ABSTRACT
The individual who has been assigned the ultimate responsibility for occupational safety and health is the safety and health professional. This may be an individual with academic training in safety and health, or an individual who has both experience and an understanding of the speci€c hazards that exist in the company’s workplace(s). This individual may be called the safety and health director, coordinator, or person. No matter the title, his or her responsibilities are varied and wide ranging. Some possible performance expectations may be as follows:
1. Establishing programs for detecting, correcting, or controlling hazardous conditions, toxic environments, and health hazards
2. Ensuring that proper safeguards and personal protective equipment are available, properly maintained, and properly used
3. Establishing safety procedures for employees, plant design, plant layout, vendors, outside contractors, and visitors
4. Establishing safety procedures for purchasing and installation of new equipment and for purchasing and safe storage of hazardous materials
5. Maintaining an accident recording system to measure the organization’s safety performance
6. Staying abreast of, and advising management on, the current federal, state, and local laws, codes, and standards related to safety and health in the workplace
7. Carrying out the company’s safety and health obligations as required by law and/or union contract
8. Conducting investigations of accidents, near-misses, and property damage, and preparing reports with recommended corrective action
9. Conducting safety and health training for all levels of management, newly hired. and current employees
10. Assisting in the formation of both management and union/management safety and health committee (department heads and superintendents) and attending monthly departmental safety and health committee meetings
11. Keeping informed on the latest developments in the €eld of safety and health, such as personal protective equipment, new safety standards, workers’ compensation legislation, new literature pertaining to safety and health, as well as attending safety and health seminars and conventions
12. Maintaining liaison with national, state, and local occupational safety and health organizations and taking an active role in the activities of such groups
13. Accompanying the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) compliance of€cers during plant inspections and insurance safety and health professionals on audits and plant surveys; the safety and health professional reviews reports that relate to these activities and, with management, initiates action for necessary corrections
14. Distributing the organization’s statement of policy as outlined in its organizational manual
If some facets of the safety and health effort are not going well, this individual will usually be held accountable although the authority to rectify the existing problem may not exist. Usually the safety and health person is a staff position, which seldom allows him or her to interfere in any way with the line function of production. Without some authority to impact the line function when necessary, the safety and health professional has little clout as to worksite implementation of the company’s safety and health effort. Accountability must go beyond the safety and health professional. Dan Petersen, a noted safety expert, espouses that what is desired is “safe production.”
