Exploratory study on the importance of occupational health and safety policy at the center of awareness in Ghana

Abstract

Occupation Health and safety (OHS) is an essential component for the success of every organisation. As such, it is important for every organisation to protect its employees from work related ailment and injuries. The Center of Awareness (COA) as an organisation needs to know the importance of OHS and how to handle OHS issues that arises in the organisation. Currently, COA do not have any policy guiding such issues and it seems Management are not aware of most of the OHS issues in the organisation. The study therefore sought to explore the importance of OHS, find out the OHS issues at the COA and recommend possible policies that can help solve such issues. With this in mind, information was gathered from the population of COA in Ghana using observation, questionnaires and interview schedule. In analyzing the data, the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) software was used. The study found out that COA does not have any OHS policy guiding its operations. Management did show a bit of concern for OHS issues in the organisation, nevertheless, there were some OHS issues that needed attention. Although one injury that led to permanent disability was recorded, it should not be the only or primary indicator of safety effectiveness. The researcher recommended that policies on salary, insurance, health, use of safety equipment, training and appointments must be developed by COA. The study further gives its users an insight to what OHS is and its importance. More so, users of the research information would be abreast with the OHS issues in COA which would also aid policy makers come up with a comprehensive policy that best fit COA.