Exercise 1

Have you ever realized how important is OSHA 1994 to a developing country
especially in Malaysia? Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 (OSHA 1994) is an
Act that provides the legislative framework to ensure the safety, health and welfare
among all Malaysian workforces and to protect others against risks to safety or health
in relation with the activities of persons at work. Many accidents occur when
employees, particular young employees, use machines, equipment, substances or
work in hazardous environment without proper training. Therefore, media mass play
an important role on these issue in order to attract public attention. In this essay, we
are going to discuss few local accidents regarding on occupational safety and health
issues which are happened a week ago.
On September 10, a man was accidentally killed by a huge fallen tree branch
in Kampung Pokok Asam, Padang Pusing, Pendang, Alor Setar. According to the
investigation, the victim is named Mohd. Fakhrul Rozi Zainuddin who was 27 years
old was killed when the branch he cut fell on top of his body. The body was hanging
on the tree before he is rescued by the rescuers. It is believed that the victim was
searching for a type of traditional medicine which is known as kelutut honey at his
house backyard. In my point of view, the accident can be avoided if Fakhrul had
obeyed the right procedures of work. He should wear personnel protective equipment
as we all know that harvesting for honey activity is a dangerous task and it must be
done by professional beekeepers. According to the right procedure to harvest honey
you need the right clothes, smoker, fuel for the smoker, 2 buckets with lids, small
strong table, and a few inexpensive tools. It is also advisable to have two or more
companions with you for easier harvesting. Besides that, long gloves are also
necessary. He should have wearing a canvas shirt or sweatshirt under the suit for
added protection. High rubber boots are also nice for tucking in the bottom of your
coveralls.
On September 13, a hotel waitress Zaini Mohd Razali was almost raped at
the hostel in Jalan Tun Perak at Malacca. According to Zaini, the armed intruder,
described as a small-sized teenager with brown dyed hair, entered her room while
she was sleeping after come back from work. The intruder attacked and stabbed her
with a knife before threatened to rape and rob her. The victim survived five stab
wounds in the brutal attack and made her escape via the back door of the hostel.
Malacca police had successfully detained the prime suspect at 6.15 pm on Thursday.
In this case, employers have a big responsibility to provide a safe workplace which is
free from serious recognized hazards and comply with standards, rules and
regulations issued under the OSH Act. For example, the hotel management team
should provide a safer hostel with high security for the workers. Employers must
implement and train employees on the hazard they might expose and proper
precautions.
On 13
th
September 2014, a Bangladeshi construction worker killed after
around 200 bricks fell from a crane at a construction site at Jelutong. This incident
was happened around 2 pm at a construction site located at the Tun Dr Lim Chong
Eu Expressway of Malaysia. During the incident, there are 8 workers working at the
site and the bricks fell on 3 of the workers. Unfortunately, the worker known as
Lablu, 34, from Bangladesh died on the spot after suffered serious head injuries.
Another worker who also suffered head injury is now in a critical condition and is
receiving treatment at Penang Hospital. One more workers only suffered injuries to
his foot and sent to the hospital to receive treatment. In this incident, we can notice
that all this happen due to impropriate safety action taken on the site. The crane that
lifts up the bricks should have a good tie and grip on the bricks during the
transporting process. However, due to the mistake weak connection between the
crane and bricks, this incident happens and causes a death and some injuries.
Besides that, the Bangladeshi workers at the site also fail to protect themselves by
wearing proper safety gadget. They should at least wear safety helmet and safety
shoe during working at site to prevent any falling object to direct compact with their
body parts. If they had worn those safety tools, they might get a chance to survive
and avoided injuries. This project safety officer should also take the blame for not
providing and ensuring the safety precaution being taken. Authorities have the right
to fine him and make sure the project install more safety gadget before it starts
operating again.
On 14
th
September 2014, a Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight was forced to divert
back to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) due to an auto-pilot defect. This
MH198 flight was departed on 13
th
September 2014 around 10:20pm from Kuala
Lumpur to Hyderabad, Telegana state capital in South India. It was understood that
the flight operating captain found out a defect on the auto-pilot system and decided to
turn back as a precautionary measure. The plane took almost four hours looping
around Sungkai and Trolak area in Perak to burn off fuel in the air before landing in
KLIA. In this incident, the pilot in charge had made right choice to ensure the safety
of the passenger in that flight. He did not take risk to continue the plane schedule to
fly to his destination but choose to turn back the flight. If he chooses to fly ahead, the
plane might go wrong and accident might happen. After all, we can say that the
operating pilot had obeyed the rules of occupational safety and health act to ensure
the safety of his passenger and himself.
From these four incidents, we can see that the media newspaper is playing a
role to distribute the storyline of incidents happen around us to the society. Readers
should take aware of the safety issue regarding to the incidents happen. For example
in the first and third incidents, lack of safety action took by the victim causes their life
and gets injuries. Besides that, more precaution must be taken especially for female
workers to prevent any unnecessary incident. Furthermore, during a critical situation
during work, we must always think about our own and others safety before making
decision. The pilot in the forth incident show us the right way of decision making and
put safety at first in his decision. In conclusion, we should learn from the incident
happens to the other and take it as a lesson to take more safety precaution in our
working area.







References:
http://www.nst.com.my/node/33008
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1168672
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/09/10/Accident-Man-killed-by-tree/
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/09/13/Intruder-molests-hotel-waitress-
in-Malacca-hostel-Victim-who-was-menstruating-forced-to-strip/