From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Occupational Safety and Health
is a set of
laws
that have been made to protect the
health
and the
safety
of people when they are working. Health and safety rules will vary a lot from one country to another. Some countries have very strict rules. Rules about Health and Safety have been made since
1950
when the
International Labour Organization
(ILO) and the
World Health Organization
(WHO) agreed about standards of health in the workplace.
Health and safety laws will deal with such things as: the temperature in the workplace (it must not be too hot or too cold), things on the floor that people could fall over, or things that could catch on their clothing and cause an accident,
smoking
in the workplace and other things that might cause
pollution
or which might be fire hazards, how many toilets per person there should be, whether they need safety equipment (e.g. hard hats in case anything falls on their heads), whether it is safe for a person to be left alone in the workplace, the
rights
of
disabled people
, how many hours in the day people can work for etc.
Businesses that do not obey health and safety regulations may be punished (e.g. with a
fine
or forced to close), or they may be held responsible if there is an accident.
In the
European Union
,
member states
have authorities which make sure that people obey the health and safety laws. In the
UK
, health and safety legislation is made by the
Health and Safety Executive
and local authorities (the local council) under the
Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974
.
[1]
In the
United States
, the
Occupational Safety and Health Act
of 1970 created both the
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
(NIOSH) and the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA).
[2]
No one can ever be said to be absolutely safe, and employers have to fill in “risk assessments” (UK) or “hazard assessments” (USA) to show they have done everything they can to make things safe.
[3]