Problem
A. Explain how today's rate of accidental work injuries and deaths compares with the rate in the early 1900's?
B. What must management do if it is serious about providing a safe and healthy work environment for employees?
C. What is OSHA's mission or purpose? Explain the difference between an OSHA standard and an OSHA regulation?
• A safety and health manager receives three suggestions from three different safety representatives as follows:
• Install a drain to remove water that occasionally collects around the die-casting area.
• Post a warning sign that advises forklift drivers to slow down.
• Improve sanitation by cleaning the rest rooms more frequently.
There is a safety or health rationale for the correction of all three of these problems. Should they be corrected? Why or why not? Should the safety manager react to every hazard requested? How do you respond to each request? Explain your stance in detail.
What is Your Opinion?
• The manufacturing director and the union representative have just had a chin-to-chin argument about removing the new machine guards from the milling machines. They have asked you - the company's safety director - to mediate the dispute. According to the manufacturing director, "We ran these machines for five years without an accident. The only reason we put them on was because some OSHA inspector suggested it. They're fine when we are not in a hurry, but they slow us down when the rush is on. Unless we remove the guards, this job will not be shipped on time." The union representative counters by saying, "These machines are dangerous."
What is the right thing to do here? What is your opinion? Remember, YOU, the Safety Manager, are responsible for safety.