Answer

Workplace Accidents

The working environment is a place that has equipment, tools and other varied elements of architectural design that may cause accidents and make the workplace an unsafe environment for the workers. This paper discusses the three basic causes of workplace accidents namely chance occurrences, unsafe conditions and employees’ unsafe acts (Dessler, 2018). It also assesses the role of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in addressing workplace accidents.

Causes of Workplace Accidents

One of the chief causes of workplace accidents are unsafe conditions at work. The work environment itself may present a number of conditions that make the safety of the workplace a matter of concern. They in fact are the main causes of workplace accidents. Such conditions may include improperly guarded equipment, unsafe ways of storage like overloading, problems with lighting or even improper ventilation. There can also be frayed wiring and faulty scaffolds as part of the unsafe conditions within the workplace.

Secondly, workplace accidents may also be caused by unsafe acts by the employees themselves. The employees may misplace various dangerous objects at work. They may fail to load or offload some products, fail to switch on the lights, work while intoxicated or even leave sensitive machines running unwatched. The failure by the employees themselves to engage in safe work practices may cause fertile ground for accidents to occur. Among the most notable form of these accidents are those that result from the violence that is propagated by the workers themselves. These acts of violence often lead to physical or psychological harm to the victims at work.

Finally, workplace accidents may also happen as a matter of chance. People who work as drivers for example may experience accidents not necessarily out of their own negligence but as a result of the carelessness of others. Dessler, G. (2018) affirms that slips and falls, electrocution, getting struck by objects, entanglement or even fall from heights may make part of the accidents that happen by chance. In addition, repetitive motion may also be part of the chance accidents.

The Role played by OSHA

One of the roles that OSHA plays at work is to set health and safety standards for workplaces. They then publish the standards to be followed by the employers after having recommendations from bodies such as Secretary for Health and Human Services. The body also listens and responds to appeals from workers on their safety concerns at the workplace. OSHA makes the clear distinction that such complaints from workers should not, and in fact cannot lead to them getting punished in whichever way by their employers because this is their fundamental right. The workers, having established the complaints, proceed to request OSHA to conduct a safety survey of the work environment.

OSHA also publishes data on research done about safety at the workplace. It does this through the Bureau of Labor Statistics on the information that surrounds injuries, fatalities and illnesses that may be connected to the places of work. This includes workplace standards often violated and that directly led to fatalities. The body also provides hazard alerts to assist employers in having the employees safe. They inform employers about what best they can do to keep their employees safe. These exercises include risk assessments for those professions that involve heightened risks like oil and gas exploration, building and construction. Finally, OSHA offers training and education on the occupational safety and health for workers and how they can cooperate with federal agents to promote workplace safety.

As discussed above, the safety of workers at the workplace has to be protected at all costs. It is the role of OSHA to ensure that both the employers and employees understand the standards against which their safety is to measured and actively work towards ensuring the workplace is always safe. They have to protect workers from accidents that are caused by unsafe work conditions, unsafe acts of the students and chance occurrences.

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