OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH IN THE WORKPLACE: OSHWA & OSHCIM

Occupational safety and health is one of the key priorities across industries to prevent and reduce occupational hazards and accidents. On that note, MIIP organised a webinar to provide guidance and knowledge to members on workplace safety. S. L. Tong, President of MIIP was at hand to welcome the guests to the webinar.

Nazruddin has a Master of Science in Emergency Response and Planning from University Putra Malaysia. He also holds a Mechanical Engineering Degree from University Teknologi Malaysia. He joined DOSH in 1992 and has been directly involved in the design section of the Industry Safety Division and the Forensic Engineering Division at DOSH state offices and headquarters. With 20 years of experience in DOSH, he currently serves as a Director of the Construction Safety Division of DOSH.

He explained that OSHWA which is Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) –

Workplace Assessment is an assessment conducted by employers while OSHWorkplace Audit is the enforcement of workplace OSH by DOSH.

“The objective of OSHWA is to improve the level of safety and health at the workplace, especially from a physical aspect. Using OSHWA we encourage the employer to conduct workplace assessment and identify existing hazards, after which a DOSH officer will conduct an inspection using the same checklist,” explained Nazruddin.

The frequency of employers conducting a workplace assessment, as advised by DOSH, is a minimum of twice a year. The assessment has to be carried out by a Safety and Health Officer (SHO) or an officer from DOSH. Nazruddin encourages MIIP members to appoint an OSH coordinator at worksites to comply with DOSH requirements. He shares that to-date, there are more than 1,000 OSH coordinators in the industry.

The OSH assessment has to be carried out and documented before any inspections are done by DOSH officers.

Nazruddin explains that OSHWA is suitable for general worksites, and not for construction sites or petrol station risk assessment. He elaborates that the implementation of OSHWA involves audit documents which make up 30 percent of the process while physical audits make up 70 percent. The checklist used for the audit comprises 73 questions on OSH with responses limited to Yes, No and Not Applicable. The checklist is available on DOSH’s website.

The audit document comprises policy guidelines, processes, training and recordkeeping. Nazruddin explained about the contents of the policy document which should be displayed, including the date, signature and the involvement of employees in safety and health. The process of auditing involves all employees within the organisation, and the DOSH officers may question any employee even general workers.

According to Section 16 of the OSHA Act, it is the duty of every employer and every self-