Health and safety audits lacking in the workplace

 OCCUPATIONAL health and safety (OHS) is unregulated in PNG. 

Across the length and breadth of the country, OSH issues in the workplace  are  proliferating,  affecting people’s health and safety. 

There  are  no statistics to substantiate and owners of companies who  who  purchase labour power are taking advantage of the weak regulatory system for profit maximisation. 

Adding to the appalling circumstances  in  the workplace, is the continued lack of OHS auditing by a regulatory agency. 

The  government  needs to establish one (if it has not) but  if  there  is one, it has been sleeping on the job and it requires resuscitation. 

The continued undermining of the important role of the audit can have devastating flow-on effects, which can  be economically catastrophic to the individual, employer and the country as a whole. 

Likened to the analogy of a motor car,  a  safe workplace must be regularly serviced to make sure it continues to serve as it should. 

Servicing a workplace implies talking  to  the  people  who  work  there, observing employees, being involved in daily operations, carrying out weekly inspections and so on. 

A more formal way of regularly monitoring a safe workplace is to conduct safety audits, which in many aspects are similar to a complete check-up we get from our doctor every one or two years. 

The OHS audit system is part of an effective safety management system. 

It  is a tool designed to be a proactive operational review aimed at measuring performance as well as success and failures of implemented process and procedures. 

An effective audit system minimises risks and thwarts accidents from occurring through hazard identification, assessments, control and on-going monitoring of potentially hazardous workplace procedures and practices. 

Otherwise, the health and safety of people  are at stake and the cost may be blown up, with employee turnover increasing and productivity plummeting.

There certainly would be a wide range of  domino effects that burden the country because of continued negligence.

There is a great deal of tangible benefits that can be harnessed through OHS audit. 

Nickson Waiy, Via email