OH&S Case Study Report: Workplace Incidents, Analysis, and Solutions

This report analyzes a case study on occupational health and safety, focusing on a personal workplace accident and the Westray coal mine explosion. The report includes a reflection on a witnessed incident, discussing potential preventative measures. It also addresses the Westray disaster, examining the causes, management failures, and the resulting legal and safety implications. The report identifies key stakeholders in healthcare and outlines the roles of occupational health and safety professionals, emphasizing inspection, injury prevention, training, and employee support. The assignment highlights the importance of proactive safety measures, proper training, and stakeholder responsibility in preventing workplace accidents and ensuring a safe working environment. The provided references support the analysis and findings.

Running Head: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
Name of the University:
Name of the Student:
Author Note:

1OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
Task 1 Reflection:
1.
Accidents occurring in the workplace can be coined by the term workplace accidents.
Last summer while working on my part time job, I had faced a very serious accident, which
actually had become one of the grave reasons of my life long back pain. Slips, falls and trips are
considered as one of the most valid reasons of causing personal injuries. While going through my
night shift duties, I was on rounds visiting the patients. On the way to the corridor, the floor was
getting swept. The whole floor was wet and slippery with soap water and there was no presence
of board or any sign, which could have determined or warned me of the respective hazard.
Following this as soon as I stepped on the floor, I completely slipped, making me fall in a very
bad manner. My back was badly hurt along and the heavy fall had completely affected L3 and L5
region.
2.
Slipping or spilling is one of the most common but can become of the most grave reasons
for serious conditions. The reason due to which I had tripped was completely because of the lack
of following essential protocols along with the safety measures. These kind of accidents can be
clearly avoided if the safety measures are placed properly. The sweeper while sweeping the floor
or the hospitality department could have made it clear to the employees or the people assigned to
work to place boards whenever necessary and that they should be clearly not put soap water on
the hospital floor and leave the work premises for other work. The scenario in my case projects
that they were negligent in ensuring a safe working environment for their employees. This kind

2OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
of hazards can be totally avoided with the use of proper hazard preventive measures and with
providing adequate education regarding the work health hazards to the workers.
Task 4 Answer:
1.
The case of Westray coal mine (Tucker, 2016) is considered as one of the milestone
cases, which had been very helpful in forming the rules regarding how the occupational health
should be maintained along with the implementation of the safety rules and marking the
violations occurring in providing safety in Canadian law. In the year May 9th of 1992, at 05:20
am, a huge explosion occurred in the Westray coal mine, which resulted in the death of 26
miners. Even though more than 170 mine rescue workers were saved with extensive application
of rescue efforts, the explosion pointed out clearly the loop holes in the Canadian law to provide
safe work environment for the workers to work in. The case was investigated by Justice Peter
Richard and he mentioned in his final report The Westray Story: a Predicatble Path to Disaster,
that the disaster had been a eye opener for the people of the community and that if there were
ample amount of precautions taken, the total disaster was more likely preventable. The report
also stated about the reasons due to which the disaster took place in the first place. The report
also focused on the style undertaken by the management to emphasize more on the production
rather than looking into the safety of the workers or the work environment. Justice Richard also
mentioned about the fact that the workers were over worked by making them work for a 12 hours
shift and were given no required training for performing safe mining procedures. The supervisors
present were also without any authority to correct the hazardous conditions or control the
shortcuts taken by the workers to gain more productivity. Rules and regulations were violated

3OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
immensely leading to excessive amount of exposure of gas and coal dust leading to gradual
decrease in the health of the workers as well. The report concluded that mining in the Westray
coal field had defied all the rules and protocols for performing safe mining, which ultimately
lead to the cause of such a drastic incident. The incident had proved to be an eye opening
incident where the flaws of the management not taking interest in the safety procedures or
promoting a safe environment, was clearly shown.
2.
I completely agree with the claims of Justice Richard , in the report regarding the
explosion of the Westray coal mine. Richard had stated many valid points like making the
workers over work to gain more production has been one of the main reasons of the explosion
(Pérusse, 2016). Making the workers perform coal mining without teaching them or educating
them about the safe coal mining procedure and ultimately affecting their health.
3.
Stakeholders are individuals and organizations that have an interest in your assessment
and/or its results or are affected by it (Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart & Wright, 2017). Patients,
doctors, employers, insurance companies, pharmaceutical firms the government are the key
stakeholders in the healthcare system. The government is subsidizing health care for the elderly,
the handicapped and the sick. All those who are concerned in this has duties and responsibilities.
4.
The main roles of occupational health and safety professionals in a workplace includes
the inspection of the places where the workers work (Hofmann, Burke & Zohar, 2017).

4OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
Providing instructions and guidelines for the prevention of injuries and industrial disease,
creating wellbeing perks, upskilling the workers wounded while working and providing them
with therapy along with indoctrinating the employees on industrial safety and health.

5OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
References:
Hofmann, D. A., Burke, M. J., & Zohar, D. (2017). 100 years of occupational safety research:
From basic protections and work analysis to a multilevel view of workplace safety and
risk. Journal of applied psychology, 102(3), 375.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018). A smarter national
surveillance system for occupational safety and health in the 21st century. National
Academies Press.
Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2017). Human resource
management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
Education.
Pérusse, M. (2016). Ten Pathways to Death and Disaster. Relations Industrielles/Industrial
Relations, 71(3), 568-570.
Tucker, E. (2016). Accountability and reform in the aftermath of the Westray mine explosion.
In Working Disasters (pp. 280-312). Routledge.