Occupational Health & Safety.

This article discusses disability management and return to work plan in occupational health and safety. It covers missing items, strategies to address barriers, and risk factors. The article also highlights the benefits of implementing such initiatives for the injured worker and the manager.

Occupational health and Safety
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Running head: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Disability Management....................................................................................................................2
Return to Work Plan........................................................................................................................3
Summary..........................................................................................................................................4
References........................................................................................................................................6
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Introduction
XYZ enterprises is an environmental service company which has various offices across Canada
and it employees over 2500 staffs in various role such as field position, laboratory position and
office positions. One of the worker of the company named John Smith is enduring a difficult
situation in his life as he suffered a knee injury while working in his garage and was advised to
use crutches while walking and was also put on a waitlist for corrective surgery but due to over-
use of his upper body in supporting crutches, he has recently developed an arm condition which
has restricted his ability to use crutches and he has been classified as totally disable by his
insurance company and thus he is currently facing difficulty in paying his medical bills and
supporting his young family. The Laws which apply to the situation are Charter of Rights and
Freedoms, Canadian Human Rights Act and Employment Equity Act.
Disability Management
1. The item which is missing in the preventative focus category from the point of view of the
organization is that it has not made it mandatory to supervise the working condition of the
employees within the company while they are at work. Another item which is missing in the
early intervention and education category from the point of view of the organization is that it has
not made it mandatory to conduct monthly servicing and repairs of the equipment, devices and
vehicles used in XYZ enterprises in order to ensure the safety of the workers.
2.
a. As opined by Swanberg et al.(2018) the suggestion to implement the item to improve the
overall disability management program is to make it mandatory for the supervisors of XYZ
enterprises and their Occupational Health and Safety Officers to review and analyse the safety
conditions of the environment in which the workers work and also to make it mandatory to
conduct monthly repairs and servicing of the items which are used by the workers in order to
ensure their safety.
b. For the missing items the outcome of XYZ enterprises is as follows:
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 XYZ enterprises will earn a bad reputation among the stakeholders of the company and in
the market for not safeguarding the safety of the workers in the workplace.
 XYZ enterprises will have to bear additional expenses regarding the treatment of the
injured employees and in providing compensation to the injured workers.
Return to Work Plan
1. a. The employee can come back to work when he is no longer totally disabled due to the
illness or the injury and can be provided work other than his regular duties and
responsibilities given that the work is within his current physical and mental abilities.
As opined by Rusu-Zagar, Iorga, Iorga, Rusu-Zagar & Mocanu (2013) the current status
of the employee can be accommodated using one or multiple modifications such as light
duty work, gradual work exposure, work trails or supported and sheltered works. The
modification work which is to be offered to the employee must be in writing form and
should include an expiry date which will lead to reassessment of functional ability to
determine whether further modified work is needed and the type of work if needed.
b. The job of the employee at the time of the illness or injury must be accessed by using a
Physical Demand Analyses (PDA) in order to analyse all the physical requirements which
are associated with the job which can be found in the database of XYZ enterprises or can
be conducted by an Occupational Health and Safety expert. As stated by Carmichael,
Fenton, Pinilla-Roncancio, Sing & Sadhra (2016) the employee must submit a Functional
Ability Assessment which should be completed by a Health Service Provider and it
should consist of an analysis of the movements which can or cannot be performed by the
employee such as walking, lifting, sitting, driving and standing. The Physical Demand
Analysis and Functional Ability Assessment should then be matched, which would
ensure interpretation of the modified work requirement. The modified work requirement
should be obtained by subtracting the Functional Ability Assessment from the Physical
Demand Analysis.
c. The stakeholders who are involved in the process is the worker who is recovering from
the illness or injury, representative of XYZ enterprises such as Human Resource
Manager, immediate supervisor or occupation health and safety expert, representative of
the health care provider such as attending physician, Medical officer, Union of the
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workers if applicable, the insurance provider and the disability management company.
The Human Resource Manager in consultation with Occupational Health and Safety
Officer of XYZ enterprises should determine how the communication between the
stakeholders will take place.
d. The Barriers to RTW and the strategies to address them are as follows:
 Delays in communication and paperwork processing and in order to address the
issue, XYZ enterprises must reduce the complications of paperwork associated
with it.
 Stigmatization of the employee after returning to work and in order to address it
XYZ enterprises must maintain a positive work culture in the work environment
of the company which supports disability management.
 As opined by Kalef, Rubin, Malachowski & Kirsh (2016) as the injured employee
is not in fit mental frame of mind and ready to deal with the pressure of the job so
in order to address the issue, XYZ enterprises must not put excessive work
pressure over the returning employee and slowly when the employee gets
accommodated with the stress of the job, XYZ enterprises can gradually increase
the pressure associated with the particular job role.
e. The risk factors which should be considered in the process are as follows:
 Expenses- One of the major risk factor associated with the process is the
expenses associated with treatment of the employee as it affects the
profitability of XYZ enterprises.
 Compatibility- Another risk factor associated with the process is compatibility
as the injured worker may not be compatible with the requirement of the
modified work which in turn may decrease the efficiency of the modified
work.
Summary
By implementing the above initiatives, it can be observed that the injured worker of XYZ
enterprises can be benefitted immensely as the above initiatives taken by the company can help
the employee to support personal needs and family needs as he is the only breadwinner of the
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family. This will also help in maintaining a belief that he will be reinstated to his normal position
once he is cured. From the perspective of the manager it can be stated that the manager too can
be benefitted by adopting the initiative as by adopting such schemes which support the injured
worker, the manager can communicate a positive image of XYZ enterprises which can help in
increasing the dedication of the workers towards the company as well as will enhance their
satisfaction level and will in turn help in increasing their efficiency towards achieving
organization goals.
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References
Carmichael, F., Fenton, S. H., Pinilla-Roncancio, M., Sing, M., & Sadhra, S. (2016). Workplace
health and wellbeing in construction and retail. International Journal of Workplace
Health Management, 9(2), 251-268. Retrieved from
https://search.proquest.com/docview/1794439555?accountid=30552 Accessed as on
18/11/2018
Kalef, L., Rubin, C., Malachowski, C., & Kirsh, B. (2016). Employers' perspectives on the
Canadian national standard for psychological health and safety in the
workplace. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 28(2), 101-112. Retrieved
from doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10672-015-9270-9 Accessed as on 18/11/2018
Rusu-Zagar, G., Iorga, A., Iorga, O., Rusu-Zagar, C., & Mocanu, M., PhD. (2013).
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS FOR HEALTH AND
SAFETY AT WORK IN ROMANIA IN VIEW OF THE ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIETY. Knowledge Horizons.Economics, 5(2), 130-136.
Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1520561265?accountid=30552
Accessed as on 18/11/2018
Swanberg, J. E., Nichols, H. M., Clouser, J. M., Check, P., Edwards, L., Bush, A. M., . . . Betz,
G. (2018). A systematic review of community health workers’ role in occupational safety
and health research. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, , 1-16. Retrieved from
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10903-018-0711-z Accessed as on 18/11/2018
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