4.6 Summary
Summary
Fifteen-year-old Andrew James died under a pile of hot asphalt because his employer failed to identify, recognize, and control workplace hazards. While the HRAC process doesn’t guarantee that workers will never be injured on the job, it can dramatically reduce the incidence of workplace injuries and fatalities. Following the HRAC process should have changed the work processes James’s employer used and, in turn, would likely have saved James’s life despite the challenges posed by the mobile nature of the worksite.
HRAC is not immune from the conflicts inherent in the employment relationship. Employers and workers each have vested interests in the outcomes of an HRAC process. Collaboration is key to the hazard recognition, assessment and control process. Stackholders from various areas of the business need to be included in the hazard identification, assessment and control process in order to eliminate or reduce workplace incidents.
Check Your Knowledge
Image Credit: Photo by Skitterphoto is licensed under Pixabay License
Discussion Questions
- What are the main steps in the HRAC process? What is the underlying goal of HRAC?
- Why is it necessary to prioritize hazards? What are the potential concerns about applying a risk analysis perspective?
- How would employers and workers perceive the relative merits of PPE versus engineering controls?
- How might looking at the location of hazard control affect the decisions made about which control is most appropriate?
- What challenges arise in hazard control for telecommuters?
Exercises
- Reread the case that opens this chapter and write 150-word answers to the following questions. Be sure to save your answers as we will return to this vignette later in the book.
- What hazards were present at the worksite?
- How would you prioritize the identified hazards?
- What controls should have been implemented?
- Write two to three paragraphs providing your opinion on the following statement:
“Some accidents are unavoidable. There is only so much we can do to control hazard.”
