Question
Top three major safety and health issues in AMAZON, and write a policy on each, consistent with Occupational Safety &
Health Administration (OSHA) standards. There is a minimum requirement of 300 words for each of the three job policies.
Each of the five domains of OSHA must be considered when writing these three policies:
- Hazard communication: How will you notify people of potentially dangerous or unhealthy work conditions?
- Blood-borne pathogens: How will you protect employees from blood-borne pathogens such as AIDS?
- Personal protective equipment (PPE): What equipment or tools will your employees in this job require to work safely?
- Cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs): How will you prevent CTDs that come from repetitive movement (e.g., carpel tunnel syndrome)?
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Work assignments: How will you handle potentially dangerous work assignments, especially to protect unborn babies?
Sample paper
Safety and health issues in AMAZON
Just like any other company and organization, Amazon should put more emphasis on the safety and the health conditions of their work environment to ensure that they meet the international standards. Amazon is one of the American electronic commerce giants and the clouding company that has operated internationally since 1994. Statistics and research show that Amazon is the largest internet based retailer in the world today by total sales and market capitalization. Despite being a multinational company, Amazon has faced a lot of criticism in recent years, both from workers and in the general public regarding their health and safety measures especially after a reported series of deaths in their company. This assignment will focus on identifying and describing three major safety and health issues facing Amazon as a company.
Working from height
One of the major health and safety issue reported at the company is working from heights, including ladders and other raised areas. Given the fact that Amazon being an internet company deals with packaging and selling of electronics from their stores, they must have upper drawers and compartments where they store their trading goods. Apart from having tall storage facilities which can only be accessed through the use of ladders, the company also has a maintenance team that is responsible for ensuring that their facilities are in good condition by applying new color coats or ensuring that their electrical wiring is in good condition. All these workers who perform such kind of duties are at the risk of getting injured in case of misunderstanding or fall (Schulte, 2014). Statistics show that hazards associated with working at height can originate from lack of understanding between two working partners and accounts for 14% of all workplace accidents in the company. Employers may not know they need to provide their employees with fall protection equipment, or the fall protection gear may not be worn properly or not hooked to anything.
However, to help reduce the negative outcome of this hazard, there is the need for the management team to help train and communicate the hazards and safety measures necessary to work in such conditions and areas. The best and ideal way of communicating this information to the employee is word of mouth through their supervisors as well as handing them safety and health measure workbook to ensure that they read all the time necessary. In addition, the company needs to identify all locations where fall protection is necessary and equip all workers with personal protective equipment such as headgears and safety boots to reduce the effect of the damage for impact in case he or she falls from a raised ground while working. The company should put more emphasis on the well-being of the employees given the fact that labor and employee is one of the important assets that a company can ever own.
Unguarded machinery and moving machinery parts
Since its initiation, Amazon has seen several deaths in their facilities as a result of unguarded machinery and other work related hazards. However, in 2013, the company reported one of the saddest death stories of 57 years old male worker who was working sorting items for orders when he was caught by conveyor belt and dragged. Despite being taken to the hospital, Ronald Smith did not survive. It is worth noting that this is just an example of so many other death cases that has been reported in the facility due to extreme working conditions especially uncovered and guarded machines and machine parts (Brauer, 2016). Due to the high demand of the company work rate, employees are forced to work under pressure and at times are forced to take shortcuts which result in accidents.
To help prevent such accidents in the workplace, there is the need to cover all the machines and moving parts as well as providing safety gears. However, in the case of blood-borne pathogens, there is the need to train workers how to deal with infections such as AIDS by educating them in the best way they can avoid the infection and all they need to know about the disease.
Confined spaces
This is one of the most common safety issues that a company can experience. Amazon has suffered from this workplace assessment where they need to have special confined spaces for their equipment, and these accidents occur because the employer did not issue a permit or failed to carry out a risk assessment. Confined spaces are likely to result in cumulative trauma disorder that comes from repetitive movement and to address this issue; the company needs to develop a rotation plan where workers can be rotated from one department to another (Lundgren, 2013). Moreover, to handle potentially dangerous work assignment, especially to protect unborn babies is to ensure that expectant mothers are not assigned to perform duties that can endanger their lives or that of the child. Additionally, I can advise the mother on how to proceed cautiously to ensure that her life is not in danger and that her child is in good condition and healthy
References
Brauer, R. L. (2016). Safety and health for engineers. John Wiley & Sons.
Lundgren, R. E. (2013). Risk communication: A handbook for communicating environmental, safety, and health risks. John Wiley & Sons.
Schulte, P. A. (2014). Occupational safety and health criteria for responsible development of nanotechnology. . Journal of Nanoparticle Research, 16(1), , 1-1.
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