OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
It is a science that seeks to protect and improve physical health, mental, social and spiritual conditions in their jobs, a positive impact on the company.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines occupational health as a multidisciplinary activity that promotes and protects the health of workers. This discipline seeks to control accidents and diseases by reducing risk conditions.
Occupational health care is not limited to the physical conditions of the worker, but also deals with the psychological question. For employers, occupational health is an improvement of worker support and maintenance of working capacity.
The most common problems of those who must deal with occupational health are fractures, cuts and sprains from accidents, repetitive motion disorders, problems of sight or hearing and diseases caused by exposure to unsanitary or radioactive substances, eg. You can also handle the stress of work or labor relations.
Note that occupational health is an important issue for governments, which must ensure the welfare of workers and compliance in the workplace. That tends to make periodic inspections aimed at determining the conditions under which they develop different types of jobs.
It is important to note that job insecurity affects occupational health. A company that has his black workers (ie, that do not have medical coverage) and having inadequate physical space for work threatens the health of people.
What is occupational health program?
It consists of the planning, organization, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of all activities designed to preserve, maintain and improve individual and community health workers in order to avoid accidents and occupational diseases.
The main objective of the Occupational Health program is to provide security, protection and care to employees in the performance of their work.
The increase in accidents, some more serious than others, due inter alia to changes in technology or poor training of employees, materials handling delicate use, inadequate infrastructure and to some extent by human failure, make necessary for every company to have a manual to provide guidance to minimize these risks and set the protocol to be followed in case of accidents.
An occupational health program should have the basic elements to meet these objectives, which include general information on accident prevention, medical evaluation of employees, investigation of accidents occurring and a program of training and dissemination of rules to avoid them.
Occupational Health Policy
As a starting point of the program, any company policies should pronounce formally, through a policy reflecting his interest in a job done safely and commitment to Occupational Health, subsequently define responsibilities of all levels of the organization in implementing the program and regulatory compliance of all this is that place.
The policy includes among other things the following:
Compliance with all legal norms in Colombia on Occupational Health and Safety Integrated.
Protection and maintenance of the highest level of wellness, both physical and mental, of all workers, reducing the maximum generation of accidents and the risks at source.
Preservation of good operating condition in material and financial resources, making use optimization and minimizing any losses.
Warranty conditions and waste management do not contaminate the environment and comply with regulations.
Accountability at all levels of Management for providing a healthy and safe work through equipment, procedures and appropriate programs.
Responsibility of all employees for their safety, the staff under his charge and the company.
Incorporation of risk control in each of the tasks.
This policy will be published and disseminated to all staff for their cooperation and participation and, following the example shown and demonstrated by senior management.
Levels of Participation
The responsibility for the success of occupational health program should be shared by all, and it is essential that all parties, employees and management make their best effort in this direction.
Occupational Health program starts from the effective development and management will be achieved to the extent that achieves a clear conception of its importance in the levels of the organization. For this we set the following levels of participation.