The Occupational Safety and Health administration Act (OSHA)

The goal of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Act (OSHA) is to ensure that employees have a safe workplace through enforcing regulations. The guidelines that are being presented also put a lot of emphasis on making sure that, given the working conditions, employees' health is closely monitored at work. Additionally, OSHA provides employers and employees with the necessary training, support, and information on how to adhere to the laid down rules (Lies, 2014). It is clear from the RC Accounting and Tax Services case that the workers' general health was rapidly deteriorating. The current working conditions were not favorable for the health and safety of the workers since they had to worker for extra hours, resulting to an increase in the work-related injuries. The presented research outlines an ergonomics orientation program focused on resolving the presented concern to observe the general health and well being of the employees in the company.

Health and Safety Issues

RC Accounting and Tax Services firm is experiencing grave concerns when it comes to health and safety issues. Apparently, an increased case of work-related injuries has been noted in the past 12 months whereby most employees show signs of arms, shoulders and wrist injuries. The general health and well being of the members of the workforce has also been deteriorating in the past 10 months. The firm mainly requires its employees to work overtime. The presented factors provide an indication that the employer is not abiding by the set employer responsibilities within the OSHA Act. According to the OSHA Act, it is the responsibility of the employers to offer a safe workplace. Lies (2014) indicate that the employers should strive to reduce or eliminate the hazards in the workplace by making the necessary changes to the working conditions.

Moreover, OSHA outlines various regulations that bind the matter of working overtime. It is worth noting that OSHA does not enforce limits when it comes to overtime. However, it offers guidelines which employers are required to follow. According to the Act, prolonged work shifts can be associated with significant dangers. Therefore, employers are guided that their workers should not work for more than 40 hours for a period of seven days in a week (Jones, Braam & Okun, 2017). According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, working for prolonged hours can result to instances of increased fatigue, increased injuries, periods of anxiety and tension. In the company’s case, it is clear that working overtime in the company was significantly affecting the general health of the workers signified by increased number of injuries and decreased worker morale. The OSHA guidelines suggest that the symptoms arising from excessive overtime can result to higher chances of accidents, injuries and operator errors Jones, Braam & Okun, 2017).

Coping with the current concerns and preventing future issues

To cope with the presented concern resulting to the increased number of injuries recorded in the workplace, the company’s management should strictly consider its responsibilities in the workplace as outlined in the OSHA Act. For instance, other than allowing the worker to work for extra hours, the management should consider other ways of counteracting its customer demand such as employing new members of the workforce to increase the number of employees. As a result, the company will remain under its recommended limit of allowing the workers to work for no more than 40 hours for a period of seven days. The employers should ensure that they keep detailed records of the injuries cases recorded in the firm (Lauver, 2007).

Additionally, it is clear that the company can deal with the presented concern by offering additional lunches and breaks during working hours as a way of dealing with the drastic issue of overtime (Lauver, 2007). The presented recommendation focuses on ensuring that the workers have breaks from work where they can rest, thus ensuring that the company manages to stay within the recommended standard of 40 hours within a week’s time. Additionally, the issue of increased injuries in the firm can also be addressed through reducing the number of daily working hours and instead increase the number of days that the employees report to work. The presented factor is highly important for the firm since it ensures that the members of the workforce still perform their tasks as needed to counteract the level of demand noted by the firm. Additionally, the recommendation also works in the favor of the members of the organization size the general conditions which results to an increase in the work-related injuries is eliminated.

How the recommendations comply with OSHA Regulations

The identified recommendations are highly important for the company and they comply with OSHA regulations. For instance, employing new workers rather than requiring the currently available employees to work on an overtime basis in compliance with the Act’s regulation on employer responsibility. It shows that the employers are focused on offering the employees with a comfortable environment to work. The recommendations ensure that the employees work in a safe environment which does not put them at risk of injuries associated with working overtime. Moreover, through the implementations of the identified recommendations, it is evident that the company’s management will be on the right path to establish and correct safety and health concerns noted in the workplace. As is, all the recommendation are focused on reducing the number of workplace injuries noted through cutting down on the extra time which the employees are required to work to counteract demand. It is clear that the OSHA Act requires employers to make significant efforts towards eliminating or reducing the hazards by first making changes to the available working conditions in the workplace rather than relying on protective equipment to address the presented concerns (Lauver, Lester & Huy, 2009). All the identified recommendations in the previous section are focused on changing the general working conditions for the better to promote the health and safety of the workers.

Workplace injury is a major issue of concern which should be addressed by a firm’s management. The cost of workplace injury is highly significant and can affect the operability of a firm if not properly managed. According to Lauver, Lester & Huy (2009), workplace injuries have been rising to significant costs for firms as presented in the graph below.





Source: (Lauver, Lester & Huy, 2009).

Suitability of the document in handling the issue

The presented ergonomics planning program is suitable for addressing the presented concern of an increase in the number of workplace injuries. Apparently, the document outlines what the OSHA Act is and what it represents. Through this, the employers are better informed of the directive that they have a responsibility of offering a safe workplace environment for the employees. Moreover, the employees are also educated on the fact that they have a right to a safe working environment which is protected by the law. The document is also effective since it points out the major areas of concern which potentially goes against the OSHA Act resulting to the noted health-related concern posed on the workers. Through this, the company’s management will be better informed of what they are doing wrong resulting to the significant rise in the injury cases and declined morale among the members of the workforce.

Additionally, the program is also suitable for handling the presented concern within the firm since it sets forth various recommendations which can be considered to deal with the noted case of increased injuries in the workplace. With the recommendations, the management will consider what can be effectively implemented to address the presented concern in the workplace to avoid potential litigations and court cases. The recommendations serve as the best starting point that the company can consider to address the presented concern before having to deal with an even increased number of injuries in the near future.

Conclusion

To summarize, the Occupational Safety and Health administration Act strives to ensure that the members of the workforce are provided with a safe working environment. The document provides that the employers have an obligation to offer a safe environment for work which does not affect the health and safety of the employees. RC Accounting and Tax Services firm is facing increased cases of work-related injuries which can be explained with the increased number of working hours which the employees are required to work. To deal with this concern, the management should instead hire more workers or reduce the number of working hours and increase the number of working days to offer the employees with a comfortable working environment.





References

Jones, C., Braam, A., & Okun, A. (2017). Occupational Safety & Health Competencies: Are Life Skills For CTE Students. Techniques: Connecting Education & Careers, 92(8), 38-43.

Lauver, K. J. (2007). Human Resource Safety Practices and Employee Injuries. Journal Of Managerial Issues, 19(3), 397-413.

Lauver, K. J., Lester, S., & Huy, L. (2009). Supervisor Support and Risk Perception: Their Relationship with Unreported Injuries and Near Misses. Journal Of Managerial Issues, 21(3), 327-343.

Lies II, M. A. (2014). Leveling the Playing Field on OSHA Employee Interviews. C&D World, 7(5), 16-18.