چكيده لاتين :
Background and aims: Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) regulations have been
developed with the aim of crating safe conditions at workplaces. Employers are required by
OHS laws to provide a safe working environments for employees. A common method to
manage OHS in many workplaces is to enforce the requirements of the OHS regulations
from inside and outside the organizations. Implementation of the OHS regulations plays a
major role in enhancing OHS status, and safety management approaches emphasize on the
compliance with the requirements of the regulations. However, studies show that OHS
regulations are not fully implemented in workplaces, especially in the companies that located
in developing countries. Therefore, assessing how organizations comply with the
requirements of OHS regulations can help policymakers and managers to identify existing
problems and to plan for better management of OHS.
The Code of Committee for Technical Protection and Health at Work (CTPHW) has
emphasized on the formation of committee meetings. According to the code, OHS issues in
workplaces must be reviewed in the meetings so that decisions can be made to improve the
status of OHS in organizations. The formation of OHS committees in workplaces has been
associated with reduction of occupational injuries, facilitating senior management
cooperation with workers, increasing worker participation in OHS affairs, and overall
improving OHS status. Conversely, the lack of formation of OHS committees can lead to the
absence of OHS policies and programs in workplaces.
The collection, investigation, and reporting of occupational injury’ data is one of the
important requirements of the CTPHW regulation. Recording and storage of OHS data can
help to preserve the OHS knowledge of an organization and provide insights into the
organization's OHS performance. However, occupational injuries as an imperative OHS data
not properly reported to the relevant OHS enforcement agencies i.e., OHS authorities (Labor
inspection offices and health centers) in Iran. Given the importance of establishing CTPHW
in improving OHS, reviewing the available related documentation can lead to the
identification of problems linked with the implementation of the regulation and providing
comments for better implementation of it in the future.
Analysis of OHS documentation in workplaces such as CTPHW’ minutes can be done using
qualitative and quantitative research methods. Document analysis is a systematic way to
study and evaluate paper and electronic documentation. Same as other qualitative research
methods, document analysis is an important research method to study and interpret data in
order to know the meaning, understand, and acquire empirical knowledge. The data is
organized into topics, quotes, and categories, through content analysis. Content analysis is a
technique that is used to infer the specific features of a text in a systematic and objective
manner. It is a process of organizing information into categories according to the main
research questions. Content analysis is also useful in providing a raw picture of the data that
determines the number of words used in the text.
Literature review has shown that no research studies have ever been reported on how to
enforce the CTPHW regulation in organizations and to review the content of relevant
documents in scientific journals. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the
content of the CTPHW’ minutes using a quantitative approach in manufacturing companies.
It also aims to discover how the companies fulfill the requirements of the CTPHW code.
Methods: In this qualitative study, the records of CTPHW’ minutes related to the years of
2011-2015 were collected from the manufacturing companies i.e. 34 firms. The companies
located in one of the northwestern city of Iran. Manufacturing activities in the companies include the production of food and dairy products, building materials, gloves, auto parts,
electricity, furniture, mattresses, and metal equipment. All studied companies had been hired
full-time or part-time OHS officers before the time of study.
Most of the minutes used in this study were collected from the archives of an OHS authority
and some were gathered from the archives of the manufacturing companies. The contents of
paper and electronic documentations of CTPHW’ minutes were organized into topics and
categories using a quantitative content analysis method and based on research questions. In
order to analyze the data, each of the minutes was coded word by word. The terms and
number of the words related to safety, health, and ergonomics and the type of related
approved OHS promoting programs were determined. Also, the types of approved projects
by CTPHW’ members were analyzed in three separate sections. In the first part, the projects
were examined in terms of the types of methods used to control OHS risks, including
engineering controls, administrative controls, work practices, and personal protective
equipment (PPE). The projects were then reviewed for being routine or non-routine
organizational practices for management of OHS. The plans were also examined according
to the subjects of safety, health, and ergonomics. Each of the minutes was reviewed several
times to determine the number and type of control plans approved by the members of the
CTPHW in the companies, and then the plans were classified according to the type of control
procedures.
Results: The content analysis of the minutes showed that the highest number of them (241
cases) was related to 2015 and the lowest number (34 cases) was related to 2011. The total
number of clauses was 4823; that the highest number of them (1431 clauses) was related to
2015 and the lowest number (383 clauses) was related to 2011. Thematically, the highest
number of clauses was related to safety (2807 clauses) and the least was related to ergonomic
(67 clauses). The total number of examined OHS related words was 4408; with the highest
number (1271 words) was related to 2015 and the lowest number (515 words) was related to
2011. The highest number of words was related to safety (1353 words) and the least of the
words related to ergonomics (31 words), and among the safety related words, fire-fighting
word had the highest frequency. It should be noted that the number of ergonomic word in the
years 2011 and 2012 was zero. The total number of approved projects was 2553, the most of
them were related to engineering (958 cases) and the least were related to work practices
(145 cases). The number of routine projects was 1217 cases and the number of non-routine
projects was 1181 cases. Thematically, most of the projects were related to safety (1566
cases) and the least were related to ergonomics (41 cases).
Conclusion: The requirements of the CTPHW regulations were not properly implemented in
the manufacturing companies. The number of minutes, clauses, and words was the lowest in
2011 and the highest in 2015. The safety topics had the highest frequency, and ergonomics
had the least frequency in the analyzed minutes. Most of the control schemes adopted to
reduce OSH risk were engineering controls. These findings indicated an increase in the
number of minutes, clauses, and OHS control plans in the 34 studied firms during the studied
years. The finding also demonstrates gradually improved compliance with one of the
requirements of the CTPHW. According to the findings, this study emphasizes on more
follow-up of OHS authorities to better enforce the requirements of CTPHW regulation in
manufacturing companies. Training and encouragement of manufacturing companies by the
OHS authorities can help to fulfill the requirements of the CTPHW code and the promotion
of OHS status in the companies through making a proper culture of safety
