Working environment specialist’s role in improvement of safety level in Estonian enterprises
2017
Hrenov, G., Tallinn Univ. of Technology (Estonia) | Reinhold, K., Tallinn Univ. of Technology (Estonia) | Tint, P., Tallinn Univ. of Technology (Estonia)
The active persons in safety and health activities in enterprises in Estonia are: the working environment specialists (WES), hired by the employer, and working environment representatives, selected by the workers. The number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Estonia is over 5000. Not all these enterprises can allow themselves the job with the designation of WES (or safety engineer). Therefore, these SMEs need very good descriptions of safety and health activities at the workplace and the information for the possibilities for improvement the safety level at these enterprises. The inspectors from the National Labour Inspectorate of Estonia never reach the SMEs unless an accident happens. In SMEs, the employer has to deal with the safety questions himself or these obligations are delegated to some of the top management’s representative as an extra work. The main possibilities to influence on the safety level in the firm have the working environment specialists, as they are more educated and supported by the law in the work safety and health (OHS) area. The current paper is looking for the possibilities to raise the interest to the improvement of the safety level at enterprises through the strengthening of the knowledge of WES in OHS, particularly the knowledge on the main standard in OHS: OHSAS 18001. The safety level in 15 Estonian enterprises (metal, wood, construction, agriculture) was investigated through the MISHA method (based on OHSAS 18001). The latter version of the MISHA method was modified by the authors of the current paper (some of the important hazardous factors, like vibration etc. were added into the MISHA method). This modified MISHA questionnaire is an educational tool for the WES: this is the mode of learning through interviews. The influence of the implementation of OHSAS 18001 on real, formal and combined safety elements is determined. The connections were proved with statistics: factor analyses were carried out with Barlett’s test, ANOVA and T-square test with Wilks’ Lambda row.
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