Formulation & Implementation of Health & Safety plans in Smart Apparel (pvt) ltd.

Certificate Course in Human Resource Management, August September, 2010. Institute of Personnel Management Sri Lanka (INC)

T.D.K.U.C. Gunasekara. (CCHRM 10/SA/07 )

Contents Pg. 1 (1). Introduction 1 (2). Products of the company 1 (3). Objectives of the company 2. Objectives of the company 3. Review of Health & safety in the company 3 (1). Vision of the Health & safety practices in the company 3 (2). Mission of Health & safety practices in the company 3 (3). Importance of the HR Department for the Health & safety 4. Health & safety policies & principles 5. Health practices in the company 6. Safety practices in the company 6 (2). Musculosketal disorder (MSD s) 6 (3). Other common problems 7. Preventive measures 8. Risk assessment 9. Health & safety practice 10. Special provision for pregnant employees 11. Recommendation References / Thanking 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4-5 5 6 6-7 8 8-9 9 9 - 11 11 12

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1. (1) Introduction Sripathi Munasinghe is the creator of Smart Apparel (pvt) ltd. It was stared at Pilimathalawa, Kandy; with 10 employees in a land of 20 perches in 1990.At the beginning they produced only jerseys. Today Smart Apparel (pvt) ltd has grown with lots of human resources & with other resources. Now they have expanded their production with jerkins, hats & caps. Today they arent limited to Kandy; their productions can be seen all around the country.

1. (2) Products of the company 1. Jerseys from flannel. 2. Jerkins from bovid fabrics. 3. Hats from cotton flee fabrics. 4. Caps from bovid fabrics. 5. Jackets from flees fabrics.

1. (3) Objectives of the company

Vision

: - To be the most desired & trusted clothing in Sri Lanka.

Mission : - To produce more comfortable quality products with supplying more job opportunities.

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2. Objectives of the survey Human Resource is the vital resource to run a company. Achieving the goal of the company is only a dream, without a healthy workforce. A company should have a good health & safety practice, to have a healthy workforce. Studying the Health & Safety practices & making Recommendations is the objective of this study. 3. Review of Health & Safety in our company Physical & mental fitness is defined as Health A working environment that is free of accidents & occupational diseases are called as Safety.

3. (1) Vision of the Health & Safety practices in the company Any disease can be prevented; any accident can be prevented by proper training, attention & proper lifestyle.

3. (2) Mission of the Health & Safety practices in the company To acquire 100% mentally & physically wellbeing employees.

3. (3) Importance of the HR Department for the Health & Safety Health & Safety is handled by the HR department. Counseling, grievance handling, performance handling, training & development are all, under this department. HR department also involves in labor conflicts & disputes with the objective of drawing a peaceful working environment.

4. Health & Safety policies & principles Smoking is prohibited within the company premises. Do wear all equipments, as aware, before work. Follow the correct instructions exhibited. Pay attention about the environment. Prevention before occurrence.

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5. Health practices in the company Physical Health: Supply proper sanitary conveniences separately to men & women. Supply nutritious food for the employees. Supply Fresh, enough air & light for the employees. Supply suitable water for drinking.

Mental Health Having a good counseling process. Having a successful grievance handling system. Appreciate & reward better employees. Pay the salary incentives, bonus on time properly.

Actually 75% of our work force is females. Therefore, we are very carefully supplying the sanitary facilities. We have 15 toilets, with 5 wash rooms. Meanwhile we have recognized that the counselor is doing a great job in our company. It can be measured from the number of employees, who have visited the counselor per day. Mental health is very important to have an effective productivity as well as physical health.

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6. Safety practices in the company Safety = Free from accidents (1) Causes for accidents Environmental causes Human causes

The international labor organization defines industrial accidents as an unplanned, uncontrolled event, which disrupts day today work place. An injury, swollen feet, headaches, slips & trips, falls from heights, vibration, muscular skeletal disorder, needle pain, breathing difficulties are the major accidents & diseases in Smart Apparel (pvt) ltd. Lack of proper training, lack of skills, not following the given instructions, carelessness is some of human causes, which cause for accidents. Environmental causes are slippery carpets, wet floors, dusty working environment and repetition of manual work.

6. (2) Musculoskeletal disorder (MSD s) In our company, we can see this disease most of the time, which includes lower back pain, joint injuries & repetitive strain injuries. MSD s can be prevented by having knowledge about, its causes; Repeated heavy weight lifting. Working position is uncomfortable & unsuitable. Working long hours without rest. Use too much effort & force, when working. Bending & twisting or repeating something too often. Working without recommended equipments & tools. Working in extreme conditions, like too hot cold.

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What are the steps we have taken to stop MSD s; Using proper technique to handle heavy loads Proper training Work diversification Regular breaks

Before spread & before becoming this to a dangerous situation, employees should inform the employer& should have medical treatments.

Stress Pressure on mind defines as stress, this can occur due to the following reasons, Personal Personality type Family matters Financial problems Organizational Role conflict Role overload Role ambiguity Technology advancement

Through physical ,physiological & behavioral symptoms stress can be identified. Stress can be reduced by counselling. Grievance handling, giving proper training. As a company we face an ethical issue, when its a personal that matter causes stress. That is, just how far can you intrude on an employees personal life. To help deal with this case, we have started employee assistance & wellness programs. These programes are solving / advising in areas like financial planning legal matters health, fitness, stress, any where they are having difficulties. We are conducting these programes monthly to reduce stress of our employees.

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6.(3) Other common problems Needle pain mechanics. Slips & tips dried. Falls from heights Vibration properly. Noises :- of heavy machineries in cutting section may :- Causes long term diseases if it isnt handled :- Floor carpets shoud be properly cleaned & :- Should be given a proper trainig with proper

cause permanent damage to hearings. Breathing difficulties :- We are using flannel, flees, fabric & bova

fabric. These have small particles, releasing to the atmosphere it cause breathing difficulties. Work place violance :- More than 1000 empolyees are murdered &

more than 1.5 million employees are assuted on the job each year all around the world 1. But our company have reduced workplace violance with giving a proper trainig to the supervisors. Headaches Swollen feet Back pain

7. Preventive measures Educating :- Creat safety awareness by educating them with safety

slogans, publishing articles on accident prevention in the company. Show the photos of the tragidies happen to the employees because if the carelessness or due to any other preventable reason. Training :- The usage of machines, equipments, chemicals should be

trained to the employees. Incorporate accident prevention in to the learning process.

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Protection

:-Provide them safety equipments, safety shoes, gloves,

hard hats, safety glases, noise mufflers & aprones. Engineering :-Prevent accidents through both the designing the equipments & designing the jobs themselves. It may include eliminating those factors that promote operator faigue, boredom & daydreaming. Regulation Enforcement :-The best safety rules & regulations will be ineffective in reducing accidents, if they arent enforced, the employer may be liable for any of the injuries. Taking measurements of satisfaction & dissatisfacion.

8. Risk assesment Identify the hazards. Identify all affected by the hazards & how they take place. Evaluate the risk. Identify & priorities appropriate control measures. Assesment should record periodically. These risk assesment is useful to migrate hazards & to prevent them.

9. Health & safety practice Supply personal protective equipments Aprons Gloves Caps/ hard caps Slippers Glasses Noise mufflers

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 Educating employees Educating employees about particular machineries, equipments & proceedures. They should be aware about the goal of the organization.Giving them an awareness about risky places & risky things in the company is very important. At the same time, its important to give them the awareness about the safety methods. (eg:- employees are advised to use nose coverings to protect from cotton dust, which will cause brown lung or byssinosis.)

Safe drinking water We have kept filters of drinking water in proper places in which, they can be easily reached by th eemployees.There are about 30 filters.Water is available in both hot & cool.

Safe food We supply safe & nutritious food for employees.

Sanitory facilities We supply enough tiolets & washrooms with all facilities.

First-aid facilities There are around 10 first-aid boxes in our organization, with basic medicine. We never lock these facility & we have placed these in a place which employees can easily reach.

Electrical safety We have very experienced employees in the electric section. They are advised to work very carefully. We always supply them with new machineries & equipments. We have an annual workshop, which it gives opportunities to electricians to advice & aware our employees. This opportunity is benifited by lots of employees for their safety.

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 Fire safety Fire extinguishers are being placed in most essential places, which they can be reached easily in an emergency.In no this is 45 for the whole area. The methology to use these extingushers are demonstrated to all, using well cleared noitces, & also in the annual workshops.Whole building is equiped with fire identifiers & with fire alarms. Also the bulding is equiped with water showers & long scale ruber tubings to shower water, in case of an emergency. All the employees are awared with the essential knowladge to escape fire threat & to use the equipments in any case of emergency.

Legal provisions In addition to the above special things, we are supplying Health & safety & genaral provisions in factories ordinance (light, air, sanitory facilities, clearness of floor, safety for upwards ) .

10. Special provisions for pregnant employees

They are given 15 minutes resting period per each 3 working hours. They are supplied with nutrious food. They arent allowed to work more than 5 night shifts per month. Supervisors are advised by us , as to pay attention & give the best support to these ladies.

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11. Recomandation

Involve management& employees in the development of a safety & health plan. If neither group can see the usefulness & the benefit of such a plan, even the bes plan will fail & be useless.

Develop the mindset in employees that the organization is to kept hazard free. Establish a mean for them to report their findings, having emergency procedures in place, if necessary.

Continuosly update & refine the safety & health program. Having an effective training about Health & safety for all employees. Having wellness programs These should be designed as a help to the employer for cutting

employer health costs & to lower absenteeism & turnover by preventing health related problems. These programs are awaking employees about health & safety. These should be commenced once a year in an organization. Showing the past accidents Organization should reveal the accidents by carelessness or by any other factor to all employees. There may be lots of so called tragedies. Some people have lost their fingers / hands / legs / eyes / nails. Some have lost even their lives some are suffering from various disabilities like blindness, deafness, mental problems etc. When the organization is showing these incidents to the employees people are compelling to follow the recommended rules & regulations. Then they wont work carelessly. This exhibition will benefit for employees not to become victims of accidents.

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References Human Resourse Management , Cynta D. Ficher , Lyle F. Schoenfeldt & James B. Shaw . 2008 (6th) Edition, Houghton Mifflin company, Newyork , 605p. Human Resourse Management , John M. Ivancevich , 9th Edition , TATA MCGRAW HILL publishment , 542p.

Thank you. Would like to thank, Mr. Disanayaka , the HR Manager of the Smart Apperal (pvt) ltd , koggala. Ms. Shirani Warnakula, the nurse of the Smart Apperal (pvt) ltd , koggala. My parents, for encouraging me & giving me all the support.

Udani Gunasekara. (CCHRM 10/SA/07) 10th Nov. 2010

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Notes
1.

Lynn Miller, Karen Caldwell, & Luara D. Lawson When work equals life ; the next state of work place violence, HR Magazine (December 2000), 178 180p.

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