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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is a large regulatory agency of the United States Department of Labor that originally had federal visitorial powers to inspect and examine workplaces. Congress established the agency under the Occupational Safety and Health Act OSH Act, which President Richard M. Nixon signed into law on December 29, 1970. OSHA's mission is to "assure safe and healthy working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education, and assistance". The agency is also charged with enforcing a variety of whistleblower statutes and regulations. OSHA's workplace safety inspections have been shown to reduce injury rates and injury costs without adverse effects on employment, sales, credit ratings, or firm survival.
The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 is a US labor law governing the federal law of occupational health and safety in the private sector and federal government in the United States. It was enacted by Congress in 1970 and was signed by President Richard Nixon on December 29, 1970. Its main goal is to ensure that employers provide employees with an environment free from recognized hazards, such as exposure to toxic chemicals, excessive noise levels, mechanical dangers, heat or cold stress, or unsanitary conditions. The Act created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
Industrial manslaughter, for example in Australian Capital Territory law, is a crime where the action or inaction of an employer results in the death of an employee. Industrial manslaughter usually has a much broader scope than standard criminal manslaughter.
Corporate manslaughter is a criminal offence in English law, being an act of homicide committed by a company or organisation. In general, in English criminal law, a juristic person is in the same position as a natural person, and may be convicted for committing many offences. The Court of Appeal confirmed in one of the cases following the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster that a company can, in principle, commit manslaughter, although all defendants in that case were acquitted.
The Simon Jones Memorial Campaign was set up after casual dock worker Simon Jones was decapitated in an industrial accident on 24 April 1998. He was working for Euromin on the south coast of England. The campaign argues that failure to train Simon for a dangerous job was tantamount to murder and that the pursuit of profit was put ahead of life. Simon died on his first day at work and was known to have no experience.
Workplace violence (WPV), violence in the workplace (VIW), or occupational violence refers to violence, usually in the form of physical abuse or threat, that creates a risk to the health and safety of an employee or multiple employees. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health defines worker on worker, personal relationship, customer/client, and criminal intent all as categories of violence in the workplace. These four categories are further broken down into three levels: Level one displays early warning signs of violence, Level two is slightly more violent, and level three is significantly violent. Many workplaces have initiated programs and protocols to protect their workers as the Occupational Health Act of 1970 states that employers must provide an environment in which employees are free of harm or harmful conditions.
Workers' Memorial Day, also known as International Workers' Memorial Day or International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured, takes place annually around the world on April 28, an international day of remembrance and action for workers killed, disabled, injured, or made unwell by their work. In Canada, it is commemorated as the National Day of Mourning.
The Hazards Campaign is a UK network established in 1988 to campaign for improved workplace health, safety and welfare, and a reduction in the incidence of work-related injury, ill-health and death. It brings together Hazards Centres, Occupational Health Projects, trade unions, health and safety groups, specific campaigns and individual health and safety activists. Specific campaign groups include the Construction Safety Campaign, the Centre for Corporate Accountability (CCA), the UK WorkStress Network, Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK), asbestos victims' support groups, and RSI Action.
The Health Hazard Evaluation (HHE) program is a workplace health program administered by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). NIOSH developed the HHE program to comply with a mandate in the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 to investigate workplace health hazards reported by employers and employees. According to Section 20(a)(6) of the Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services is authorized "following a written request by any employer or authorized representative of employees, to determine whether any substance normally found in the place of employment has potentially toxic effects in such concentrations as used or found."
The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that seeks to broaden the law on corporate manslaughter in the United Kingdom. The Act created a new offence respectively named corporate manslaughter in England and Wales and Northern Ireland, and corporate homicide in Scotland.
Corporate manslaughter is a crime in several jurisdictions, including England and Wales and Hong Kong. It enables a corporation to be punished and censured for culpable conduct that leads to a person's death. This extends beyond any compensation that might be awarded in civil litigation or any criminal prosecution of an individual. The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 came into effect in the UK on 6 April 2008.
In the United Kingdom there are several crimes that arise from failure to take care of health, safety and welfare at work.
WorkSafe Victoria is the trading name of the Victorian WorkCover Authority, a statutory authority of the state government of Victoria, Australia.
The case of Transco Plc v HMA[2004] S.L.T. 41 was the first ever prosecution for culpable homicide in Scotland with regards to a public limited company. The decision is seen as significant in UK corporate manslaughter law and in particular in Scots law, as there are very few cases which address the criminal liability of corporations under Scots law.
Occupational stress is psychological stress related to one's job. Occupational stress refers to a chronic condition. Occupational stress can be managed by understanding what the stressful conditions at work are and taking steps to remediate those conditions. Occupational stress can occur when workers do not feel supported by supervisors or coworkers, feel as if they have little control over the work they perform, or find that their efforts on the job are incommensurate with the job's rewards. Occupational stress is a concern for both employees and employers because stressful job conditions are related to employees' emotional well-being, physical health, and job performance. A landmark study conducted by the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization found that exposure to long working hours, which are theorized to operate through increased psycho-social occupational stress, is the occupational risk factor with the largest attributable burden of disease, according to these official estimates causing an estimated 745,000 workers to die from ischemic heart disease and stroke events in 2016.
A physical hazard is an agent, factor or circumstance that can cause harm with contact. They can be classified as type of occupational hazard or environmental hazard. Physical hazards include ergonomic hazards, radiation, heat and cold stress, vibration hazards, and noise hazards. Engineering controls are often used to mitigate physical hazards.
A lone worker (LW) is an employee who performs an activity that is carried out in isolation from other workers without close or direct supervision. Such staff may be exposed to risk because there is no-one to assist them and so a risk assessment may be required. Lone workers are now often supported by cloud-based automated monitoring systems and specialised monitoring call centres - often referred to as an 'Alarm Receiving Centre' or 'ARC' in the UK, or 'Emergency Dispatch Center' or 'EDC' in the US.
Occupational safety and health (OSH), also commonly referred to as occupational health and safety (OHS), occupational health, or occupational safety, is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the safety, health, and welfare of people at work. These terms also refer to the goals of this field, so their use in the sense of this article was originally an abbreviation of occupational safety and health program/department etc.
Patrick McGuire is a Scottish solicitor and solicitor advocate. He is a partner with personal injury law firm Thompsons Solicitors Scotland.
Reclaiming Health and Safety For All also known as the Löfstedt Report is a 2011 report commissioned by the British government to review existing health and safety legislation and its impact upon businesses. The report was written by Ragnar Löfstedt and recommended the revocation of regulations that were of no benefit, updating of approved codes of practice and the abolition of the "strict liability" to mitigate all risks. The report resulted in a review of all Approved Codes of Practice by the Health and Safety Executive and the revocation of two regulations that were perceived to be of no benefit.
References
- ↑ Davies, Alex, ed. (2008). Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act: Special Report. Cambridge: Workplace Law Group. ISBN 978-1-905766-58-1.
- ↑ Dick, Sandra; Summerhayes, Linda (30 January 2008). "Sister's fight after brother's death at work". Edinburgh Evening News . Edinburgh. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
- ↑ "Fines are not fine say families". Hazards . Sheffield (102). April–June 2008. ISSN 0267-7296 . Retrieved 24 August 2011.
- ↑ "F.A.C.K." (PDF). Hazards Campaign. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
- ↑ Palmer, Hilda (22 July 2011). "FACK Families to meet Professor Lofstedt over health & safety review". LabourNetUK. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
- ↑ "A pro-business review". Hazards . Sheffield (114). April–June 2011. ISSN 0267-7296 . Retrieved 24 August 2011.
