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17

Promoting
Safety and Health

McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Human Resource Management, 10/e © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
17-3
Introduction
Historically:
Factories contained dangerous machinery and poor
lighting
Every miner was subject to floods, cave-ins, poison
gas, and black lung disease
Fire claimed hundreds of workers

The modern workplace is just as hazardous, with:

High levels of stress
Repetitive motion disorders
Fire hazards
17-4
Background
Safety hazards can cause immediate, violent harm
or even death
Poorly maintained equipment
Unsafe machinery
Exposure to hazardous chemicals

Potential injuries:
Loss of hearing
Loss of eyesight or body parts
Cuts, sprains, burns, bruises, broken bones
Electric shock
17-5
Background
Health hazards slowly and cumulatively lead to
deterioration of health
Physical and biological hazards
Toxic and carcinogenic dusts and chemicals
Stressful working conditions

Thesecan cause:
Cancer
Heavy-metal or other poisoning
Respiratory disease
Psychological disorders, such as depression
17-6
Background
Safety and health hazards can harm non-employees
Poisonous gas leaked from a Union Carbide plant
in Bhopal, India, killing 3,000 people and injuring
300,000
Thousands have contracted
respiratory diseases after
contact with asbestos
17-7
Background
Jobhazards span all levels of the economy
Only after passage of the OSHA Act in 1970 did
recording and reporting of safety and health statistics
become mandatory
In 2003, there were 4.4 million nonfatal injuries and
illnesses in the private sector
Approximately 1.3 million involved lost work time
Injury rates were higher for medium-size firms
(50 to 249 workers)
17-8
Background
About 28% of the injuries occurred in:
Eating and drinking places
Hospitals
Nursing and personal care facilities
Trucking and courier services
Grocery stores
Department stores
Motor vehicles and equipment
Hotels and motels
Air transportation
17-9
Background
More than 3/5ths of cases occurred in the
manufacturing sector
Over 60% of these cases involved repeated trauma
injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome
The number of occupational injury and illness cases
is decreasing due to:
Enhanced job safety training
Greater compliance with safety and health standards
by both employers and employees
17-10
Background

About 15 American workers are killed each day, but

it is impossible to fully assess the scope of the events
To narrow the data gap, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics designed a Census of Fatal Occupational
Injuries
This generates verified counts of fatal work injuries,
17-11
Background
To control reporting discrepancies, multiple sources
are used to compile the information:
Death certificates
State workers’ compensation and coroners’ reports
OSHA
News media
Toxicology and autopsy reports
Follow-up questionnaires
State motor vehicle reports
Other federal reports
17-12
Background
5,534 people died of work-related injuries in 2002
A small decline, due to decreased highway incidents

Highway fatalities are the leading cause of

on-the-job deaths, followed by:
Falling
Homicide

Most victims of workplace homicides are:

Store personnel
Minorities are more
Gas station attendants likely to be
employed in high-
Taxicab drivers risk occupations
17-13
Background
Employees facing serious health and safety dangers
include:
 Police and firefighters
Miners
Construction and transportation workers
Meatpackers
Sheet metal workers
Manufacturers of recreational vehicles
Lumber workers and woodworkers
Others employed in manufacturing and agriculture
17-14
Background
These events involve pain, suffering, death, and
monetary costs
Workers’ compensation is a direct cost
Lost productivity is an indirect cost

Other indirect costs:

Damage to plant and equipment
Replacement employees
Time costs for employees who must investigate and
report on the accident or illness
An effective enterprise works hard to maintain safe
and healthy work conditions
17-15
Background

Until recently, the trend was to compensate workers

through:
Workers’ compensation
Similar insurance payments
17-16
Causes of Accidents and Illnesses
Major causes of occupational accidents:
Tasks
Working conditions
Nature of the employees

Causes related to the task and working conditions:

Poorly designed or repaired machines
Lack of protective equipment
Dangerous chemicals or gases
17-17
Causes of Accidents and Illnesses
Other conditions that contribute to accidents:
Fatigue
Noise
Lack of proper lighting
Boredom
Horseplay and fighting

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and

Health investigates causes of accidents and hazards
17-18
Causes of Accidents and Illnesses
Employees who have more accidents than the
average (accident repeaters)
Under 30 years of age
Poor psychomotor and perceptual skills
Impulsive
Easily bored

Few experts believe that attitudinal causes of

accidents significantly influence accident rates
We must know more about accident-proneness before
attempting to screen out accident-prone persons
17-19
Who is Involved with Safety and Health
The success of a safety and health program requires
the support and cooperation of managers
Top management must provide an adequate budget
Managers must talk about safety/health with
everyone
Top management must act on safety reports

The responsibility for employees’ health and safety

often lies with the CEO
This is the approach taken by smaller organizations
In larger and medium-sized organizations, there is
usually a safety unit in the HR department
17-20
Who is Involved with Safety and Health
Operating managers also have responsibilities:
Accidents and injuries take place, and health hazards
exist, in the work unit
They must be aware of health/safety considerations
and work with specialists who can reduce the number
of accidents and illnesses
Program success depends on how well employees
and managers comply with safety rules/regulations
Often, a safety committee exists
17-21
Who is Involved with Safety and Health
There are two levels of safety committees:
Policy level: made up of major division heads
Sets policy and rules, investigates major hazards,
is responsible for the budget
Departmental level: both supervisors and employees
are members
Safety committees are concerned with the entire
safety program:
Inspection, design, record keeping, training, and
motivation
17-22
Who is Involved with Safety and Health

The more people involved with the committees, the

more likely the program is to be successful
Government inspectors also play a role in keeping the
organization on its toes
17-23
Who is Involved with Safety and Health
Environmental factors also affect the health and
safety of employees:
The nature of the task
Employees’ attitudes toward health and safety
The economic condition of the organization
Unions
Management’s goals
The government
17-24
Government Responses
Before 1970, many felt that not enough was being
done to ensure safe and healthy working conditions
The federal Walsh-Healy Act was weak and
inadequately enforced
State programs were incomplete, diverse, and lacking
in authority
In 1936 alone, 35,000 workplace deaths were
reported
17-25
Government Responses
Lobbying by unions and employees led to the
passage of laws related to specific occupations:
The Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969
The Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1969

In the year that OSHA became law:

Over 14,000 workers died
2.2 million suffered disabilities
300,000 to 500,000 suffered from occupationally
induced illnesses
17-26
Government Responses
OSHA also created the National Institute of
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
Its task is to conduct research and to develop
workplace safety and health standards
OSHA provisions apply to over 4 million businesses
and 57 million employees in almost every
organization engaged in interstate commerce
OSHA is enforced by federal inspectors in
partnership with state agencies
17-27
Government Responses
State agencies are encouraged to:
Assume responsibility for developing and
administering occupational health and safety laws
Carry out their own statistical programs

Before being granted full authority for its programs,

a state must:
Have the preliminary approval of OSHA
Promise to take “developmental steps,” such as
adjusting legislation and hiring inspectors
Enter a trial period at full enforcement levels for at
least a year
17-28
Government Responses
If OSHA and the employer fail to provide safe
working conditions, employees can seek an
injunction:
This can be done as an individual or through a union
The injunction forces the employer to submit to an
inspection or to correct violations
The employer cannot discriminate against an
employee who takes this action
17-29
Government Responses
OSHA requirements that most directly affect
employers:
Meeting safety standards set by OSHA
Submitting to OSHA inspections
Keeping records
Reporting accidents and illnesses
17-30
OSHA Safety Standards
OSHA has established safety standards that can
affect any aspect of the workplace
The standards may be industry-wide or apply only to
a specific enterprise
The assistant secretary of labor:
Revises, modifies, or revokes existing standards
Creates new ones on his/her own initiative or on the
basis of petitions from interested parties
17-31
OSHA Safety Standards
NIOSH in the Dept. of Health and Human Services
(HHS) is responsible for:
Doing research from which standards are developed
Training those involved in their implementation

Federal or national standards have also become

OSHA standards
Employers may receive temporary variances by
showing an inability to comply in the time allowed
However, they must have a plan to protect employees
against the hazard
17-32
OSHA Safety Standards
The employer is responsible for knowing what the
standards are and abiding by them; this is not easy
The initial standards were published in The Federal
Register
Interpretations are issued yearly, by volume
The responsible manager is subject to thousands of
pages of such standards
If they are not met, the manager can be fined or
jailed
17-33
OSHA Inspections
OSHA inspectors visit businesses on their own
schedules, or by invitation
Employees who request inspections can be anonymous

Penalties can reach up to $70,000 per violation

If the violation is not corrected in the time granted,
a penalty of $7,000 per day is issued
A willful first violation involving a death can result
in a penalty of $70,000 and six months in jail
A second conviction involving a death can mean a
$140,000 fine and one year in jail
17-34
OSHA Inspections
Violations are categorized as:
Imminent danger (the business can be closed)
Serious (major fines)
Non-serious (fines of up to $1,000)
Minimum (notification, but no fine)

The employer has the right to appeal fines or

citations within OSHA or in the courts
17-35
OSHA Inspections
OSHA inspections are not limited to the traditional
workplace
In 2001, nearly 20 million people in the U.S.
performed part of their primary job at home
Should OSHA treat home offices like other work
sites?
Most are opposed to such intrusions into private lives
Contrary to the perception that homes are safer than
work environments, data indicate an increase in home
office injuries
17-36
OSHA Inspections
The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE)
reports that injuries in homes are often due to:
Falls
Improper wiring
Poor air quality
Eyestrain
Fire
17-37
OSHA Record Keeping and Reporting
OSHA requires that employers:
Keep standardized records of
illnesses and injuries
Calculate accident ratios

Accidents and illnesses that must be reported:

Those that result in death
Disabilities that cause the employee to miss work
Injuries that require treatment by a physician
17-38
OSHA Record Keeping and Reporting
To avoid reporting incidents, employers go to great
lengths to categorize them as “minor injuries”
They try performing first aid and keep the employee
on the job
Reporting can lead to an OSHA inspection or raise
the company’s workers’ compensation insurance rates
Firms must post OSHA Form 102, a summary
injuries and illnesses, in a prominent place at work
17-39
OSHA Record Keeping and Reporting
When Ronald Reagan was president, OSHA’s
budget was cut by 25% and enforcement was nearly
nonexistent
Under Presidents George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton,
the agency put health and safety on the front burner
After decreasing OSHA’s budget by $5.9 million in
2003, President George Bush proposed a budget of
$468 million for the agency in 2005
17-40
OSHA: A Report Card
OSHA gives employees the right to:
Request an OSHA inspection
Be present during the inspection
Protection from reprisal for reporting the
company to OSHA
Access his or her company medical records
Refuse to work if there is a real danger of death
or serious injury or illness from job hazards
17-41
OSHA: A Report Card
To keep an organization in OSHA compliance, the
HR specialist should:
Know the standards that apply to the organization
Make sure that they are being met
Keep OSHA records up to date
File the reports on time

As citizens, all managers should see to it that OSHA

is effective at the organization
They can also write their congressional
representatives to improve it
17-42
Organizational Responses to Issues
Approaches to improving the safety of working
conditions:
Prevention and design
Inspection and research
Training and motivation
17-43
Safety Design/Preventative Approaches
Design more safety into the workplace though safety
engineering
Make jobs more comfortable, less confusing, and
less fatiguing
Slow down the speed of an assembly line
Add protective guards to machinery
Use color coding in dangerous areas
17-44
Inspection, Reporting, Accident Research
Inspecting the workplace can reduce accidents and
illnesses:
Are safety rules being observed?
How many near misses have occurred?
Are safety guards, protective equipment, and so on
being used?
Are there potential hazards in the workplace that
safety redesign can improve?
Are there potential health hazards?
17-45
Inspection, Reporting, Accident Research
At regular intervals during the work year, safety and
personnel specialists carry out accident research
Data for this research should be gathered from both
internal and external sources
Safety and health journals
Reports from NIOSH
Workplace accident reports
Inspection reports by the government and the
organization’s safety specialists
Recommendations of the safety committees
17-46
OSHA: A Report Card
Accident research often involves computation of
organizational accident rates
Although effective accident research should be very
complex, it is often unsophisticated and unscientific
17-47
OSHA Record Keeping and Reporting
A tougher OSHA:
Wrote a proposal that would require workers to wear
seat belts if they drive as part of their jobs
Set guidelines to prevent repetitive-motion disorders
Enacted a new rule to protect health care workers
from exposure to HIV and hepatitis B
Used large fines to punish companies for breaking
OSHA guidelines
17-48
Safety Training and Motivation Programs
Safety training is often part of orientation
It also occurs throughout the employee’s career
Some training is voluntary; some is required by
government agencies
Studies of the effectiveness are mixed
Some methods are more effective than others
Others contend that success is due to the perception
that management really believes in safety training
Some studies find that the programs make employees
more aware of safety, but not safer in their behavior
17-49
Preventive Health Programs
One way of defining health is to say that it is the
absence of disease
Employees can be put at risk because of:
Physical and biological hazards
Toxic and cancer-causing dusts and chemicals
Stressful work conditions

A more informative definition of health is “a state of

physical, mental, and social well-being”
An employee’s health can be harmed through disease,
accident, or stress
17-50
Preventive Health Programs
Factors contributing to the sharp rise in the cost of
health benefits:
An aging workforce
Competition among health insurance carriers that
raises instead of lowers the cost of care
Cost shifting from the government to the private
sector
Inefficiency of health care providers
Increasing malpractice litigation
Failure of employers to respond to these changing
patterns
17-51
Preventive Health Programs
The preventive or wellness approach encourages
employees to make lifestyle changes now through:
Better nutrition
Regular exercise programs
Abstinence from smoking and alcohol
Stress counseling
Annual physical exams
17-52
Preventive Health Programs
Adolph Coors Company has saved approximately
$1.99 million annually for the past 10 years from:
Decreasing medical claims
Decreased absenteeism
Increased productivity

The first step in the program was opening a

25,000-square-foot gym
Each dollar spent on wellness gave a $6.15 payback
Comparably sized organizations saw health care costs
rise 18%: costs at Coors rose only 5%
17-53
Preventive Health Programs
Various programs were instituted:
Stress management
Weight loss
Smoking cessation
Nutrition counseling
Risk assessment
Orthopedic rehabilitation
Free mammography and blood pressure screenings
Employee and family counseling
Pre- and post-natal education
17-54
Preventive Health Programs
The Coors wellness program is based on a six-step
model of behavioral change:
Awareness
Education
Incentives
Programs
Self-action
Follow-up and support
17-55
Preventive Health Programs
Elements of a successful wellness program:
Support and direction by the CEO
Wellness as a stated priority in the company’s policy
statement
Inclusion of family members as well as the employee
Accessibility of the program to the whole family
Employee input into programs offered, times, etc.
Needs assessment before each phase of the program
is instituted
17-56
Preventive Health Programs
Elements of a successful wellness program:
Periodic in-house evaluation to be sure objectives are
being met
Ongoing communication of the program’s goals and
components
HRM monitoring of related issues, such as AIDS,
cancer, and so on
Community involvement
Staffing with qualified health care specialists
Establishment of a separate budget
17-57
Preventive Health Programs
Many other companies have reported exceptional
paybacks from adopting the wellness approach
Prudential Insurance Company reduced disability
days by 20% and saved $1.93 for every dollar
invested in its in-house exercise programs
Canadian Life Assurance Company experienced a
22% drop in absenteeism
Johnson & Johnson found that hospital costs per
person were 34% lower for participants
17-58
Preventive Health Programs
Mid- and small-sized employers can offer scaled-
down wellness programs and reap the same benefits
It is important that the 12 steps detailed by Coors
be followed, regardless of the company’s size
The wellness or preventive approach is not foolproof
This is especially true if the program is adopted
without fully understanding the necessity of:
Commitment by management
Manager-employee communication
17-59
Preventive Health Programs
80% of corporations continue to offer a wellness
program without any proof that the program is
saving money or increasing productivity
Promised reductions in health care premiums may not
be delivered and are minimal
Employees who need help most may not participate
Short-term benefits are minimal

Financial incentives for employees to meet certain criteria may

conflict with the Americans with Disabilities Act
17-60
Safety and Health Issues

There may be as many safety/health hazards in the

modern workplace as there were during the rise of
the factory system
Some hazards are actually the same
Others are the result of changing technology,
demographics, and lifestyle factors
17-61
Stress Management
Stress isn’t always bad
Good stress (eustress) helps one complete a report on
time or generate a problem-solving procedure
Stress can also be a major negative aspect of the
workplace
Stress costs U.S. employers between $200 billion and
$300 billion a year in:
Increased workers’ compensation claims
Lost productivity and turnover
Higher health care costs
17-62
Stress Management
The concept of stress is hard to pin down in specific
terms
In this textbook, stress is defined as a person’s
physical, chemical, and mental reactions to stressors
or stimuli in the environment
Stress occurs whenever environmental forces
(stimuli) throw bodily and mental functions out of
equilibrium
17-63
Stress and Disease
Job-related stress with been associated with:
Coronary heart disease
Hypertension
Peptic ulcers
Colitis
Psychological problems, including anxiety and
depression
17-64
Stress and Disease
Stress directly affects the:
Endocrine system
Cardiovascular system
Muscular system
Emotions

It has a general arousal influence

on the entire body
17-65
Person-Environment Fit
Changes in the work and personal environment are
unavoidable
Too often, managers under-estimate how changes can
throw a person off kilter
A person who is not comfortable with the work
environment is in a state of dis-equilibrium
17-66
Person-Environment Fit
Lack of fit between the person and the environment
can have results on several levels:
Subjective (feeling fatigued)
Behavioral (accident-proneness)
Cognitive (a mental block)
Physiological (elevated blood pressure)
Organizational (higher absence rate)
17-67
Person-Environment Fit
High levels of stress or lack of fit can be costly:
Premature deaths of employees
Higher accident rates
Performance inefficiencies
Increased turnover
Increased disability payments
17-68
Stressors
Workload
Over-load can cause a person to work long hours,
which can result in more fatigue and more accidents
Boredom can set in if a person is under-loaded

A bored worker often avoids work by staying home

more frequently
Staying at home results in moping, which results in a
lack of exercise adequate to maintain a healthy body
17-69
Stressors
Role conflict
A combination of the demands an employee places
upon him/herself and those of co-workers results in
role pressures
Role conflict exists when compliance with one set of
pressures makes compliance with another set difficult,
objectionable, or impossible
Conflict is linked to job dissatisfaction, anxiety,
heart disease, elevated blood pressure, and
excessive eating
17-70
Stressors
Coping with stress
Eliminate the stressor
Deal with stress individually

Programs for coping with stress at the individual

level include:
Meditation
Biofeedback
Exercise
Diet
17-71
Stressors
Organizational programs include stress reduction
workshops and seminars
Experts also recommend structural, job, and policy
changes
The HR department can provide specialists, facilities,
monitoring, evaluation, and other training resources
Stress management programs are also being used in
Japan, where work-related stress is contributing to:
Alcoholism
Mental breakdowns
Suicide
17-72
Stressors
In Japan, work-related stress is called “karoushi”
(death from overwork, or “stress death”)
The cumulative effect of working in a situation where
one feels trapped and powerless to effect any change
During the past 20 years, stress management
programs have met with variable success
Stress management programs must include:
Knowledgeable presenters
Programs that are relevant and specific to each
individual and work environment
17-73
Violence in the Workplace
Over 1.7 million violent crimes occur in American
workplaces each year
A single case of workplace violence can cost more
than $250,000 in lost work time and legal expenses
25% of all workers claim that they have been
harassed, threatened, or attacked on their jobs
Of those, 15% have been physically attacked
Attacks are most often perpetrated by customers or
clients (44%), but the ones most heard about are by
disgruntled employees
17-74
Violence in the Workplace
Included in the statistics:
Homicides
Physical attacks
Rapes
Aggravated and other assaults
Threats and intimidation
Coercion
All forms of harassment
Any other act that creates a hostile work environment
17-75
Violence in the Workplace

Guns account for 75% of workplace homicide deaths

Knives and other cutting/piercing instruments were
used in only 14% of homicides
OSHA does not have a specific standard for
workplace violence
However, some states have developed standards or
recommendations
17-76
Violence in the Workplace
In determining liability, violent behavior is divided
into three categories:
Violence by an employee directed at a third party,
independent of the workplace
Violence by an employee directed at another
employee
Violence by a non-employee (third party) directed at
an employee in the workplace
17-77
Violence in the Workplace
Preventing workplace violence is complicated
The first step is to develop pre-employment screening
Screening must not violate the applicant’s civil
rights (Title VII the ADA)
Post-employment measures:
Create a culture of mutual respect, open
communication, empowerment, and recognition
Develop supervisory training classes in negotiation,
communication, listening, team building, and conflict
resolution
17-78
Violence in the Workplace
Post-employment measures:
Refer troubled employees to EAPs for help with
work and personal problems
Provide emotional support and outplacement
programs for laid-off employees
Conduct exit interviews that identify potentially
violent responses to termination
Implement a clear, well-communicated, easily
accessible grievance procedure and encourage
employees to use it
17-79
Violence in the Workplace
Post-employment measures:
Develop a confidential reporting system
Strictly control access to the workplace with a
consistently enforced, up-to-date security system
Train supervisors to recognize the signs of drug and
alcohol abuse, depression, and other problems
Develop and implement a crisis plan to deal with
violent incidents, including escape routes, how to
report the incident, and how to avoid further trouble
17-80
Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ)
Over the last decade, there has been more concern
over the quality of the indoor office environment
Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) refers to the
quality of the air in a business environment
Sick-building syndrome covers symptoms employees
believe are caused by the building itself
Employees zero in on IEQ because symptoms are
often alleviated by leaving the building
17-81
Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ)
NIOSH evaluates workplace health hazards through
its Health Hazard Evaluation (HHE) Program
An evaluation can be requested by:
Any employer
Any employee
An employee representative (union)
A local, state, or federal government agency
17-82
Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ)
Other factors that contribute to indoor
environmental quality and sick-building syndrome:
Discomfort
Noise
Poor lighting
Ergonomic stressors
Job-related psychological stressors
17-83
Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ)
Symptoms typically reported:
Headaches
Unusual fatigue
Itching or burning of eyes and skin
Nasal congestion
Dry throat
Nausea

Why IEQ problems are increasing:

New buildings are virtually airtight
Computers and other new technologies
17-84
Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ)
Sick-building syndrome has been linked to:
Inadequate ventilation
Chemical contaminants from indoor sources
Chemical contaminants from outdoor sources
Biological contaminants
Inadequate temperature
High levels of humidity
Secondhand smoke
Asbestos
Radon
17-85
Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ)
Solutions usually include combinations of:
Removal of the pollutant
Modification of ventilation
Cleaning the air
Installing particle control devices
Banning smoking
17-86
Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ)
Smokers have more health problems
Healthcare expenditures directly linked to smoking
total $72 billion per year in the U.S.
70% of respondents to a study said they worked in
places where smoking was banned
Some employers no longer hire smokers
The legality of this policy is being challenged

Lawsuits about smoking in the workplace and as

a hiring factor will be more prevalent in the next
decade
17-87
HIV-AIDS in the Workplace
In the late 1970s, the U.S. reported its first cases of:
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)

The letters in AIDS stand for:

Acquired
Immune
Deficiency
Syndrome
17-88
HIV-AIDS in the Workplace
HIV is transmitted by blood, body products, or
sexual activity
It is not spread through casual contact
Exposure to infected blood or body products can lead
to infection if the person exposed has an open wound
At the beginning of this century:
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated
that over 33 million people were infected with HIV
17-89
HIV-AIDS in the Workplace
More than 500,000 Americans have contracted AIDS
since the late 1970s
Approximately 97% of those are of working age
75% are between the ages of 25 and 44

AIDS is the second leading cause of death for those

between the ages of 25 and 44
Up to 1 million Americans may be infected with
HIV-AIDS, but not yet show symptoms
17-90
HIV-AIDS in the Workplace
Individuals infected with HIV-AIDS are protected
under the Americans with Disabilities Act
Because of the complexity AIDS and the multiplicity
of related illnesses, one needs greater understanding
of the medical symptoms
HR managers may have a hard time determining how
to comply with the law
According to the Centers for Disease Control
(CDC):
Every employer in the U.S. will eventually have at
least one employee with AIDS
17-91
HIV-AIDS in the Workplace
Significant productivity has already been lost due to:
Illness
Disability
Prematuredeath
Co-worker fear of the disease

Disclosure raises a potential for retaliation

17-92
HIV-AIDS in the Workplace

OSHA passed Bloodborne Pathogen Standards

in 1992
They apply to all workplaces with employees who
could reasonably be expected to come into contact
with blood or body fluids
17-93
HIV-AIDS in the Workplace
Employers must develop, implement, and adhere to
these guidelines:
Develop an exposure control plan
Take universal precautions to avoid contamination
Develop cleaning protocols
Have workers wear personal protective equipment
Communicate the presence of hazards
Inform, train, and keep records of all incidents

Few jobs exist where having HIV-AIDS prohibits an

employee from performing essential job functions
17-94
HIV-AIDS in the Workplace
Any manager who knows that an employee has
HIV-AIDS must preserve the individual’s privacy
Company approaches to dealing with AIDS:
Categorize AIDS under a comprehensive life-
threatening illness policy
Form an AIDS-specific policy
Have no policy
HIV-AIDS
remains almost
100 percent fatal
17-95
HIV-AIDS in the Workplace
The AIDS epidemic has pointed out weaknesses in
our health care system:
Lack of preventive medicine
A shortage of hospitals ready to
deal with the chronically ill
No universal access to health insurance
17-96
Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTDs)
Repetitive stress injuries (RSIs) and cumulative
trauma disorders (CTDs) are epidemic
These disorders are reported in all types of
workplaces:
Meatpacking and chicken processing plants
Grocery stores
Offices with personal computers
Approximately 67% of newly reported illnesses were
carpal tunnel syndrome or noise-induced hearing loss
17-97
Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTDs)
The sectors most affected include:
Manufacturing (164,000 cases)
Services (29,000 cases)
Wholesale and retail trade (21,000 cases)

RSI and CTD are not specific medical conditions

CTD refers to trauma or injury that occurs more
than once
RSI refers to a repetitive activity which is not in
itself injurious, but which becomes harmful due
to the number of repetitions
17-98
Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTDs)

Carpal tunnel refers to the eight bones in the wrist,

called carpals, which form a tunnel-like structure
filled with flexor tendons
The tendons control finger movements
Sensory nerves run through the tunnel as well
Repetitive flexing and extension of the wrist can
cause thickening of the protective sheaths that
surround the tendons (carpal tunnel syndrome)
17-99
Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTDs)
Carpal tunnel symptoms:
Painful tingling in the hands at night
A feeling of uselessness in the fingers
Tingling during the day, followed by decreased
ability and strength to squeeze things
In advanced cases, muscles atrophy and hand strength
is lost
NIOSH has linked carpal tunnel syndrome to many
occupations, especially in manufacturing
17-100
Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTDs)
A single case of CTS can cost $30,000 to treat
Treatment can involve surgery, physical therapy, and
anti-inflammatory medication
Prevention of CTS involves relieving awkward wrist
positions and forceful arm and hand movements
Other solutions involve modifying workstations,
rotating jobs, and providing frequent rest breaks
Ergonomics is how OSHA has chosen to implement
preventive policies
17-101
Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTDs)
The number of ergonomics-related injuries being
reported continues to escalate
Employers must contend with lost productivity,
increased absenteeism, OSHA lawsuits, and fines
Basic elements of an ergonomics program:
Commitment by senior management
Involvement by employees
Ongoing review and evaluation
Training and education
Coordination of company-wide scheduling
17-102
Cumulative Trauma Disorders (CTDs)
Basic elements of an ergonomics program:
Data collection
Surveillance
Detailed job design
Medical management

A key first step is determining which employees and

jobs are most at risk
17-103
Evaluation of Safety & Health Programs
The consequences of inadequate health and safety
programs are measurable:
Increased workers’ compensation payments
Increased lawsuits
Larger insurance costs
Fines from OSHA
Pressures from unions
17-104
Evaluation of Safety & Health Programs
A safety management program requires:
Indicator systems
Effective reporting systems
Rules and procedures
Rewards for effective management of the safety
function
Such programs also require:
Support from top management
Proper design of jobs and interaction between
workers and machines
Participation by employees
17-105
Evaluation of Safety & Health Programs
A health and safety program can be evaluated in a
cost-benefit sense
At the same time, managers must realize that:
Cause-and-effect relationships can be complex
Benefits may be both tangible and intangible
The most cost-effective safety programs need not
be the most expensive