Importance of Health and Safety Legislation at Workplace

This report discusses the importance of health and safety legislation at the workplace and its impact on employee well-being. It highlights the different laws and regulations that employers must follow to ensure a safe and healthy working environment. The report also discusses the causes that force employers to focus on occupational health and safety laws, including legal, financial, moral, and reputational causes. Finally, the report emphasizes the importance of employee well-being as a focal point for employers to attain competitive advantages and achieve business objectives.

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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................................3
Health and safety legislation at the workplace................................................................................4
Causes to follow the health and safety laws at the workplace.....................................................5
Employee well-being as a focal point for the employers...............................................................8
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................9
References........................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The aim of this report is to make better understanding about the health and safety
legislations at the workplace and its importance for the employers. Health and safety
concerns are major issues in the organizations that can generate different impact to
the operational activities of the organization in big manner. In the developing
business environment, the government has been developed several laws to protect
health of the employees at the workplace and provide a safe working environment. In
this concern, the report is also describing different causes of adopting these health
and safety laws by the employers.

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Health and safety legislation at the workplace
Health and safety regulations play an essential role in providing a safe and protective
environment at the workplace. In a safe and healthy working environment, the
employees can work in competent manner towards the organizational objectives. In
this concern, it is a big responsibility for the employers to provide a safe and healthy
environment for their employees and reduce the causes of injuries and death at the
workplace (Law et al., 2011). There are several laws related to occupational health
and safety that must be followed by the employers to ensure that their employees
have access to health surveillance and health services. These ACT and legislations
are as below:
 Workplace Safety and Health (Noise) Regulations 2011
 Work Injury Compensation Act (WICA)
 Workplace Safety and Health (General Provisions) Regulations 2006
These legislations must be considered by the employers to ensure a safe and
healthy working environment. The health and safety legislations are required for
employers and all other parties who are involved in the working practices to protect
them from risks and other harmful injuries. These laws impose a duty of care for the
employers, self-employed individuals, manufacturers, suppliers and importers to
develop safe and healthy working practices to reduce the possibilities of injury and
accidents at the workplace (Preibisch and Otero, 2014). As per these laws, the
employers must ensure that they are not exposing the individuals to health and
safety that are arising from the working practices.
The summary of key facts of illness and other deceases at the workplace in UK is
determined in the below diagram:

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(Source: OHS, 2018)
From the above statistical data, it is analyzed employee health and safety is the
major issue at the workplace that have influenced to the working efficiency of the
organization and well being of the employees. The employers can reduce these
issues through implementing the health and safety laws in the organization and
improve the organizational efficiency in proper manner.
Causes to follow the health and safety laws at the workplace
There are several causes that forces the employers to have proper focus on
occupational health and safety laws the workplace. These causes are discusses as
below:
Legal causes:
As per Safety, workplace Safety and Health (General Provisions) Regulations 2006,
there is a requirement for the employers to manage and conduct the working
activities in better manner to ensure health, safety and wellbeing of the employees.
The employers can carried out the risk assessments at the workplace through
making proper control on operational activities. In addition, the employers can
reduce the legal issues generated during the accidents and unwanted circumstances
through implementing the laws of occupational health and safety (Health and Safety

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Authority, 2018). It is analyzed that the manufacturing organizations are facing
several legal issues regarding the employee health and safety. In these
organizations, the pollution generated during operational activities is becoming the
cause of illness and death in the workers. Due to these causes, the workers can take
a legal action against the employer and can claim for high remuneration. These
issues can impact on financial position and market image of the company. In a case
of Victorian Company, the company was fined by $260,000 for failing to address
known safety hazards after burning a man badly at Keon Park (OHS, 2018). Many of
the regions have been imposed the occupational health and safety laws as
obligatory laws for the organizations to operate the business activities without any
concern in the region. In this concern, legal issues from the side of employees are
considered as major cause of implementing health and safety laws at the workplace.
Financial causes:
It is analyzed that injuries and illness of the employees influences to the financial
position of an organization. The employers can face a big loss from the employee
injury at the workplace. In 2016-17, approx 5.5 million estimated working Days are
lost by the employers in UK due to workplace injuries in the employees. Due to loss
of these working days, the employers got cost of £14.9 billion in a year. As well as,
the employers got additional cost of £9.7 billion annually for long latency illness such
as cancer in the employees. In addition, the employers faced an annual cost of £5.3
billion due to workplace injuries in 2015-16 (HSE, 2017). In this concern, it is
analyzed the employees cannot work properly at the workplace, which may lead to
high cost. According to Santos et al., (2013), the organizations can face financial and
human resource cost due to a risky and unhealthy working environment. The
employees cannot work properly with the organizations. In lack of occupational
health and safety policies, the employers will get increased cost of employee
turnover and less output. Under the financial cost, the employers can get loss of
output and other payment modes. These costs will influence on the financial position
of the company and increase total cost of the operational activities. In addition, the
human resource cost will cover financial valuation provided to grief, pain, suffering
and death. Therefore, the occupational health and safety laws enable the employers
to reduce financial and human resource costs.

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In this concern, it is analyzed that the employers can face a heavy financial loss in
lack of occupational health and safety regulations. These financial losses or financial
causes’ forces the employers to follow the legislatives related to employee safety
and health at the workplace. The employers can improve their internal capabilities of
attaining the objectives in desired manner. In a safe and healthy environment, the
employees will retain for long term and work intentionally at the workplace to attain
the organizational objectives in desired manner (Nahrgang et al., 2011). As well as,
the employers can reduce the financial and human related costs through proper
implementation of occupational health and safety laws at the workplace develop a
healthy workplace for the employees as a healthy environment leads to healthy
employee and improved productivity of the organization.
Moral causes:
Moral is also an essential element and cause of focusing on workplaces. Moral
obligation is an essential tool of making relationship between the employees and
employers. Moral obligation includes loyalty, caring and respect of an employee. The
respected and caring employees work with better efforts towards the organizational
objectives (Lundgren and McMakin, 2018). A good moral is helpful for the employers
to improve job satisfaction and well being of the employees. The employers can
develop a good moral at the workplace and make better relationship with the
employees through establishing a healthy and safe working environment. In other
words, a safe and healthy working environment is helpful in establishing employee
morale at the workplace. According to Pauly et al., (2012), moral is an ethical cause
at the workplace that must be resolved by the employers improve the strengths and
capabilities of the organization to attain the goals and objectives in effective manner.
Fair pay and good working condition is not enough for the organizations to attain
business objectives, there must be genuine and continuing concerns at the
workplace for employee well-being. In this concern, the employers must
communicate with the employees to find out the issues of health and risk at the
workplace to take an appropriate decision to reduce this health and risk issue at the
workplace. These efforts will enable the employers to reduce the moral issue at the
workplace and develop confidence in the employees towards the organizational
objectives (Gallagher, 2011). As well as, the employers can improve job satisfaction
in the employees through having proper focus on health and safety concerns at the

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workplace. In this concern, moral is also considered as a major cause to have
attention health and safety concerns at the workplace.
Reputational causes:
The implemented health and safety regulations present the reputation of an
organization among the competitive firms. In this concern, the reputation of an
organization also depends on the implemented organizational policy towards the
employee health and safety at the workplace. The employers can attract the capable
and experienced employees who have intention to work in a safe and healthy
working environment (Dierynck et al., 2017). For instance, if an employer is not
focusing on working environment than the employee will discuss about this to other
which will influence the reputation of the organization in the market. On the other
hand, better health and safety policies will improve the reputation of the organization
among the employees and market. In this concern, reputation is a major cause which
forces the employers to have proper focus on developing a safe and healthy
environment at the workplace.
Employee well-being as a focal point for the employers
According to Shuck and Reio (2014), employee well-being is a focal point on which
the employers must have proper focus. A happy and healthy employee will work
towards the organizational objectives with full intention. The employee well-being
directly affects to thinking and feelings of the employees and their performance at
the workplace. The well-being can influence to the behaviour of the employees,
which will directly impact their behaviour at the workplace. The employers can
confidently move the needle on health outcomes through understanding the pattern
of employee behaviour and implement appropriate tactics to change their behaviour.
Employers can improve their working capabilities through improving the well-being of
the employees (Seiger and Wiese, 2011). As well as, they can improve the
confidence in the employees through improving well-being in better manner. In this
concern, employee well-being is a focal point for the employers to attain the
competitive advantages and attain the business objectives in desired manner.
In this concern, care of the employees is advantageous for organizations in providing
protection against the injuries at the workplace, improving economic stability and

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value recognition in the eyes of the employees. The employees will be physically to
perform their job in better manner at the workplace. Therefore, the organizations can
establish a secure and safe working environment for the employees to attain the
growth objectives of the organization in desired manner.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the occupational health and
safety laws have been played an essential role in establishing a safe and healthy
working environment for the employees. The employees can work confidently in a
safe and healthy environment. It is also analyzed that the major causes of adopting
the occupational health and safety laws are legislative causes, financial causes,
moral causes and reputational causes. These causes forced the employers to have
proper focus on development of a safe and healthy working environment. In addition,
the employers can also consider employee well-being as an element of improving
employee health at the workplace. In order to develop health and safe working
environment the employers must consider these occupational health and safety laws
in the organizational policies. The employers can also improve their internal
capabilities and reduce the financial and human resource costs generated from
illness of the employees at the workplace. In this concern, it is analyzed that the
occupational health and safety laws are helpful for the employers in improving the
efficiency of their human resources to attain the organizational objectives in desired
manner.

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References
Dierynck, B., Leroy, H., Savage, G. T., and Choi, E. (2017) The role of individual and
collective mindfulness in promoting occupational safety in health care, Medical care
research and review, 74(1), pp. 79-96.
Gallagher, A. (2011) Moral distress and moral courage in everyday nursing
practice, Online journal of issues in nursing, 16(2), pp. 7-9.
Health and Safety Authority (2018) Legislation and Enforcement. [Online]. Available
at: https://www.hsa.ie/eng/Your_Industry/Fishing/Legislation_and_Enforcement/
(Accessed: 31 October 2018).
HSE (2017) Health and Safety Executive, Summary statistics for Great Britain 2017,
pp. 5-9.
Law, R., Dollard, M. F., Tuckey, M. R., and Dormann, C. (2011) Psychosocial safety
climate as a lead indicator of workplace bullying and harassment, job resources,
psychological health and employee engagement, Accident Analysis &
Prevention, 43(5), pp. 1782-1793.
Lundgren, R. E., and McMakin, A. H. (2018) Risk communication: A handbook for
communicating environmental, safety, and health risks. USA: John Wiley & Sons.
Nahrgang, J. D., Morgeson, F. P., and Hofmann, D. A. (2011) Safety at work: a
meta-analytic investigation of the link between job demands, job resources, burnout,
engagement, and safety outcomes, Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(1), pp. 71-73.
OHS (2018) News & Info for Australian OHS Professionals. [Online]. Available at:
http://workplaceohs.com.au/resources/cases?y=2005 (Accessed: 31 October 2018).
Pauly, B. M., Varcoe, C., and Storch, J. (2012) Framing the issues: moral distress in
health care. In Hec Forum. USA: Springer.
Preibisch, K., and Otero, G. (2014) Does Citizenship Status Matter in C anadian
Agriculture? Workplace Health and Safety for Migrant and Immigrant Laborers, Rural
Sociology, 79(2), pp. 174-199.

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Santos, G., Barros, S., Mendes, F., and Lopes, N. (2013) The main benefits
associated with health and safety management systems certification in Portuguese
small and medium enterprises post quality management system certification, Safety
science, 51(1), pp. 29-36.
Seiger, C. P., and Wiese, B. S. (2011) Social support, unfulfilled expectations, and
affective well‐being on return to employment, Journal of Marriage and Family, 73(2),
pp. 446-458.
Shuck, B., and Reio Jr, T. G. (2014) Employee engagement and well-being: A
moderation model and implications for practice, Journal of Leadership &
Organizational Studies, 21(1), pp. 43-58.