ByeBye Reading Week

Time is flying by so fast my Dears. 

We are now heading towards March as this being the last week in February 2013. 

I had a one week reading break which was quite nice and seemed too short.

I'm now back to school to finish the other half of the semester.

School wise, I have another Op-ed assignment to finish. I will be giving my opinion on how the grievance and arbitration system is a very good way of dealing with problems at the workplace.

Until next time,

xxx

A "village idiot"

Hey Dears,

As i said this semester alot will be going on, as all my courses are based on "Labour relations".

As for last week, I learnt another important work aspect on "Behaviour Based Safety Programs" by Cathy Walker. 

Workplace Behaviour is a very interesting topic to understand because you get to know:

• Aspects like whether it is the employee to blame when incidents like injuries occur at the workplace
• Employer's take on an incident?
• Should Financial incentives at work be enhanced?
• Whats good between internal responsibility system or external responsibility?

So such concepts are well covered by Cathy Walker concerning Behavior Based Safety Programs.

At most times when incidents happen, it is well known to be the employee's fault for being careless or a "village idiot" as referred by Robert Sass, the father of the three worker health and safety rights. Basically the theory assumes that workers are stupid and choose to make bad choices that could be prevented instead of hurting themselves.

Well, I could argue for the rest of my life but to pick a few : 

• The nature or kind of work matters
• Employer's supervision is necessary
• Proper working equipment 
• Proper training and enough knowledge
• Unsafe acts--->unsafe working conditions

Such issues should be taken into consideration before pointing fingers to the employee as being the one at fault in workplace accidents.

With regard to financial incentives, organisations are rewarded for having less injuries. There has been criticism on organisations giving financial incentives to make them not report accidents which is why i asked earlier on should they be improved? is it necessary to have financial incentive?

Last but not least, health inspectors??? is it better for the organisation (internal responsibility) to have their own health and safety committee in the workplace instead of an external source like health inspectors having to monitor their working standards now and then?

Such cases are interesting to know as a worker you should know your right when to be safe.

What do you think of the video? 

Occupational Health and Safety

Hey Dears!

I know its been a while. I did not keep my "stay tuned" promise but again I must say, the workload is just too heavy to handle. I have soo much to tell but the thought of typing kills it. Anyways I still enjoy sharing my "Labour Relations" experience so whenever I can I will.

As for today, I picked one of the current issue assignment i presented on in my Occupational Health and Safety class. It was about the safety of Miners. As we all know each job has a health and safety measure entitled to it. How well do we, employees, feel safe at our workplace? Do we look forward into working in a secured environment each morning? These are just some of the things that need to be taken into account as we proceed working.

So back to Mining!

 I think Mining is one of the most dangerous jobs on this planet! Eish, the thought of going under the ground and not knowing what to face down there, is a bit challenging. So respect to our miners and  a better & safer working environment should be created for them.

There are so many mining incidents that occur. Some are a success story like the one in Peru where the mining rescue team did great to get the miners out of the pit after staying for six days underground. However the success does not come all the time.There are other mining incidents like in China, the Xiaojiawan coal mine disaster that was caused by gas explosion which led to deaths and injuries. Not just in China, but even in Tanzania, we have had severe numbers of mining deaths in the past. 

Again I repeat, Miners face alot of physical hazards like danger of dusts, fire, explosion and electrocution and other hazards like vibration, extreme temperatures, noise, slips, falls, cuts etc...

To think!

So what happens to the families of the victims? Is there any compensation? Is it a fair compensation? Are there any measures to minimize such incidents so as to ensure unsafe work conditions are eliminated from the work place? What happened to Emergency preparedness programs? Will having Unions help?

Have a great Week!

Back to school

Happy 2013 Dears,

Oh wells, another year, another era, another SCHOOL SESSION :)

New challenges, New chances, New opportunities and New professors except for David Camfield whom i took labr1260 with in the last semester.

So im back to school. I had a well rested Christmas Break that i would not trade it for anything. 

This semester I will be doing labour courses alone without any electives, so there will be soo much to talk about in building a better workplace for both employers and employees. 

Stay tuned xxx