Discuss about the Occupational Health Management in Hospitality Industry.
The occupational health and safety refers to the multidisciplinary ground that is concerned with health, safety and the welfare of people in workplace. This helps the employees to reduce the accidents, injuries and medical illness in the workplace (Hammer, Truxillo, Bodner, Rineer, Pytlovany, & Richman, 2015).
Health and safety programs can be arranged to reduce the problems regarding health and safety in the workplace of hospitality management. This may include the controlling of hazards and development of safety plan, inspection of workplace, training of the employees, investigation of the incidents. The main aim of the assignment is to make people aware about the health and safety in the workplace.
This paper provides clear overview of emerging occupational health safety issues for the workers of hospitality industry. The paper focuses on the manifestation of health hazards risks and their prevention. The paper discusses about the legislative requirements of occupational health and safety and the standard industry practice.
According to Ariza-Montes, Arjona-Fuentes, Law, and Han (2017), there are various hazards that are found in the workplace and millions of workers die annually. In hospitality industry, overexertion is common for the workers to move fixtures and furniture. This can be prevented by the bending the knees and balancing the body. The employees need to know the smooth and gradual motions. Moatari-Kazerouni, Chinniah, and Agard (2015) mentioned that another health and safety issue in the hospitality industry is the burning. Approximately 14 % of accidents are happened due to spill or splash of hot surface or hot liquids. Unguarded machineries may cause serious cuts, fractures, amputation and crushing injuries. Moatari-Kazerouni and Chinniah (2015) argued that the mentioned two hazards can be preventive if the workers know the proper technique. Therefore, the workers need proper training for the self-protection. Moreover, the authority should have the hazard prevention arrangements for the workers. The items need to be dried before using those items with the hot oil. The workers need to make sure that they handle pots and the pans, which do not move out from the stoves. They can use the dry clothes during handling the hot objects.
Zhang, Kandampully, and Choi (2014) mentioned that to reduce the injuries from the unguarded machinery, the workers need to check if all guards are in place before using. The workers need to check the instructions of the manufactures before the equipments for the safety purpose. () argued that the old equipments should be replaced by the new guarded equipments. Slippery floor is another risk of the occupational health and safety hazards. The workers may slip and therefore, it may cause fracture, breakdown of hip or leg bone. The workers can use the non-slip foot wares and keep the floor clean and water free. Grawitch, Ballard, and Erb (2015) suggested that rubber mat can be used on the floor to avoid the hazards due to slippery floor. The workers in the hospitality industry have to work with the knives and sharp equipments. They need to know the usage of the sharp equipments to avoid the cut and injuries that may cause by using the sharp knives. To avoid the problems by using the sharp knives, the workers can use cutting board. They need training so that they can use the right knife for the particular jobs. They need to be aware during using the knives such as cutting vegetables, washing sharp equipments (Model Work Health and Safety Act – Safe Work Australia., 2012).
The workers can use the personal protective equipments like chemical resistant gloves, work gloves, disposable waterproof glove, non-slippery foot wares, and safety glasses and face shield (Tompa, et al., 2016). The chemical resistant gloves can be used during handling and cleaning the chemicals. The workers can use the hand gloves during garbage handling, working in the storage areas and doing landscaping. The disposable waterproof gloves are used to clean blood and body fluids. To handle the cuts and cleaning the operational equipments, the workers can use the cut- resistance gloves. The non- slippery foot wares can be used during working in the kitchen and they can use the steel boots during operating the landscaping equipments. The safety glasses are used for the eye protection during cooking or handling hazardous equipments. The hazardous chemicals may splash on face therefore; the workers need to use the safety face shields and safety goggles. Another type of hazards is the biohazards that are cleaning the bathrooms, laundry or kitchen. To prevent such hazards, Benavides-Velasco, Quintana-García, and Marchante-Lara (2014) suggested that the workers need to use the personal protective equipments. They can use the waterproof bags to collect the garbage of bathroom, kitchen and laundry. They need to hold the plastic garbage-collecting bag far from their body. They can use masks during cleaning the bathroom, kitchen.
In view of Rahman, Palaneeswaran, Kulkarni, and Zou (2015), workplace violence is another reason of the occupational health and safety hazards. The workers should have the ability to understand the early signs of violence and prevent them on the early stage to decrease the chance of hazards. They need to have the ability to handle problems and help the customers as quickly as possible. They need to develop the communication skill and know about the health and safety policies and legislation. Sometimes, the workers may face problems outside the workplace. For example, during coming to the workplace, accidents may happen on the roads. The workers need to be careful and have the ability of handling problems via strong communication skills. The workers need to assess the problems first and should have proper training to handle the risk factors (Jones, Jones, Hillier, Hillier, Comfort, & Comfort, 2016). It is the responsibility of the authority to arrange training sessions for the workers and reduce the risks of the health and safety hazards in workplace. Another problem of the hospitality industry workers may be the improper reservation of the employee and customer data. They need to follow the Data Protection Act to avoid the conflict with customers. This will help to reduce the violence in the workplace.
The Work Healthy and Safety Act (2011) provide the structure for protecting the welfare, health and safety of the workers at the workplace. It helps to protect the health and safety of everyone working in the workplace including the employees, subcontractors, contractors, outworkers, apprentices and trainees, volunteers and employers. However, the work health and safety act tries to protect the public, who may be affected by the workplace hazards (Schubauer-Berigan, Dahm, Schulte, Hodson, & Geraci, 2015). The work health and safety act sets out the needs of following:
From the information sheet of the Australian and other Standards provides common guidance to the duty holders on the Australian and other Standards. This will guide the workers to interact with the model of Work Health and Safety Act and the Work Health and Safety Regulations. This may cover the definition of Standard; conform of Standard, WHS laws with the codes of practice. The model of Work Health and Safety Act structures the basis of work health and Safety act. It has been applied in the most jurisdictions in Australia. However, () mentioned that the Parliament of the jurisdiction needs to pass the work healthy and safety act to have the efficient and effective jurisdiction. This model will help the workers to maintain the healthy and wellbeing lifestyle.
There are some standard industry practice of health and safety. The workers need to obey the code of practice. The standard industry practice of health and safety helps to define the safety and health needs and precautions, which is applicable to the government, employers, manufactures and the employees (Work Health and Safety Act 2011, 2012). This standard industry practice focuses on prevention of the workplace violence and the adverse consequence. The code intend to serve the basic reference tools to stimulate improvement of equipments in regional, sectoral, national, organizational and workplace level. This code helps the guide the employers for adapting the positive strategies to manage the disability related problems in workplace.
Based on the above discussion, it can be concluded that the occupational health and safety plays important role in the development of the hospitality industry. To reduce the problems regarding health and safety in the workplace of hospitality management, the worker need to know various thing. For example, they need to know the controlling of hazards and development of safety plan, inspection of workplace, training of the employees, investigation of the incidents. The Work Health and Safety Act (2011) plays important role to teach the workers about the safe process to work in the workplace. They can use the personal prevention equipments for the self –protection and avoid the health hazards. The Work Health and Safety legislation model can help the workers to maintain the healthy and wellbeing lifestyle. The standard industry practice of health and safety helps to define the safety and health needs and precautions.
References
Ariza-Montes, A., Arjona-Fuentes, J. M., Law, R., & Han, H. (2017). Incidence of workplace bullying among hospitality employees. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management .
Benavides-Velasco, C. A., Quintana-García, C., & Marchante-Lara, M. (2014). Total quality management, corporate social responsibility and performance in the hotel industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management , 77-87.
Grawitch, M. J., Ballard, D. W., & Erb, K. R. (2015). To be or not to be (stressed): The critical role of a psychologically healthy workplace in effective stress management. . Stress and Health , 264-273.
Hammer, L. B., Truxillo, D. M., Bodner, T., Rineer, J., Pytlovany, A. C., & Richman, A. (2015). Effects of a workplace intervention targeting psychosocial risk factors on safety and health outcomes. BioMed research international , 15.
Jones, P., Jones, P., Hillier, D., Hillier, D., Comfort, D., & Comfort, D. (2016). Sustainability in the hospitality industry: Some personal reflections on corporate challenges and research agendas. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management .
Moatari-Kazerouni, A., Chinniah, Y., & Agard, B. (2015). A proposed occupational health and safety risk estimation tool for manufacturing systems. International journal of production research , 4459-4475.
Moatari-Kazerouni, A., Chinniah, Y., & Agard, B. (2015). Integration of occupational health and safety in the facility layout planning, part II: design of the kitchen of a hospital. International journal of production research , 3228-3242.
Model Work Health and Safety Act – Safe Work Australia. (2017). Safeworkaustralia.gov.au. Retrieved 27 March 2017, from https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/swa/model-whs-laws/model-whs-act/pages/model-whs-act
Rahman, A., Palaneeswaran, E., Kulkarni, A., & Zou, P. (2015). Musculoskeletal health and safety of aged workers in manual handling works. In Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (IEOM). IEEE. , 1-4.
Schubauer-Berigan, M. K., Dahm, M. M., Schulte, P. A., Hodson, L., & Geraci, C. L. (2015). Characterizing adoption of precautionary risk management guidance for nanomaterials, an emerging occupational hazard. Journal of occupational and environmental hygiene .
Tompa, E., Kalcevich, C., Foley, M., McLeod, C., Hogg?Johnson, S., Cullen, K., et al. (2016). A systematic literature review of the effectiveness of occupational health and safety regulatory enforcement. American journal of industrial medicine .
Work Health and Safety Act 2011. (2017). WorkSafe Queensland. Retrieved march 27, 2017, from https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/laws-and-compliance/workplace-health-and-safety-laws/laws-and-legislation/work-health-and-safety-act-2011
Zhang, T. C., Kandampully, J., & Choi, H. Y. (2014). The role of employee wellness programme in the hospitality industry: a review of concepts, research, and practice. Research in Hospitality Management , 4.
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