high employee turnover. When employees are sick they do not come to work lowering production. If the employee is in a serious accident they will be out of work for a long time as will the ill employee.

Injury and illness prevention programs are established on a voluntary basis but provide the organization with many different benefits. If order for an injury and illness prevention programs to be successful they must be properly managed, workers must participate, all hazards and dangers must be identified, hazards and control prevention measures must be put into place, workers must be educated and trained, and improvement process must be in place to measure effectiveness of program. The internal group is responsible for ensuring these measures are put into place while the external auditor will measure its success at preventing injury and illness.

When a business is not compliant with safety measures their needs to be a way to report this noncompliance. Whistle-blowing for noncompliance should never be punished in the work environment but instead a measure needs to be put in place to allow the employee to report the violations without being exposed. When employees do not fear repercussions from whistle blowing there will be greater likelihood safety violations will be reported. If an employee fears the company, management, or other employees will find out and there will be repercussions. It is important to make it clear reporting these violations are essential.

When an accident occurs and it is serious or extreme there will need to be an immediate emergency response. The emergency response plan will provide the guidance needed to respond to the incident. For example if a accident occurs due to a machine then the emergency response plan will guide what should be done, such as the machine must be turned off, medical personnel contacted, and the safety team notified. The emergency response plan begins with conducting a risk assessment and then putting the proper methods in place to address the identified risks. This includes the response in the event the risk occurs.

Every organization has a social responsibility to reduce any harm their business causes to the environment. Instead the organization has an ethical obligation to ensure the manufacturing process does not cause an unnecessary to the environment, customer, or the employee. Honda takes social responsibility by creating cars that emit less carbon and by ensuring employees work in a healthy and safe work environment. Honda supports many different charities from the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation's Ride for Kid to Honda’s Battle of the Bands (AHMC, 2014). By making positive contributions to the community Honda has built a strong brand and a proper response to community needs.

References

American Honda Motor Co. (2014). Corporate Social Responsibility. Retrieved September 11,

2014 from http://corporate.honda.com/careers/details.aspx?id=social-responsiblity

Burgon, R. (2013). Who’s handling your safety audits? Internal vs. external. Retrieved

September 11, 2014 from http://rospaworkplacesafety.com/2013/03/04/what-is-a-safety-audit/

Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (2014). Employer Rights and Responsibilities

Following an OSHA Inspection. Retrieved September 11, 2014 from

https://www.osha.gov/Publications/osha3000.html#2