Importance of occupational health and safety and barriers to its implementation
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Date
2016
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Publisher
UMT, Lahore
Abstract
Injuries in the workplaces are a matter of concern for all organizations on ethical, economic, professional and legal grounds (Mark A. Friend, 2007). Occupational Health and Safety (OHS), also referred to as Occupational Safety and Health (OSH), is the field concerned with safety, health and welfare of people employed at any workplace. The main objectives of OHS include building, nurturing and sustaining a safe and healthy environment at workplaces. At some places around the globe, the scope of OHS is extended to included co-workers, family members, customers, and many other stakeholders who might get affected by the work environment.
Workplace conditions are typically regulated by bodies designated by the legislature in place. Either common law practices alone or the statutory regulations drawn upon common law practices lay out the guidelines in this regard (Foster, 2012). Organizations in Pakistan are also bound by law to ensure a safe working environment for the people engaged at various workplaces. This study has been undertaken to observe the level of implementation of OHS in automotive parts manufacturers sector in Pakistan and to identify the barriers that companies face in their efforts to implement OHS in their workplaces so that improvement measures to be taken in the wake of the said barriers could be proposed.