Regardless to the type and nature of the job you do, occupational health and safety is an important issue and needs a particular attention. Rates of work-related illnesses and injuries are slowly decreasing worldwide but still they are great in number. The International Labour Organization (ILO) reports that the number of deaths caused by occupational accidents and work related illnesses worldwide is higher than those of war.

1. www.pecb.org
Duties of Workers in
Management of OH&S

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Introduction
Regardless to the type and nature of the job you do, occupational health and safety is an important
issue and needs a particular attention. Rates of work-related illnesses and injuries are slowly
decreasing worldwide but still they are great in number. The International Labour Organization (ILO)
reports that the number of deaths caused by occupational accidents and work related illnesses
worldwide is higher than those of war.
This is not related to any specific industry. Although they are more likely to happen in certain high-risk
jobs, work-related injury and illness can happen in most workplaces. Even in lower-risk workplaces,
such as offices, shops or libraries, workers are exposed to some kinds of workplace hazards.
Occupational health and safety (OH&S) covers all conditions and factors that affect, or could
affect, the health and safety of employees or other workers, visitors, or any other person in the
workplace.
Almost every country has regulations regarding workplace health and safety. These regulations
make employers responsible to provide and maintain a safe and healthy work environment for their
employees. However, employees have also duties related to workplace health and safety.

3. Duties of workers in management of OH&S
In provision of a healthy and safe work environment, management of occupational health and safety is a shared
responsibility of employer and employees. Both sides have their own duties. For example, employers hold the
responsibility to provide training as are necessary to the health and safety of the employees; however, employees
are responsible for participating in these trainings and get informed about the health and safety matters. While the
employers’ duty of care is of much more significance, the duties of employees should in no way be negel cted.
Here are top and the most important duties of employees regarding health and safety at the workplace. Employees must:
• perform work safely to protect themselves and others from injury, by avoiding any behavior that puts themselves
or others at risk;
• follow all health and safety procedures, including wearing of personal protective equipment, obeying the safety
signs, following machine instructions, etc.;
• not intentionally tamper or misuse equipment, devices or other means provided by the employer that is used to
keep the workplace safe;
• report all defects and actual of potential hazards observed in the workplace;
• inform supervisors about any workplace injury, illness or near misses; and
• be familiar with the emergency and evacuation procedures and the location of the emergency equipment (fire
extinguishers, first aid kit, etc.) in order to be able to protect themselves in the event of emergency.
The well-known and internationally applied standard, OHSAS 18001, outlines requirements intended to provide
organizations with the elements of an effective OH&S management system (OHSMS) that can be integrated with
other business requirements and enable organizations to achieve their OH&S goals.
As occupational health and safety is becoming an increasing concern, companies are taking steps towards
demonstrating sound occupational health and safety (OH&S) performance by developing their OHSMS. The
increasing consideration/attention given to occupational health and safety is reciprocally increasing the necessity for
experts in this field.
Professional Evaluation and Certification Board (PECB) is a certification body for persons on a wide range of
professional standards. Among other international standards, it also offers OHSAS 18001 training and certification
services for professionals wanting to gain a comprehensive knowledge of the main processes of an OHSMS, project
managers or consultants wanting to prepare and to support an organization in the implementation of an OHSMS,
auditors wanting to perform and lead OHSMS certification audits, and staff involved in the implementation of the
OHSAS 18001 standard.
OHSAS 18001 and Occupational Health and Safety Trainings offered by PECB:
• Certified OHSAS 18001 Lead Implementer (5 days)
• Certified OHSAS 18001 Lead Auditor (5 days)
• Certified OHSAS 18001 Foundation (2 days)
• OHSAS 18001 Introduction (1 day)
OHSAS 18001 Lead Auditor, OHSAS 18001 Lead Implementer and OHSAS 18001 Master are three certification
schemes accredited by ANSI ISO/IEC 17024.
Narta Voca is the Heath, Safety and Environment (HSE) Product Manager at PECB. She is in charge of developing
and maintaining training courses related to HSE. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact her at
hse@pecb.org.
For further information, please visit www.pecb.org/en/training
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