The Weaknesses of OSHA 1994 Implementation in Malaysian Construction Industry
Abstract
Statistics from Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) Malaysia indicated that the construction sector suffers the highest level of occupational accident and fatalities almost every year. To overcome this problem, the government has come out with a legislative framework and action plans to deal with this situation. The study aims to identify the weaknesses of Malaysian employers and employees in implementing Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA 1994) in the construction industry and to highlight the responsibilities of both parties to comply as far as practicable of safety and health in construction site. Data were obtained via literature reviews and conducting workplace inspection. There is a high degree of consensus on the two important parties in assuming safety and health responsibilities who are employer and employee. The results indicate the weaker areas done by employers were: General duties of employers and self-employed persons to their employees; Duty to formulate safety and health policy; General duties of employers and self-employed persons to persons other than their employees; and Duties of occupier of a place of work to persons other than his employees. While the weaker areas done by employees were: General duties of employees at work; and Duty not to interfere with or misuse things provided pursuant to certain provisions. Thus, the suggestion for improvement towards safety and health practices was proposed according to the Master Plan (2005 – 2010) which introduced by CIDB. Therefore government bodies, contractors and consultants mostly agree on several stipulations under the Master Plan (2005 – 2010) subdivisions which are: Enforcement and Legislation; Education and Training; and Research, Development and Technology are the suggested areas of concern in which safety and health practices can be improved within the construction industry.
References
Abdul Rahim Abdul Hamid, Wan Zulkifli Wan Yusuf and Bachan Singh (2003). "Hazards at Construction Sites." Proceedings of the 5th. Asia- Pacific Structural Engineering and Construction Conference (APSEC 2003), 26-28 August, Johor Bahru, Malaysia, 2003.
CIDB, Malaysia (2005). Master Plan for Occupational Safety and Health in Construction Industry (2005-2010). Available: http://www.cidb.com.my/v6/files/OHSAS2006v2.pdf
Abd.Majid, M.Z.A., and McCaffer, R. (1997). "Assessment of Work Performance of Maintenance Contractors in Saudi Arabi". Journal of Management in Engineering. Sept/Oct 1997, pg 91.
https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0742-597X(1997)13:5(91)
Malaysia (2000). Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 (Act 514) and Regulation and Orders. Kuala Lumpur: International Law Book Services. [5] Malaysia (2006), Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994, Act 514. Putrajaya: Department of Occupational Safety and Health Malaysia.
International Labour Organization, NATLEX. Malaysia Employment Act 1955. Retrieved October 22, 2010 from http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/WEBTEXT/48055/66265/E55mys01.htm#s1.
Barry G. Fryer, et al. (2004). The Practice of Construction Management : People and Business Performance. 4th Edition, Blackwell.
Maimunah Aminuddin (2006). Safety and Health at Work. Kelana Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan : Malayan Law Journal Sdn. Bhd.;Dayton, Ohio: LexisNexis.
Ahmadon Bakri, Rosli Mohd Zin, Mohd Saidin Misnan and Abdul Hakim Mohammed (2006). "Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Management Systems: Towards Development of Safety and Health Culture." Proceedings of the 6th Asia-Pacific Structural Engineering and Construction (APSEC 2006), 6 September 2006, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Mohd saidin Misnan and Abdul Hakim Mohammed (2007). Development of Safety Culture in Construction Industry : A Conceptual Framework. In : Boyd, D.ed Proceedings of 23rd Annual Conference 2007. September 3-5. Belfast, United Kingdom.
Upon acceptance of an article, the corresponding author on behalf of all authors will be asked to complete and upload the Copyright Transfer Form (refer to Copyright Issues for more information on this) alongside the electronic proof file.
Copyright Transfer Statement for Journal
1) In signing this statement, the author(s) grant UNIMAS Publisher an exclusive license to publish their original research papers. The author(s) also grant UNIMAS Publisher permission to reproduce, recreate, translate, extract or summarize, and to distribute and display in any forms, formats, and media. The author(s) can reuse their papers in their future printed work without first requiring permission from UNIMAS Publisher, provided that the author(s) acknowledge and refer the publication in the Journal.
2) For open-access articles, the author(s) agree that their articles published under UNIMAS Publisher are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work of the author(s) is properly cited.
3) For subscription articles, the author(s) agree that UNIMAS Publisher holds the copyright or an exclusive license to publish. Readers or users may view, download, print, and copy the content, for academic purposes, subject to the following conditions of use: (a) any reuse of materials is subjected to permission from UNIMAS Publisher; (b) archived materials may only be used for academic research; (c) archived materials may not be used for commercial purposes, which include but not limited to monetary compensation by means of sale, resale, license, transfer of copyright, loan, etc.; and (d) archived materials may not be re-published in any part, either in print or online.
4) The author(s) are responsible to ensure their submitted work is original and does not infringe any existing copyright, trademark, patent, statutory right, or propriety right of others. The corresponding author has obtained permission from all co-authors prior to submission to the journal. Upon submission of the manuscript, the author(s) agree that no similar work has been or will be submitted or published elsewhere in any language. If the submitted manuscript includes materials from others, the authors have obtained permission from the copyright owners.
5) In signing this statement, the author(s) declare that the researches which they have conducted comply with the current laws of the respective country and UNIMAS Journal Publication Ethics Policy. Any experimentation or research involving humans or the use of animal samples must obtain approval from the Human or Animal Ethics Committee in their respective institutions. The author(s) agree and understand that UNIMAS Publisher is not responsible for any compensational claims or failure caused by the author(s) in fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements. The author(s) must accept the responsibility for releasing their materials upon request by Chief Editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
6) The author(s) should have participated sufficiently in the work and ensured the appropriateness of the content of the article. The author(s) should also agree that they have no commercial attachments (e.g. patent or license arrangement, equity interest, consultancies, etc.) that might pose any conflict of interest with the submitted manuscript. The author(s) also agree to make any relevant materials and data available upon request by the editor(s) or UNIMAS Publisher.
