In Manufacturing Plants - employers protect workers with a range of safety devices and regulations. Many workers are required to wear protective equipment such as goggles, safety helmets, ear protectors and steel-toed shoes.

The actual factory itself is likely to contain barriers to prevent falls, built in sprinklers to control fires and special equipment to control dust and fumes throughout the plant.

Workers are responsible too
Workers are also responsible for their own safety and should inspect and report any hazards that might cause an accident. Many workers have lost their lives simply because they were frightened to tell their employer of the dangers at the workplace. The law says that everyone has a right to ensure that their workplace is safe.

Many people do not even realise that their job is unsafe until the damage has already been done. For example, workers working outside in the hot sun may develop skin cancer later on in life and bar staff at hotels may experience hearing difficulties due to the loud music.

Stress and Work
Sometimes safety aspects are not completely obvious. Many workers suffer from work related stress due to the many pressures they face at work. The types of job where stress related problems occur include male prison officers, office workers and teachers. 

In some cases stress can be the result of a traumatic incident, such as bank hold-up or an act of violence by a member of the public. Stress can also result from normal work pressures such as serving customers and conflict with other workers. The high incidence of stress in the workplace appears to have increased over the years. However, it is only in recent years that workers have started to discuss stress in the workplace and recognise it as a safety issue.

Young Workers
Young workers are often regarded as accident prone and careless, yet they are usually given the riskiest jobs and are often exposed to the possibility of lifelong injuries in unsafe work places. Safe work practices need to be taught and it is the responsibility of the employer to provide training and information about safety in the workplace.

The employer is responsible for providing a safe workplace, however, managers and supervisors are also responsible for telling the employer about workplace hazards. If an employer does not provide a safe workplace they could be fined thousands of dollars in the event of an accident.

The Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Service of the Department of Labour in New Zealand sets out the rules and regulations that workplaces must follow in order to provide safe work practices. This is known as the The Health and Safety in Employment Act. This Act is a special law passed by the government. Its main goals are to:

To make sure the Act is followed through, there are several Health and Safety branches covering all regions of the country. Investigations are carried out by officers from each branch to make sure that the workplace is safe and the health of employees is not being damaged. At each branch there are a number of people who work with employers to make the workplace a safe as possible.

In some cases in the workplace, hazards are unavoidable. The Health and Safety committee needs to make sure that workers are protected from these hazards and have been trained to work safely around the hazards. Click on the headings below to see some of the types of hazards that workers need to be aware of.

Noise

Back to Work Issues and Safety Index