UNIVERSITY OF THE EAST

CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

Caloocan

COURSE: NCE_4401 : Construction Occupational Safety and Health

ACTIVITY NO. : M5: ACTIVITY NO.1

TITLE: Reaction Paper on: OSH Policy and Safety Statement

NAME: Baloloy, Selwyn Brian M.

SECTION: 4CE - 1B

PROFESSOR: Christine P. Torio

DATE: September 17, 2022

RATING:
 Reaction Paper on:

OSH Policy and Safety Statement

Occupational Safety and Health has its local and international versions to
keep the workers in safe condition around the world every time they’re in the
workplace. However, as the Consman Engineers Group reports about the OSH
Policy and Safety Statement, I have realized that the company is also responsible for
creating OSH Policy Statement for their workers. In the first place, I thought that the
company only rely on what is the country’s OSH Law. Nonetheless, this statement
differs in every organization knowing the fact that the OSH Policy Statement of the
company reflects its size, nature, and habits of it. As a result, different health and
safety policies have occurred in various companies. All of these policies will be
delivered to all of the workers for them to implement it on their own to achieve a
healthful work environment.

Moreover, Occupational Safety and Health Law in the Philippines or the

Republic Act No. 11058 (An Act Strengthening Compliance with Occupational Safety
and Health (OSH) Standards and Providing Penalties for Violations Thereof) was
signed by Former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. It aims to protect Filipino workers
from imminent dangers in work-related activities that may cause injury, sickness, or
death. Through OSH Policy Statement, promoting these good practices will be very
easier to leave a mark on the employees.

In addition, “Occupational Safety and Health” is being looked at in a broad

manner wherein people tend to disregard it due to its complex idea. However, OSH
has three major fields, Occupational Safety, Occupational Health, and Industrial
Hygiene as the OSHMS 360 (2022) stated. To elaborate more clearly, Occupational
Safety is about recognizing the factors that lead to workplace accidents and learning
how to avoid risky behavior and circumstances at work. On the other hand,
Occupational Health discusses how various workplace risks and hazards can result
in a tragedy and underlines the need for health programs in preventing potential
accidents, incidents, or fatalities. Lastly, Industrial Hygiene covers the recognition,
assessment, and management of physical, chemical, biological, and ergonomic risks.
 All I can say is that Occupational Safety and Health are about pre, present,
and post-event accidents. Why? Because “Pre” includes the recognition of the
factors or the accident causation for them to reduce the probability of the hazard
occurrence or what we call risk. “Present” is about the safety precautions needed to
implement during working hours like wearing personal protective equipment, having
signage in the work area, etc. And lastly, “Post” is the level of readiness on how they
will handle a specific accident or what we call first aid.

According to Pearson (2020), accident causation consists of three elements

such as host, agency, and environment. All of these are the factors of having
accidents in the workplace that’s why creating an OSH Policy Statement is a must.
Usually, this statement is created by the employer. To make it effective, we should
include all of the employees as well as the senior management in preparing the
policy because they are the ones who saw the needs in the site that must be
monitored due to the first-hand experience they come across every working hour.
This process will decrease the percentage of causation of accidents in an agency.
However, to lower the probability of hazard occurrence to the host, the policy should
be simple, specific, and easy to understand. And for the environment, it will depend
on the workers' or employees’ attitude because creating a safe work area is in the
hands of the people for the reason that they are the one who is responsible for it. As
an example, keeping the workplace clean, obeying the safety protocols, following the
signage in the vicinity of the site, and many more.

If all of the preparation has been done like having risk assessment, safety
assessment, and creating OSH Policy Statement but still workers didn’t obey,
violations will enter. And because of the example of the Consman Engineers Group
of violation in the company where they conducted their on-the-job training, it gives
me an idea that there will be verbal warning, letters, and fines involved when
committing violations. In addition, I also remember that employees should be given a
rebuttal stage where he/she can say their reasons why he/she committed that act.
However, the reason for being ignorant of the policies is often used and not
acceptable because companies didn’t fail to remind employees about these rules.

On a final note, all of these policies will still depend on the workers because
like what they say “knowing safety is not enough, practice it!”
References:

OSHMS 360 (2022). What is Occupational Safety and Health (OSH)? Retrieved from.
https://courses.oshms360.com/topic/what-is-occupational-safety-and-health-
osh-1/

Pearson (2020). Chapter 3: Theories of Accident Causation. Retrieved from.

https://wps.prenhall.com/chet_goetsch_occupation_7/139/35769/9157107.c
w/-/9157132/index.html