HEALTH AND SAFETY OFFICER

A. Position Concept The plants construction safety engineer is responsible to the plant/ construction manager, the employee relations manager and the personnel manager for: v Developing and executing an effective program of safety engineering and industrial hygiene within the plant/site, with the appropriate procedures. v Developing and directing safety engineering and safety inspection personnel associated with the plant/site. v Developing and directing safety training programs and procedures within the plant / site. B. Relationships within the Company The Safety Officer will establish and maintain the following relationships within the company: v With the Plant/ Construction Manager. The Safety Officer is accountable to this executive for the proper interpretation and fulfillment of duties and responsibilities in concurrence with the dictates of the corporate manager of safety and hygiene. v With the Department Heads and Supervisors. The Safety Officer is responsible for providing advise and guidance about safety and industrial hygiene appropriate to their processes, installations and procedures of the plant/site. v With Employees. The Safety Officer is responsible for providing advice and guidance about any employees specific job or work area in the interest of preventing accidents and controlling property damage. v With Unions. The Safety Officer is responsible for fulfilling his contractual obligations regarding matters of safety and health. v Outside the Company. The Safety Officer must establish relationships with professional and organizational groups.

C. Accountability The Safety Officer is accountable to the plant/construction manager for his/her actions and their consequences. Performance will be judged on the following criteria: v Reduction of the Frequency and Severity of Accidents. The same criteria for measurement must be consistently used throughout the company. v Reduction of Costs stemming from accidents. Weightings must be used to correct for dissimilarities between operations in different areas of the company. v The efficiency and smoothness of a departments operations vis-a-vis operations of the plant as a whole.

D. Need for Safety Professional The number of people employed in a plant/ site is not the only factor in determining whether the safety program should be in the hand of a full-time safety professional. The nature of the operation will indicate what the need should be. The trend is to employ a fulltime safety professional for the following reasons : v Compliance to Rule 1047 of the Occupational Safety and Health Standards (OSHS). v The high degree of union involvement now developing in Safety Health and Environmental. v Challenges in machine design, plant layout, product safety and the great need for fire prevention and security. v The way people think about the profit motives of a company.

E. Duties of the Safety Man (Rule 1047 The principal function of the Safety Officer is to act as the employers principal assistant and consultant in the application of programs to remove the hazards from the workplace and to correct unsafe work practices. For this purpose, the Safety Officer has the following duties: v Serves as Secretary to the Health and Safety Committee. As such, he shall: a. prepare minutes of the meeting b. report status of recommendations made c. notify members of the meetings and d. submit to the employer a report of the activities of the committee including recommendations made. v Acts in an advisory capacity on all matters pertaining to health and safety for the guidance of employer and the workers. v Conducts investigations of accidents as member of the Health and Safety Committee and submit his separate report and analysis of accidents to the employer. v Coordinates all health and safety training programs for the employees and employer. v Conducts health and safety inspection as member of the committee. v Maintains or helps in the maintenance of an efficient accident record system and coordinates actions taken by supervisor to eliminate accident causes. v Provides assistance to government agencies in the conduct of safety and health inspection, accident investigation or any other related programs. v For purposes of effectiveness in a workplace where full time safety man is required, he shall report directly to the employer.

The SAFETY DEPARTMENT (Excerpts from Personnel and Human Resource Management by Perfecto S. Sison) Safety is a line function. The Safety Officer, however, is a Staff Man who usually reports to the HSE Manager or Project In-Charge. His functions includes but not limited to: 1. Safety Education 2. Investigating Accidents 3. Analyzing the Causes of Accidents 4. Preparing Accident Statistics and Reports Safety is line management's responsibility. However, since line management lacks the required expertise on Safety Problem Solving and is usually busy, an expert who can assist and advice in handling the problems of safety is hired. The Safety Officer is assigned in this job and therefore acts as Staff Officer to the Supervisor.

Most accidents are caused by a worker who does his job improperly. Since the Supervisor is usually near the worker, he can immediately make the necessary corrections, whereas the Safety Officer may not always be around and near the worker. The Line Supervisor is therefore primarily responsible for the workers in their jobs. If the Safety Officer exercises too much authority, the Supervisor may just leave the responsibility for safety to him and thus forget safety altogether or ignore safety regulations. The Supervisor and the Safety Officer may disclaim responsibility for safety and just shift it from one to the other. Whenever an accident occurs, each may put the blame on the other. If the accident rate gets too high, the Supervisor may say that it is the responsibility of the Safety Officer and vice versa. The Safety Officer must get the cooperation of the Supervisors and workers. He may achieve the aims of his Safety Program effectively through educational activities, conferences/ meetings with the Safety Committee and Supervisors. He may workout devices that will reach every employee such as Toolbox Meetings, Posters, Propaganda, Contests. etc.