Safety Risk Critique

Occupational Safety and health risks refer to those elements in the workplace which pose as danger to the employees, the environment and the surrounding community when exposed to them (Confer, 1999). These are things which threaten the safety and health of people if not controlled. In work places, these risks can be environmental which includes pollution in terms of noise and release of toxic gases, physical hazards such as collisions and falls of workers, falling objects and electricity, biological hazards such as fungi and bacteria invasion and chemical hazards whose agents are acids, bases, solvents and any other reactive chemicals (Boyd, 2003). There are guidelines and standards that have been set by the labour agency through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) which must be followed and the standards met by all employers. Failure to comply with the rules and meet the standards results to the employer facing the serious risk of litigation, damage to their image when exposed amongst others (Charney, 1999). Statement of the Research Problem Prime contractors have the responsibility of providing a safe and healthy workplace to all their employees by identifying hazards and controlling them. These contractors hence face the serious risk of safety management when they subcontract. This is because in the event that prime contractors subcontract, they still are responsible for the safety of their employees as OSHA regulations do not relieve the prime contractor of the overall compliance to the standards (Mintz, 1984). These risks include injury to the subcontracted employees, citation of irregularities by the OSHA officials whose origin is the subcontractor’s negligence and violation of the required standards and the risk of negative publicity which could hurt the prime contractor’s image in the market hence reducing his competitiveness. Though the responsibility is shared between the prime contractor and the subcontracting agency, the prime contractor has to find means of ensuring that the subcontractors have implemented effective safety and health regulations so as to avoid exposing the employees to hazards that have been cited by OSHA. Getting a standard means of controlling the subcontractor without taking unnecessary control is not easy. Too much hands on method could cause liabilities to the prime contractor while hands off could end up not being effective. This research aims at getting an optimum and standard care method that should be used by prime contractors to help them minimize occupational safety and health risks related to subcontractors. A Description of the Research Procedures The study started by identifying the responsibilities of employers (in this case of the prime employer and the subcontractors) in providing a safe and healthy working environment to their employees. It then studied the stipulated OSHA regulations concerning situations that involved subcontracting. The study identified the potential safety management risks faced by prime contractors in this situation and the cares that the prime contractors could take to minimize the occurrence of the mentioned safety management risks. It discussed the remedies that prime contractors could take such as contractual transfer of liability by considering certain facts about how responsible the subcontractors were in ensuring safety of their own employees, and studying the policies implemented by subcontractors to ensure safety of their employees before subcontracting. The study identified the main safety related risks for prime contractors and discussed the value of achieving low injury rates. Finally the study researched on how to achieve the best safety performance from subcontractors and made a conclusion. Flaws in the procedural design In my view, the procedural design had no flaws in it. This is because all the elements of a good research are present in the thesis. It has an introduction of the topic and states the problem. It has outlines what the objectives of the study are and justifies them just as any good research usually does. It identifies the problems and discusses the results of the findings. It offers recommendations and a conclusion at the end. The only problem is that we are not told the method the researchers used to use to gather the data that was used to make the make the discussions and draw the conclusions. We do not know whether it was observation, interviews, questionnaires or the other methods of data collections that are normally used in serious research was used in this research.. Analysis of the data The data obtained is reliable and could help the prime contractors minimize safety management risks if they followed the recommendations to the book. The research discusses its findings and relates them to the regulations stipulated by OSHA so that there is no contradiction even when making the recommendations. The study gives several methods and options that could be used and taken by prime contractors to help reduce the safety risks. The data tells us of the safety related risks for prime contractors which include accidents of employees, litigation and harm to the prime contractor’s image all of which could occur as a result of the subcontractor not being keen on adhering to the rules and regulations required by OSHA. The date explains the prime contractors risk higher probability of facing litigation in the event they use too much of the hands on system with the subcontractors. This could be true as they end up being too involved with the subcontractors operation such that in the event an accident happens, they may be blamed as they are seen to be in control. The data also explains that accidents are some of the things in things world which are inevitable and whether the prime contractors follow the recommendations provided or not accidents are to bond to happen and the prime contractors have to be prepared to deal with them. The data discusses that the advantages of achieving low injury rates is that it enables the prime contractors to avoid the risks associated with fatal accidents and hold a good image to the share holders and the public. The data then gives suggestions to the prime contractors on how to achieve the best performance from subcontractors. This basically is by the prime contractors being careful in choosing who to subcontract to. It urges the prime contractors be careful in the method they use to control the subcontractors operations where safety and health issues are concerned so that they do not take the blame by being too much involved (higher side of the hands on method). They have to balance their influence. Conclusion We can conclude that the research was a good one as it was detailed in identifying the problem, explaining the potential risks and compared them with the OSHA regulations and gave the solutions to the problems that were not contradicting with the expected regulations. The study further gives recommendations. The data obtained was not biased as it gave both the negative and positive aspects of any suggestion made. It advices the prime contractors on what they should do in order to avoid safety management risks from arising.