Occupational Safety and Health Management System (OSHMS) Sistem Pengurusan Keselamatan dan Kesihatan Pekerjaan (OSHMS)

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1 Occupational Safety and Health Management System (OSHMS) Sistem Pengurusan Keselamatan dan Kesihatan Pekerjaan (OSHMS) Andy Kong Shin Shyen 1, Mohd Khairul Hakimin 2, Manisah Saedon 3, Hasfazilah Hassan 1, Khairuddin Mohamad Kontol 1, Dr Noriah Mod Ali 1 1 Kumpulan Fizik Kesihatan, Bahagian Keselamatan dan Kesihatan Sinaran (BKS), 2 Bahagian Kemudahan Iradiasi (BKI), 3 Bahagian Teknologi Perubatan (BTP), Agensi Nuklear Malaysia Abstract Safe work environment has always been one of the major concerns at workplace. For this, Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 has been promulgated for all workplaces to ensure the Safety, Health and Welfare of its employees and any person at workplaces. Malaysian Nuclear Agency therefore has started the initiative to review and improve the current Occupational Safety & Health Management System (OSHMS) by going for OHSAS 18001:2007 and MS 1722 standards certification. This would also help in our preparation to bid as the TSO (Technical Support Organization) for the NPP (Nuclear Power Plant) when it is established. With a developed and well maintained OSHMS, it helps to create a safe working condition and thus enhancing the productivity, quality and good morale. Ultimately, this will lead to a greater organization profit. However, successful OSHMS requires full commitment and support from all level of the organization to work hand in hand in implementing the safety and health policy. Therefore it is essential for all to acknowledge the progress of the implementation and be part of it. Abstrak Persekitaran kerja yang selamat selalu menjadi salah satu perhatian utama di tempat kerja. Untuk ini, Akta Keselamatan dan Kesihatan Pekerjaan 1994 telah ditubuhkan untuk menjamin keselamatan, kesihatan dan kebajikan para pekerja dan setiap orang yang di tempat kerja. Dengan itu, Agensi Nuklear Malaysia telah mula menilai semula Sistem Pengurusan Keselamatan dan Kesihatan yang sedia ada dan menaiktaraf dengan hasrat untuk memperolehi persijilan piawai OHSAS 18001:2007 dan MS Langkah ini akan membantu usaha kami untuk menjadi Badan Sokongan Teknikal kepada Loji Janakuasa Nuklear kelak. Dengan adanya Sistem Pengurusan Keselamatan & Kesihatan yang mantap, ia akan mampu menghasilkan persekitaran pekerjaan yang selamat dan justeru itu meningkatkan produktiviti, kualiti serta memupuk budaya kerja yang baik. Kesemua ini akan meningkatkan keuntungan organisasi. Walau bagaimanapun, ia memerlukan komitmen dan sokongan dari semua pihak dalam organisasi untuk menjayakan polisi keselamatan dan kesihatan ini. Dengan itu, adalah mustahak bagi semua untuk mengetahui dan melibatkan diri dalam proses pelaksanaannya. Keywords/Kata Kunci: Occupational Safety & Health Management System, OHSAS 18001, MS 1722, safe work environment.

INTRODUCTION Occupational safety and health (OSH) is a discipline dealing with the prevention of work related injuries and diseases as well as the protection and promotion of the health of workers.

2 INTRODUCTION Occupational safety and health (OSH) is a discipline dealing with the prevention of work related injuries and diseases as well as the protection and promotion of the health of workers. The aim of occupational health and safety programs is to foster a safe work environment. As a secondary effect, it also ensure the safety, health and welfare of the employees and any person at workplaces. This may involve interactions among many subject areas, including occupational medicine, occupational (or industrial) hygiene, public health, safety engineering, chemistry, health physics. Since 1950, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have shared a common definition of occupational health. The definition reads: "Occupational health should aim at: the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social well being of workers in all occupations; the prevention amongst workers of departures from health caused by their working conditions; the protection of workers in their employment from risks resulting from factors adverse to health; the placing and maintenance of the worker in an occupational environment adapted to his physiological and psychological capabilities; and, to summarize, the adaptation of work to man and of each man to his job". In this context, the anticipation, recognition, evaluation and control of hazards arising in or from the workplace that could impair the safety and health of workers are the fundamental principles of the process governing occupational risk assessment and management. OBJECTIVE The objective of this paper is to discuss the importance of Occupational Safety and Health Management System (OSHMS) and also to highlight the initiative of Malaysian Nuclear Agency to improve its current OSHMS. Every employee of Malaysian Nuclear Agency should be part of this move that could help in our preparation to bid as the TSO (Technical Support Organization) for the NPP (Nuclear Power Plant) when it is established. OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (OSHMS) Management needs to have a system where it can monitor performance and where it can integrate many and changing requirements into its daily management. A system is useful when there are many activities, complex and changing information that needs to be managed together and taken into account at all times. The root of OSHMS is about the management of occupational risks. In OSHMS, the principle of the Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) cycle is applied (Refer figure 1). Figure 1: PDCA Cycle

3 Plan involves the establishment of an OSH policy, the organization of the system, hazard identification and risk assessment, the allocation of resources and provision of skills. The Do step is referring to the actual implementation and operation of the OSH programme. Meanwhile, measuring both the active and reactive performance is required in the Check step. Finally, the Act step closes the cycle with a review of the system in the context of continual improvement and the priming of the system for the next cycle. However, the need to master a galloping industrialization and its demand for energy sources such as nuclear energy has led to the development of much more sophisticated risk assessment and management methods. The balance between benefits and cost of risk taking is influenced by many factors such as rapid scientific and technological progress, a diverse and continuously changing world of work, and economics. REASONS FOR A GOOD OSH MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Safety and health should be well managed due to the following reasons: a) Humanitarian Consideration We should ponder upon the fact that a lot of workers are killed in their workplace due to accidents or suffered major injuries due to occupational illness. The economic costs are considered later but it is clear that this scale of human suffering should not be acceptable in an advanced, civilized society. Therefore, there is a need for us to improve the health and safety standards as part of the humanitarian consideration. b) Financial Costs Many employers do not realize how much an incident could cost them in productivity. Some of these financial costs of incidents are potentially measurable whilst others are hidden. Measurable costs refer to the compensation paid to employees in the form of damages and are sometimes the related legal and administrative costs. Although these payment paid are made by the insurance company, in the long run the insurance premium paid will inevitably reflect the claims history of the employer. So, the employer may be unaware of the size of the premium being paid. While the hidden costs of incidents are either impossible to quantify or their quantification would be totally impracticable. HSE (UK) case studies demonstrate the differences between and insured and uninsured costs to organizations. And the uninsured costs were between 8 and 36 times greater than the costs of insurance premiums paid at the time of the studies. Hence, it is necessary to perform the cost benefit analysis. It helps the organization to realize that it is better to spend money on incident prevention and increase productivity. c) Legal Sanction Occupational safety and health is under the legislation, in terms of general or specific application. In Malaysia, the Occupational Safety and Health Act (hereinafter referred to as OSHA or the Act ) came into force on 25th February The legislation protects and ensures the safety, health and welfare of workers in all economic sectors. Under OSHA Act 1994, Part IV, Section 15; it is the duty and responsibility of every employer and self employed to ensure so far as practicable, the safety, health and welfare at work of all employees. Penalties for offences for the regulation could be charged with a fine of maximum RM50,000 or two years imprisonment. However, often the most damaging effect of legal sanctions can be on the organization s own image of itself. Inevitably, a good OSH Management System is needed to meet the minimum legal requirement.

4 CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT OF OSHMS IN MALAYSIAN NUCLEAR AGENCY Realizing the importance of good OSHMS, the management of Malaysian Nuclear Agency has initiated to organize the workshop of OHSAS 18001:2007, MS 1722 certification exercise (Kursus Latihan Persijilan OHSAS 18001:2007, MS 1722) for 25 days in the duration of 11th October th December A total of 11 facilities and 2 divisions/units were invited to this workshop. The facilities involved are Reactor (BKN), Isotope (BTP), Gamma Greenhouse (BAB), Polymer (BTS), Wastec (BAS), RAS (BAS), SSDL (BKT), Sinagama (BKT), Alurtron (BKT), Raymintex (BKT) and NDT (BTI). Besides that, BKS and IMC are also invited. This workshop is deemed as the first exercise of preparing the 11 facilities to go for certification of OHSAS and MS It is part of the continuous improvement of the current OSHMS, namely Safety, Health and Environmental Management System (SHE MS) that is already in place in Malaysian Nuclear Agency. This is important as our organization needs to be competent in our bids as the Technical Support Organisation (TSO) for the Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in future. With the establishment of a good OSHMS and recognised certification, Malaysian Nuclear Agency could have better chances of getting the deal. Throughout the workshop, the representatives of each facilities/ divisions/units were required to work on the Hazard Identification, Risk Assessment and Recommended Control (HIRARC) and also they were assigned with specific safe work procedures to be established. During the workshop, discussion were being held to come out with the draft of the necessary procedures, forms and attachments. As per 28th Jan 2011, the total number of procedures/ attachments that we had identified and need to be completed/ reviewed is 175. Below is the breakdown of the quantity of documents according to their levels: Level Type of Document Quantity of Document One (L1) Manual 1 Two (L2) Safe Work Procedure 53 Three (L3) Safe Work Instruction 68 Four (L4) Form/ Attachments 53 Table 1: Breakdown of Document Preparation Status During the short period of 25 days workshop, the representatives managed to prepare 59 documents with above 50% completion and 116 documents which are below 50% completion. The status interpretes that the workshop is showing progress in a way. However, we still need to strengthen the communication and commitment wise of the representatives. Meanwhile, the Fukushima incident has also diverted our attention as some of the representatives are required to give priority to that incident. And now, the organising committee should look for new strategies in order to revive the workshop and further propose the next step towards the certification of OHSAS and MS This is not an easy task and it may take years to complete, but it is worthwhile once the OSHMS is well established and maintained. At the end of the day, this is what continual improvement is all about.

5 CONCLUSION Understanding of OSH Management System and its importance could encourage us to abide the application of OSHMS and the legislation (OHSA). It is evident that organizations with effective OSHMS earn positive returns and benefits on their health and safety investment. The initiative by Malaysian Nuclear Agency to improve its current OSHMS should be supported by the employees. We look forward to the new strategies to realise the planned roadmaps towards a better OSHMS. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The author would like to acknowledge and show his gratitudes towards the fellow colleagues who were involved whether direct or indirectly for their commitment on the continual improvement of OSHMS in Malaysian Nuclear Agency. REFERENCES Wikipedia, the free web based encyclopedia. Bateman, King, and Lewis (1994). The Handbook of Health And Safety At Work. London: Kogan Page Limited OSH Management System: A Tool For Continual Improvement (2011). International Labour Organization 2011, ACT 514 Occupational Safety And Health Act 1994, Laws of Malaysia, Reprint 2002.

IMPROVING THE PROCESS OF CAPTURING CLIENTS NEEDS FAIZAH BINTI IBRAHIM

i IMPROVING THE PROCESS OF CAPTURING CLIENTS NEEDS FAIZAH BINTI IBRAHIM A capstone project report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Project management