INDUSTRIAL SAFETY AND WORKERS’ PRODUCTIVITY

(A SURVEY OF SELECTED FIRMS IN ABIA STATE)

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INDUSTRIAL SAFETY AND WORKERS’ PRODUCTIVITY

(A SURVEY OF SELECTED FIRMS IN ABIA STATE)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

In any organization, the human asset is the most valuable asset of the organization. This is because it is the human element that works on other factors of production in order to achieve organizational goal. It therefore follows that, for the employees to perform their task fearlessly and with confidence, their safety at the workplace must be guaranteed. Any company that fails to give adequate attention to industrial safety is indirectly encouraging low productivity.

Industrial safety is a cross-disciplinary area concerned with protecting the safety, health and welfare of people engaged in work or employment (Kohn, Mark and Celeste, 2006:P24).

The aim of all safety programme is to foster a safe work environment. As a secondary effect, it may also protect co-workers and family members who are in the organizational environment. It may involve interactions among many subject areas, including occupational medicine, industrial hygiene, public health, safety engineering, chemistry, health physics, and economics toxicology, and epidemiology and environment health. (National Safety Council, 2009).

Workplace safety programmes can take many forms and cover many potential areas of concern which include; provision of personal safety equipment, installation of equipment controls, creation and dissemination of operational manuals, policies of hazardous materials handling, adoption of drug and acohol testing policies, introduction of employee counseling services and implementation of safety training programmes. These are used by companies to minimize their work force exposure to work place injuries.

Some companies believe that workers safety is not necessary. For instance, small firms’ owners erroneously believe that the modest size of their enterprise makes them immune from following government agencies/world bodies’ safety regulation.

In reality, even though there may be different standards for some regulations, all firms do have to pay attention to safety. Indeed, industrial safety is important considering the numerous benefits it provides. Attention to safety issues cannot only help business firms avoid legal penalties, but also improve employee morale, productivity and retention (Pasher, 2004).

Moreover, effective workplace safety programmes often have a tremendous impact on a company’s bottom line financial performance. In addition to the hidden benefits in retention and productivity that go hand in-hand with such programmes, business firm armed with solid industrial safety policies and records realize enormous benefits in the realm of insurance.

Every business firm irrespective of its size is expected to have safety department. It is the duty of the safety department to design programmes that will ensure works safety. When workplace safety is guaranteed, workers’ productivity increases in such organization. This is because the workers’ performs their task fearlessly and with confidence. This also helps to develop team spirit and the sense of belongingness among employee. (Nwachukwu, 2000), observes that worker productivity is much higher in companies that pay adequate attention to workplace safety than others were safety is lacking. This study therefore examines industrial safety and workers’ productivity using selected firms in Abia State as a survey research.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The issue of industrial safety evolved concurrently with industrial development. The process was legalized and highly regulated by the federal and state agencies. The stiff regulatory burden in part, reflects the complex and serous nature of safety issue. The labyrinth of safety laws and regulation has also risen to ensure that all firm strictly practice safety at the work place.

However, ever since the issue of industrial safety was legalized, many firm in Abia State still shy away from practicing it. The attitude displayed towards safety programme is very poor that it now becomes an optional thing. Many firms in Abia State do not have a safety department that would have implemented safety programmes. Employees have time without number, lamented the lukewarm attitude displayed by their company towards workplace safety. As a result, many employees in hazardous industries such as chemicals and fertilizers performed their task fearfully and with no confidence.

Succinctly, many firms in Abia State do not know that safety cannot only help them to avoid legal penalties but also increase their workers’ productivity. Some firm believe that avoiding safety programmes is smart idea of dodging expense not knowing that workers’ productivity is affected. Modern organization is the developed nations like U.S have come to realized that safety measure is a hug investment one that may save money in the long run by reducing disability pay and improving productivity. Firms in Nigeria are still yet to realize the contribution of safety programme to workers’ productivity. It therefore becomes imperative to examine industrial safety and workers’ productivity using selected firms in Abia State as a survey study.

1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this study is to examine industrial safety and workers’ productivity using selected firms in Abia State as a survey study. The specific objectives of the study are as follows;

1. To find out if there is any relationship between industrial and workers’ productivity.

2. To know if there is any relationship between industrial safety and workers morale.

3. To determine the relationship that exists between industrial and workers retention.

4. To ascertain the extent to which industrial safety programmes enhances workers efficiency.

5. To determine how effective the safety is programmes of firms in Abia state in term of enhancing workers’ productivity

6. To suggest possible ways in which firms can improve their safety programmes in order to increase their workers’ productivity.

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study is very significant it would help firms in Abia State understand the contribution of workplace safety to workers’ productivity. The study would also help management of firms in Abia State and Nigeria as a whole to discover the importance of establishing a safety department to implement the safety polices and programmes of the company. The result of this study would also help top executives and managers to identify the legal implications of non-implementation of safety programmes at the workers. As well, the recommendations of this study would help safety manager to discover measures to improve their safety programmes so as to avoid disability pay, low productivity and avoid lawsuits. Finally the study would add to the existing stock of knowledge which future researchers on this topic or similar ones would find useful for their study.

1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following questions are raised to address the objectives of this study;

1. How effective are the safety programmes of firms in Abia State in terms of increasing workers’ productivity?

2. To what extent does industrial safety enhance workers efficiency?

3. To what extent does industrial safety enhances workers morale?

4. To what extent does industrial safety programmes enhance employee job commitment?

5. How effective are the safety programmes of firms in Abia state in term of increasing employee job satisfaction?

6. Is there any relationship between workers safety and workers retention?

1.6 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

The following hypotheses are postulated in this study;

H₀₁: There is no positive and significant relationship between industrial safety and workers’ productivity.

H₀₂: There is no positive and significant relationship between industrial safety and workers retention.

H₀₃: there is no significant relationship between industrial safety and workers morale.

1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The theoretical scope of this study centers on industrial safety and workers Abia State. The study scope was limited to selected manufacturing firms in Abia State. The respondents are made up of managers and employees of the selected manufacturing firms in Abia State.

1.8 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

In the process of carrying out this stud, certain bottlenecks were encountered. Among the bottleneck which constituted limitations of this study were;

1. Time Constraint: Because this study was carried out simultaneously with class lecturers, there were limited times to do a more extensive research in terms of covering wider areas.

2. Financial Constraint: This study was expected to cover all the firms in Nigeria but the researcher was short of adequate financing which would have enhance such coverage.

3. Scope of Study: This study was conducted among some manufacturing firms in Abia State, hence one might doubt if the findings form this area and category of organization studied can actually serve generalization purpose to all the firms in Nigeria.

4. Non-Challant Attitude of Respondents: In the course of carrying out this study, some of the respondents failed to cooperate with researcher on information dissemination.

However, the researcher was still able to collect reasonable amount of information despite this odds.

1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS

To avoid misconception, the following terms are defined as used in this study (Operational definition);

1. Industrial Safety: A cross disciplinary area concerned with protecting the safety, health and welfare of people engaged in work for employment.

2. Hazardous: This is something that can cause harm if not controlled.

3. Hazard Analysis: The process in which individual hazard of the workplace are identified, assessed and controlled/eliminated as close to source (location of the hazard) as reasonable and possible.

4. Industrial Analysis: This is the detail study of an unexpected occurrence in an industrial establishment, in order to understand more about them.

5. Workplace Safety Programme: These are programme developed by companies to prevent illness and improve the welfare of workers in the workplace. It include measures such as provision of personal safety equipment, installation of equipment control, creation and dissemination of operational manuals, polices of hazardous materials handling adoption of drug and alcohol testing polices, etc.

6. Safety Manager: This is the manager that is responsible for developing, implementing and managing the safety programmes of the company.

7. Safety Department: This is the department that is charged with the obligation of implementation safety policies and programmes.

8. Productivity: Productivity is often seen as total output/total input. It is the measure of how well resources brought together in organizations and utilized for accomplishing a set of results.

9. Workers’ Productivity: The productivity of a worker is seen as the relationship between units of labour input and unit of output.

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