Demonstration of the Value of Health, Safety and Environmental Programs in Corporate Settings - Essay Example

75 million working days are lost because of on-job-hazards. $50 billion are given as compensation for injuries and deaths in organizations. $50 billion is spent on indirect costs like replacement, training and so on (Bohlander, 2004). On average $23,000 per serious accident- is the cost incurred by an employer in U.S.A. When a boiler explosion killed 6 workers at Ford's Rouge Power Plant, Ford was fined $1.5 million and directed to spend $6million on safety measures. The staggering number of work-related accidents is alarming. 6,026 U.S workers died recently in workplace incidents at work and 6.

2 million suffered from workplace injuries and many go unreported. In 2004, 5,703 fatalities have been reported of which 1004 were due to contact with equipments,815 because of falls, 459 due to exposure to harmful substances and 159 due to fire and explosions. Organizations should ensure a safe work environment which protects employees from physical hazards, unhealthy situations and violence from other personal. This can be achieved by Safety and Health Programmes which strives to preserve the physical and emotional well-being of the employees.

This is important because employees are the Human Resources of an organization who contribute towards organizational success. The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) was passed in 1970 to assure so far as possible every working woman and man in the Nation safe and healthy working conditions and to preserve human resources.The Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970 created (OSHA) the Occupational Safety and Health Administration within the Department of labour. The importance of such laws can be well documented by the statistical survey of Occupational hazards.

In 2000, 5.7 million injuries were reported in private sector alone. 5,915 fatalities were reported in 2000 alone due to industrial injuries. The Occupational Safety and Health Act laws cover all the employers and their employees except a few federal governments, or states or political sub-divisions of a state. However, even in such cases, each federal agency is required to establish a Safety and Health program monitored by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. One of the key responsibilities of the Occupational Safety and Health administration has been the development of mandatory job safety and health standards, enforce these standards and monitor them.

These standards have been classified into four categories. 1. General Industry 2. Maritime 3. Construction and 4. Agriculture. These standards cover the workplace, machinery, material, power sources, processing, protective measures, first aid and administrative requirements. The 'Federal Register' is the main source of information on proposed, adapted, amended and deleted OSHA standards. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has the power to set standards on its own account or on petition from other parties, namely, The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

Other bodies like state and local governments, nationality recognized standards organization, employer or labour representative can also initiate standard setting. The Secretary of labour is the person authorized by OSHA to conduct inspections of workplaces, to