How Businesses Can Benefit from OSHS Compliance

President Rodrigo Duterte has recently signed an act that could potentially cost your business up to P500,000 in fines.

Running a successful business doesn’t stop at ensuring financial gains for you and your employees. An intrinsic part of this entails fulfilling the moral responsibility of ensuring your workers’ health and well-being. Doing so is not only the right thing to do, it is also the smart thing to do financially.

Last August 17, 201, President Duterte signed Republic Act 11058, an “Act Strengthening Compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Standard.” This RA enforces stricter fines and penalties for violators of safety and health standards.

To understand how the new RA affects your business, here are a few things you should know about the Occupational Safety and Health Standards law.

Your responsibilities under OSHS

Under Chapter II of the OSHS, your duties include:

1. Providing a safe and sanitary work place free of conditions which may cause physical harm, illness, or death to your employees
2. Complying with OSHS in terms of medical examination, training, and provision of personal protective equipment, safety devices, and machine guards, based on the evaluation and recommendation of the safety officer
3. Orienting your employees with safety instructions and familiarization with their work environment;
4. Informing your employees on any and all health risks and safety hazards involved in the job
5. Using only approved equipment and devices for the workplace
6. Training your employees in preventive measures to minimize or eliminate risks, and on procedures in case of emergency

Penalties for non-compliance

While the Labor Code of the Philippines did have existing regulations for the safety and welfare of workers, the 41-year-old labor code did not have mandates strict enough to ensure employer compliance. Prior to this year’s discussions, the Labor Code had no specifications for criminal and administrative penalties for violations of the OSHS. In Article 128, imminent danger to employees was penalized by a work stoppage order from the DOLE Regional Director.

This time, RA 11058 specifies all unlawful acts including denying and delaying access to your establishment, obstruction of personnel investigation, falsification of documents, and termination of personnel who’ve reported non-compliance. There is also the proposed administrative penalty of up to P100,000.00 fine for each day of non-compliance until violations or unlawful acts have been corrected. If non-compliance results to injury or death of an employee, the employer can be fined up to P500,000.00 for each case, or up to 12 years of imprisonment, at the discretion of the court.

Business benefits of OSHS compliance

Penalties aside, failing to provide a safe and healthy environment for employees does have financial costs. From wages for unperformed work, to production losses, to equipment damage, to the costs of hiring and training new employees, OSHS compliance is one of the best preventive measures for potential losses.

Moreover, good working conditions lead to happier and more productive employees who produce better quality output. Happier employees also tend to stay longer in companies. This lowers your turnover which in turn lowers the costs for hiring and training new employees, and lost work time. However, the best benefit to OSHS compliance is establishing positive community relations.

With the strengthening of the millennial market, it is no longer enough for companies to provide quality products. Millennials today show strong support for companies that practice corporate social responsibility and fair treatment of their employees. Having the support and patronage of a steadily growing market is likely to end well for your bottom line.

At the end of the day, your responsibility as a business owner goes beyond financial gains. Now that current policies provide you great incentive to ensure the well-being of your employees, fulfilling that moral responsibility plays an important role in your company’s success. Remember that failing to put worker welfare at the forefront of your operations can cost you good people and, as Kathryn Minshew, CEO and Co-Founder of The Muse, the fastest growing career platform for more than 50 million professionals a year, once said, “a company is only as good as its people.”

If you want to learn more about the OSH law and how it affects your company.  Join us in our OSH Law Compliance Seminar to be held on November 17, 2018 at Technopark Hotel, Santa Rosa City, Laguna

SOURCES:

https://www.senate.gov.ph/lisdata/2535521856!.pdf
http://www.oshc.dole.gov.ph/images/Files/OSH%20Standards%202017.pdf
http://www.safetyworksmaine.gov/safe_workplace/safety_pays.html
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/969870/senate-bill-occupational-safety-health-standards-employer-human-resources-compliance#ixzz5OPFDiQ5k