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TOPIC: EMPLOYEE/ OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

CASE STUDY NILE BREWERIES LTD.
Introduction
Employee health and safety programs should be a major priority for management because they
save lives, increase productivity, and reduce costs. These health and safety programs should stress
employee involvement, continued monitoring, and an overall wellness component (Anthony et al.,
2007). Work safety requires that safe working conditions should not create significant risk of
people being rendered unfit to perform their work.
Health and safety at work is therefore aimed at creating conditions, capabilities, and habits that
enable the worker and his/her organization to carry out their work efficiently and in a way that
avoids events which could cause them harm (Garcia-Herrero et al., 2012). It is clear that safe
working conditions have an effect on the habits of workers, which in turn impacts on efficiency.
This implies that employees working in a safe condition are likely to perform in a way that will
not cause them harm.
DEFINITION OSH
Occupational safety and health is the science of the anticipation, recognition, evaluation and
control of hazards arising in or from the workplace that could impair the health and well-being of
workers, taking into account the possible impact on the surrounding communities and the general
environment (Benjamin O. Alli,2008). In Uganda, the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social
Development through the Department of Occupational Safety and Health is responsible for
administration and enforcement of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, No 9, 2006.
PURPOSE OF OSH
✓ Safety and health practices and programs help to maintain an environment that facilitates
efficient employee productivity. The public image of a firm will also be improved for the better
if systematic employee health and safety programs have established and modified over time.
E.g. highly qualified personnel will be willing to work for such a firm or maintenance of a
reasonable market share
✓ The employee will as well be considered to be operating with in law if the working
environment facilitates employee health and safety during their day to day activities that are
aimed at achieving the goals and objectives of a firm

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✓ An organisation will also be assured of less work stoppage if any, that are normally caused by
accidents and illness among employees. This implies that activities will be accomplished in
time there by maintaining the profitability base of such a firm among other advantages
✓ Good employee safety and health measures can as well be useful tool towards better employer-
employee relations with in an organisation. A mutual employer-employee relationship is
advantageous to firms in a number of ways such as effective flow of information, timely
grievance and conflict handling etc.
✓ The maintenance and promotion of workers’ health and working capacity, Unnecessary costs
that may negatively affect the budget of a firm are also minimized in case of systematic
employee health and safety measures at the work place. Such costs may be in terms of
replacement of injured employees, compensation, investigations, replacement of dented
equipment and legal suits among others
✓ The improvement of work and working conditions so that they are conducive to safety and
health, Creation of morale among employees of an organization which in turn affects the
quantity and quality of a firm’s products and services positively, besides creation of favorable
occupational attitudes amongst such employees
✓ The development of work organizations and preventive safety and health cultures in a direction
that supports safety and health at work. Such development also promotes a positive social
climate and enhances the smooth operation and possibly also the productivity of working
enterprises. Well established health and safety measures help to reduce the rate at which
employees enter and leave the organisation. thus, a stable work force is established implying
that several programs of the organisation can be carried out with less or no interruptions
KEY PRINCIPLES
Employee health refers to the physical, social and psychological well-being of employees.

Safety refers to actions undertaken to protect employees from hazardous work practices that may
be faced at work, consequently, safe practices can chief to good health of employees.

Employee safety is attained when stress is worked upon to reduce accidents. Accidents prevention
and safety have become necessary because the modern organization workers are subject to
motorized, electrical, biochemical and radioactivity threats arising out of improvement in
technology.

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Causes of accidents

The human component appears to be accountable for greatest accidents that occur in organizations
as it can be explained by factors like the emotional condition and attitudes play a big part in causing
accidents. However, conditions of work, personal factors, the nature of the industry and stress can
contribute to the occurrence of accidents.

✓ Conditions in the work environment

These factors comprise of the physical work environment, hours of work, lighting, temperature,
equipment design, lack of maintenance, work over and under load.

✓ Personal or Human factors

These are causes of accidents at workplace majorly originating from the various behaviors and
reactions toward work, namely; drug abuse, ill health, fatigue, intelligence, and work experience.
Work Stress

Stress refers to an interference that disturbs physical and mental well-being of the individual that
reveals to society and later to the organization. Stress occurs when one is required to perform
beyond the normal range of capabilities.

Stress is further categorized into two negative and positive stress.

Positive stress is benefiting as it can help to achieve individual and organizational targets whereas
over whelming negative stress occurs in amounts that one can’t handle, both mental and physical
changes may occur especially causing illness, behavioral problems, pressure on public resources,
industrial accidents and wastefulness.

Symbols and indicators of stress

There are many different signs and indicators that can show when someone is having difficulty
dealing with the amount of stress, they are experiencing such as Physical, Emotional, Behavioral

Causes of Stress

Stress in the workplace can have many roots or even arise from one single event. It can affect both
employees and employers similarly.

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✓ Changing gender roles; the role of women has dramatically over the past 100 years especially
in urban areas. As women make up a greater part of the total labor force, they are judged by
the same criteria as men. Furthermore, suffer more of stress because of conflict between work
outside home and within, where they continue to shoulder the main responsibility for
traditional female roles.
✓ Encounter with new work cultures; the changes occurring in the work place in recent years
have radically altered the work culture of many companies, large, and small. For example,
opportunistic takeovers have put old fashioned organizations into hands of ambitious and fast-
moving entrepreneurs with very different values. This has increased stress levels (no
guaranteed job security) in individuals working for the former company.
✓ Role ambiguity in the organization; this situation follows disparity between job demands and
employee’s values and expectations, this ends up creating pressure onto the employee as each
different task demands to be worked upon yet deadlines keep drawing near.
✓ Diversifying careers; one spin off from rapid changes occurring in the work place is the
opportunity to enjoy several different careers during a lifetime. Traditionally, people learned a
trade or profession that they practiced through out their working life. Today the demands for
skills is changing so fast that this is no longer very likely to happen.
✓ Level of responsibility; taking responsibility for subordinates may be a source of stress for
some managers/supervisors. Responsibilities like evaluating employees for salary, promotion
or termination decisions or managing their outputs on a daily basis can lead to stress.
✓ Individual characteristics; according to scholars, differences in personality and coping style of
the worker are most important factors in predicting job stress although what is stressful for one
person may not be a problem for another.
✓ Working conditions; these constitute the physical environment in which one is required to work
and include poor lighting, noise and overcrowding, poor air quality, health and safety risks
✓ Interpersonal relationships; distant, uncommunicative supervisors, poor performance from
subordinates, office politics, competition, and other conflicts among staff, bullying or
harassment, problems caused by excessive time away from family.

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Stress Management

Stress can be managed at two points i.e. individual and organizational points

Organizational specific strategies

✓ During selection, management must ensure that an employee’s abilities match the requirements
of the job
✓ Improve communication flow in the organization.
✓ Job redesign to increase challenge or reduce the work load and give employees opportunity to
participate in decisions
✓ Reducing on the number of meetings for many of them may seemingly be useless.
✓ Delegation of authority by managers to subordinates and provide for areas of accountability.
✓ Implanting counseling services to employees in the organization
✓ Management should introduce work arrangements like working from home, working in shifts,
part time work, the four-day work week.
✓ Management designate recreational centers at work or rather subscribe to gyms. This can help
employees to learn how to manage stress and relaxation.
Individual point
✓ Receive Social support from especially people that love you like lovers, family. Engage in
these simple things like taking a family lunch after work, play with your children, keep a circle
of close friends.
✓ Keep a to do list that identifies your stressing points and we you could do about it,
accomplished tasks, to help overcome future stressors.
✓ Mix-up work interests and hobbies by take some time off your work to calm down. In this
time, you could pray, listen to music, go swimming during lunch break or develop a hobby for
this time like reading a novel.
✓ Cultivation of oneself by taking care of your body, mind and spirit can help reduce feelings of
anxiety and frustration that are often related to stress. Practice relaxation techniques, get
enough sleep, exercise, avoid/reduce alcohol intake, practice yoga.
✓ Time management by doing tasks on time, usually you can take a ride to work if using vehicle
will cause delays, get ordered and simplify your life so that work does not overwhelm you.

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Rights and Duties

The responsibilities of governments, employers and workers should be seen as complementary and
mutually reinforcing in the common task of promoting occupational safety and health to the
greatest extent possible within the constraints of national conditions and practice.
Employees’ rights
It is increasingly recognized that the protection of life and health at work is a fundamental workers’
right in other words, decent work implies safe work. Furthermore, though employers are required
to design and maintain safe and healthy systems of work, the concomitant duty of the employee is
to behave in a manner that safeguards his or her own health and that of his/her co-workers (Bratton
& Gold, 1999).
A research carried out at The Research Centre Design and Technology of the Saxion University
of Applied sciences on “Safety at work” concluded that personal safety, a safe environment and
safe behavior were important components that employers need to ensure their availability within
their organizations.
According to this research, enforcing safety by adjusting the environment people have to work in
and detecting risks at work so that workers can avoid dangerous situations is key (Ynze
Houtened)., 2012). Hints from statistics in the UK that are compiled every year reveal that the
education sector as a whole produces a significant number of four to five deaths over the last six
years and more than 3000 injuries. This means that the employee could be at risk (HSE,
2001/2004).
Workers have certain basic rights in respect of occupational safety and health, and these should be
reflected in the enterprise’s policy.
In particular rights,
✓ Workers have the right to remove themselves from danger.
✓ to refuse to carry out or continue work which they have reasonable justification to believe
presents an imminent and serious threat to their life or health. They should be protected from
unforeseen consequences of their actions.
✓ Workers should be able to request and obtain, where there is cause for concern on safety and
health grounds, inspections and investigations to be conducted by the employer and the
competent authority.
✓ Know about workplace hazards that may affect their health or safety.
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✓ Obtain information relevant to their health or safety, held by the employer or the competent
authority.
✓ Collectively select safety and health representatives and as well participate in formulating the
safety and health committees.
✓ Access to better information is a prime condition for significant, positive contributions by
workers and their representatives to occupational hazard control. The enterprise policy should
make sure that workers are able to obtain any necessary assistance in this regard from their
trade union organizations, which have a legitimate claim to be involved in anything that
concerns the protection of the life and health of their members. They are required to use all
materials, equipment, devices and clothing that are provided by the employer.
Employers’ responsibilities
Because occupational hazards arise at the workplace, it is the responsibility of employers to ensure
that the working environment is safe and healthy.
This means that they must prevent, and protect workers from, occupational risks. But employers’
responsibility goes further, entailing knowledge of occupational hazards and a commitment to
ensure that management processes promote safety and health at work. For example, an awareness
of safety and health implications should guide decisions on the choice of technology and on how
work is prearranged.
✓ Training is one of the most important tasks to be carried out by employers. Workers need to
know not only how to do their jobs, but also how to protect their lives and health and those of
their co-workers while working. Within enterprises, managers and supervisors are responsible
for ensuring that workers are adequately trained for the work that they are expected to
undertake. Such training should include information on the safety and health aspects of the
work, and on ways to prevent or minimize exposure to hazards.
✓ On a larger scale, employers’ organizations should instigate training and information
programmes on the prevention and control of hazards, and protection against risks. Where
necessary, employers must be in a position to deal with accidents and emergencies, including
providing first-aid facilities.
✓ Adequate arrangements should also be made for compensation of work-related injuries and
diseases, as well as for rehabilitation and to facilitate a prompt return to work. In short, the

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objective of preventive programmes should be to provide a safe and healthy environment that
protects and promotes workers’ health and their working capacity.
✓ The health and safety function is directly related to the elements of the HRM cycle-selection,
appraisal, rewards and training. Maintenance of a healthy and safe workplace can be facilitated
in the selection process by selecting applicants with personality traits that decrease the
likelihood of accidents. Safe work behaviour can be encouraged by a reward system that ties
bonus payments to the safety record of a work group or section (Bratton & Gold, 1999).
✓ Install physical barriers on critical points. Where it is impractical to install physical barriers in
all walkways, install physical barriers following the prioritization of the highly risky points
where employee safety is at stake. This can be by use of barricades for heavy motors, warning
sign posts for danger zones, designating phoning areas, install convex mirrors in areas likely
for collision and use of CCTV cameras for inspection.
Policy makers duties
✓ Policy makers are responsible for drawing up occupational safety and health policies and
making sure that they are implemented. Policies will be reflected in lawmaking, and legislation
must be enforced. But legislation cannot cover all workplace risks, and it may also be advisable
to address occupational safety and health issues by means of collective agreements reached
between the social partners. Policies are more likely to be supported and implemented if
employers and workers, through their respective organizations, have had a hand in drawing
them up. This is regardless of whether they are in the form of laws, regulations, codes or
collective agreements.
✓ The MGLSD through its Department of Labour, Industrial Relations and Productivity should
issue and periodically review regulations or codes of practice, instigate research to identify
hazards and to find ways of overcoming them.
✓ Provide information and advice to employers and workers, and take specific measures to avoid
catastrophes where potential risks are high.
✓ The occupational safety and health policy should include provisions for the establishment,
operation and progressive extension of occupational health services.
✓ The MGLSD should supervise and advise on the implementation of a workers’ health
surveillance system, which should be linked with programmes to prevent accident and disease
and to protect and promote workers’ health at both enterprise and national levels. The
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information provided by surveillance will show whether occupational safety and health
standards are being implemented, and where more needs to be done to safeguard workers.
Approaches/ Models on Safety.
The Reactive Approach
The reactive approach is the one most often taken by employers who are just starting out, as well
as smaller, localized companies. Employers who take this approach are often unsure of the various
standards they may need to comply with, and may not understand how the laws and agencies that
regulate employers may affect them. As such, they are only capable to responding and reacting to
an incident after it occurs.
Characteristics of the reactive approach:

✓ Nonexistent or minimal safety programs. Companies who use a reactive approach also tend
not to have any formal or established safety policies (i.e. written safety manual).
✓ A lack of management buy-in. Companies who take a reactive approach to safety often do so
because managers and executives don’t fully buy-in to the program. With this kind of
approach, front-end supervisors don’t always follow what recommended preventative
measures or procedures may be in place, causing employees to think they don’t need to follow
safety protocols either.
✓ Limited access to funds. When management doesn’t value a program, they definitely don’t
fund it. An effective accident prevention program cannot be built without access to resources.

The Static Approach

The static approach is the next step above the reactive approach, and is one that many businesses
choose to employ. Companies who use this approach tend to view workplace safety as necessary,
but not necessarily a vital part of their business plan.
Characteristics of the static approach:

✓ Informal safety processes. Companies who use the static approach make more of an effort to
establish some safety processes, but these are largely still informal and used inconsistently. They
may discuss safety issues in staff meetings, but usually only to address a recent incident.

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✓ Management’s attitude is “pay as you go.” Employers who fall into this category are focused on
managing safety issues as they come up. Similar to the reactive approach, action is taken only after
an incident has occurred. While funds are allocated more readily to safety initiatives, this is only
done on an “as-needed” basis.
✓ Employees are not empowered to address safety concerns. If an employee notices a possible
hazard, they are not empowered to fix it. Instead, they must report the issue to their direct
supervisor, who made in turn need to report it to their supervisor, until the issue reaches the
appropriate level of management that has the authority to address the problem. Depending on how
high the problem needs to be escalated until it can be addressed, the problem may take weeks or
months to be addressed, if it is addressed at all.

The Active Approach

Employers with some experience in safety issues, such as those with a history of incidents or who
have been inspected by OSHA, are usually then motivated to take a more active approach to
workplace safety.
Characteristics of the active approach:

✓ Management is willing to invest funds in order to reduce risk. Employers in this category
understand the role safety and accident prevention processes play in their business’ overall
productivity, and will budget money accordingly in order to make necessary safety
improvements. In fact, safety improvements are often included as a line item in the business’s
operational budget.
✓ Safety processes are documented and enforced. Employers who use an active approach not
only have safety processes and procedures, but are also documented in a safety or employee
manual and are actively enforced.
✓ A behavioral safety culture. In an active approach, employees are not only empowered to
address safety concerns, but are expected to address them.

The Dynamic Approach

The final and most effective approach is the dynamic approach. Companies who take this approach
are truly invested and committed to creating a culture of safety within their organization.

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Characteristics of the dynamic approach:

✓ Management views safety and accident prevention as a business metric, Companies that use a
dynamic approach understand both their legal responsibilities as an employer to provide a safe
working environment, as well as the impact a culture of that is focused on safety can have on
their profit margins. Their incidence rates are closely monitored and measured to more
effectively control short- and long-term risks.
✓ Safety issues are regularly discussed across all levels. Employers in this category not only have
documented processes and procedures in place, but they also provide workers with regular
safety training to ensure that all employees are aware of these processes and how to address
possible safety hazards.
✓ Funds are strategically allocated to safety initiatives, Not only are safety initiatives part of the
company’s budget, a great deal of consideration and weight is given to the need for safety
improvements.

Promotion of Occupational Safety and Health

✓ The promotion of occupational safety and health is an organizational investment for the future:
enterprises will benefit from promoting health in the workplace in the form of lower sickness-
related costs and higher productivity.
✓ Consequently, OSH promotion in the workplace could be regarded as a modern corporate
strategy which aims at preventing ill health at work (including work-related diseases,
accidents, injuries, occupational diseases and stress) and enhancing the potential and well-
being of the workforce.
✓ As part of OSH promotional activities, some countries organize annual awards based on certain
criteria, including the number of accidents submitted for compensation claims, and continuous
inspection and monitoring of hazards by the individual workplace. Companies that have kept
good safety records are given awards in recognition of their efforts and to encourage others to
emulate them. However, mechanisms for ensuring honesty and preventing under-reporting or
inaccurate declaration should be put in place and enforced. In other instances, managers can
make use of health promotion items, including hazard-monitoring equipment, safety devices,

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training manuals, and information packages on occupational safety and health are displayed at
big annual events such as national trade fairs.
✓ Similar activities can be organized by managers at the enterprise level to promote awareness
about safety and health. Such activities could include an annual safety festival.
✓ Workers’ lifestyles, including diet, exercise, and smoking and drinking habits, are a key factor
in health. Health education designed to promote good lifestyles and discourage those
detrimental to health should be introduced into the workplace by managers as part of the
programme of OSH activities.
✓ The OSH programme should include strategies to promote wider awareness of the social and
economic importance of improving working conditions and the environment.
Conclusion
The employee is involved in discussing safety policies in marginal ways in their work places. It is
worth noting that the staff are policy implementers and implementation cannot be complete
without full knowledge of the policies to be implemented. Therefore, the Government should look
into ways of address this issue so that implementation of such safety policies is made possible.
This agrees with the result of a study carried out by Allender (2011) which found out that work
place safety and health leads to motivation and satisfaction. When the employees are fully involved
in discussing health and safety policies, they will be easily motivated to carry out policy
implementation which will finally lead to job satisfaction.
Recommendations
✓ The benefit of running safety programs in the workplace is a matter that should be given
priority by the Government through the Ministry of Gender Labor and Social Development.
Haines (2007) confirms this when he asserts that health promotion programs positively impact
on employees’ health, increase staff productivity and reduce work absenteeism.
✓ An OSH awareness campaign should be aimed at acquainting both management and workers
with hazards in their workplaces and their role and obligations in the prevention of
occupational accidents, injuries and diseases. develop a comprehensive strategy to ensure that
all workplaces are registered and registration certificates are renewed upon expiry.
✓ MoGLSD should invoke the penalty clauses for non-compliance so as to ensure OSH
compliance at workplaces. Where the penalty is not punitive, the Ministry should bring this for
consideration when the OSH Act is being reviewed.
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REFERENCES. Add more

Fundamental principles of occupational health and safety / Benjamin O. Alli; International Labour
Office – Geneva: ILO, 2008
https://www.gnapartners.com/article/approaches-to-workplace-safety/
Occupational Safety and Health Act, No 9, 2006.
Garcie-Herrero, S. (2012). Working conditions, Psychological, physical symptoms and
occupational accidents”. Bayesian network models, safety science. 50 (9), 1760-1774.
Haines, D. J. Davis, L., Rancour, P., Robinson, M., Neel-Wilson, T., & Wagner, S. (2007). A
Pilot intervention to promote walking and wellness and to improve the health of college faculty
and staff. J Am CollHealth, 55 (4), 219-225.
Allender, S., Colquhoun, D., & Kelley, P. (2011). Competing discourses of workplace health.
Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 10(1) 75-93.
Anthony, V., Mark, P., Michael, B., & Ajay, D. (2007). A data-based evaluation of the
relationship between occupational safety and operating performance. The Journal of SH & E
Research. Spring, 4 (1).
Bratton, J. & Gold, J. (1999). Human resource management theory and practice. Macmillan Press,
London.

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MAKERERE UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL JINJA CAMPUS

MASTERS OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
ACADEMIC YEAR: 2019/20 SEMESTER: ONE
YEAR: ONE

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

CASE STUDY: NILE BREWERIES (U) LTD

(ABInBev).

NAME REG.NUMBER SIGNATURE

GODFREY MUSOBYA 2019/HD10/25823U

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