Ensuring Workplace Health And Safety In Fire Service Organizations

How the COSO Frameworks Can Help

Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) is said to be the discipline which is concerned with the protection of safety and health of the stakeholders in an organisation or company from exposure to risks and hazards that results from the activities in the workplace (Consultaustralia.com.au, 2019).  WHS does not only help and protect the employees but make organisations operate in an ethical manner.

Fire service is defined as an organisation that is responsible for fighting fires and preventing fires (Smith et al, 2016). The NSW Rural Fire Service is considered to be the largest firefighting organisation in the world and it has more than 72,000 volunteers and more than 900 employees who are in the administration and the management. Fire service is considered to be a job that is full of risk and uncertainties thus it is important for organisations to look after the health and safety of the firefighters and the volunteers who work for fire service companies. This paper is going to evaluate the safety obligations of the organisation that they have on the volunteers and the staff of the organisation and provide the potential risks that may arise in the organisation which needs to be managed and what are the important measures they will be taking to ensure the health and safety of the workplace are met.

The NSW Rural Fire Service is a very big organisation that provides fire services and has many employees working under them. The firefighters risk their lives to perform their job to save the lives of many people and animals and also ensure the people affected by fire and also ensure the equipments that are used to control and diffuse fire are kept cleaned and used appropriately. Fire service organisations provide their services for 24 hours because fire can catch anywhere and anytime and thus it is the responsibility of the fire service organisations that they provide their services at any hour of the day when required. This job is of great responsibility as the employees have to make sure the services are delivered on time as it is the matter of life and death of the people and the volunteers and the firefighters are sacrificing and risking their lives to ensure the well being and safety of the society. Thus, it is important and necessary to ensure safety for the employees and the staff of the NSW Rural Fire Service.

Why the Frameworks Are Important to Governance

Promoting and providing health and safety in the workplace is considered to be ethical in an organisation and most organisations have been incorporating this in their company policies in order to morally and systematically operate their business. Ethics is considered to be an important and a vital aspect in every organisation. Ethics helps in setting a standard for the organisation in order to regulate the behavior of the organisation (Halinen & Jokela, 2016).

The job of the firefighters and the staffs of the Rural Fire Service are very difficult and a lot more sacrificing in comparison to the other jobs that current exist. Not providing health and safety to the staff members and the people of the organisation is considered to be highly unethical. According to the theory of utilitarianism which is a moral theory, the action of an individual needs to promote and support the overall pleasure or happiness of the people and reject the actions that harm or cause any kind of unhappiness to the people. This theory is usually directed to making economic, political or social decisions that usually aims at the betterment of the society (Mill, 2016). Aligning this theory with the essay and the case study, the Rural Fire Service needs to ensure the fact that with their services maximum happiness is attained. The services they provide should not only make the customers and the people happy but should also provide benefits and happiness to the employees working for the organisation.

According to Kantian ethics, the action of an individual should be in a way that will become the universal law. The actions of a person should be in such a way that one might not have an issue with that if someone else performs and does the same thing (Azadegan, 2018). This ethical theory also suggests that one should act in a way that promotes humanity and should make sure that humanity is treated as an end in itself and not as any means (Azadegan, 2018). Thus aligning this theory with the case study, it is the duty and the responsibility of the Rural Fire Service to ensure the health and safety of the firefighters who are going to work by putting their lives in danger for the saving the lives of the people and also for contributing to the success of the organisation.

Australia takes health and safety in organisations very seriously which has made the country come up with the health and safety act in organisations in order to protect the workers from any kind of harm and accidents in the workplace to ensure they work safely in organisations despite of the risk factors. The Work Health and Safety Act 2011 provides organisations a consistent framework in order to secure the safety and the health of employees in the workplaces by protecting the employees and other people from any harm and  promote welfare of the employees by taking measurable steps that help in minimizing the risks that may arise from the workplace (Safe Work Australia, 2019). The other thing is to provide effective and fair workplace consultation, representation and issue resolution in term of workplace health and safety. The Act also encourages the employers of the organisation and the company to improve the practices of in terms of health and safety and keep a track on the machines and the things that can cause accidents and any untoward situation in the workplace (Legislation.nsw.gov.au, 2019). In this case the firefighters who work for the company, Rural Fire Service need to give the people and the employees’ highest level of focus and protection against any kind of harm to the health of these people and welfare from any kinds of risks and hazards.

Why the Frameworks Are Important to Strategy Setting and Business Planning

According to the Occupational Health and Safety Act, 2004 there are some duties and obligations that the organisations in Australia need to follow in order ensure the health and safety of the workers are provided and maintained effectively. The first obligation or duty of the employers of an organisation is to provide safe equipments and plants and also maintain them; the other is to maintain systems of the work safely (Worksafe.vic.gov.au, 2019). Employers need to ensure the safe handling, use, storage of the machines and other things in an organisation. The employers need to control and manage safe conditions that will be free of any kind of risks, provide the suitable and necessary facilities to the workplace, provide the employees and the people of the organisation with necessary information about the risk that may occur and how to overcome them if there is no basic facility available or how to use the facilities to their advantage (Worksafe.vic.gov.au, 2019).

In order to comply with the laws and regulations in terms of workplace health and safety acts the employers of the organisation need to take measurable steps that will help in meeting the objectives and the rules laid by the government in order to protect and promote the welfare of the employees in the workplace. In context to the case study the management of the Rural Fire Service first need to provide the firefighters with the right equipments and proper layered uniforms that will help them in protecting them from fire and frostbites and this will help them in doing their jobs properly without any dilemma and fear in their mind. The Rural Fire Service needs to take full responsibilities of their employees and if any employee is injured in duty then the manager or the organisation needs to take responsibility of the employees by providing them proper medication and granting them leaves for adequate rest so that they get time to recover. The other is before the employees join the work, the organisations and the employees need to provide proper training courses to help the firefighters or volunteers learn the techniques and the skills that will help them in protecting themselves when any kind of adverse situations arise while they are working. Holmgren, Haake & Söderström, 2019) states training of firefighters are necessary as it is a risky job and helps the firefighters get an insight of the work and learn the necessary skills that help them in doing their job and maintains their safety while working.

Why the Frameworks Are Important to Execution

Rural Fire Service is a tough job which is uncertain because of the range of situations the firefighters and the employees of the organisation have to deal with. While managing and maintaining the health and safety in the workplace the employers of the organisation may face some key risks which might hinder in providing safety and health to the workers of the organisation. In order to understand the key risks that may arise in the organisation the COSO framework will be used. The COSO framework or the model is designed and created to define the internal control of an organisation as a process which is often affected by the management, board of directors and various other personnel in order to provide assurance of achievement of various objectives (Fortino et al, 2018).

The major risk in the Rural Fire Service is that the employees of the organisation might get injured and often may result in death if proper health and safety is not provided to the employees or the firefighters of the organisation. Thus in order to manage risks the employer of the organisation should practice enforcement of codes, fire prevention, provide education to the public and make the public aware of the steps that help in avoiding fire like how to prevent risks, recognize dangerous situations and how to respond to emergencies. The employers of the organisation should also ensure that proper information is provided to the employees and also make sure that proper machinery and equipments are provided to the people in order to maintain safety and health of the employees in the organisation.

Workplace Health and Safety is very important for the employees in order to protect them from any harmful and hazardous situations. The Rural Fire Service is an organisation where the job that needs to be performed is risky which can negatively impact the employees in terms of their safety and health. Thus it is important for the organisation to make comply with the health and safety acts that has been introduced by the government of Australia to protect the employees in the country and work according to the rules and regulations in order to make sure the organisation provides proper equipments, provides training and makes people aware about the situation in order prevent fire which will contribute and help in keeping the firefighters and the volunteers safe and healthy.

Reference

Azadegan, E. (2018). Review of Business Ethics: A Kantian Perspective, by Norman E. Bowie. Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/56494045/Azadegan_on_Bowie_JBE_published_version.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DReview_of_Business_Ethics_A_Kantian_Pers.pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A%2F20191021%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20191021T101049Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=37e20caebe17e0df5be1705187b008fbd5cc721ab77c3b5886dd2898c9c5f26b

Consultaustralia.com.au. (2019). Workplace Health & Safety (OHS). Retrieved 19 October 2019, from https://www.consultaustralia.com.au/Home/Advocacy/WHS

Fortino, M. H., Silva, J. M. D., Santos, M. L. D., Neto, M. A., & Leal, M. M. (2018). Theoretical framework for Risk management monitoring, review and improvement process of FLOSS applications using key risk indicators-KRI at a public agency. In XII Simposio de Informática en el Estado (SIE 2018)-JAIIO 47 (CABA, 2018). Retrieved from https://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/bitstream/handle/10915/72007/Documento_completo.PDF-PDFA.pdf?sequence=1

Halinen, A., & Jokela, P. (2016). Exploring ethics in business networks: Propositions for future research. In Extending the Business Network Approach (pp. 333-356). Palgrave Macmillan, London. Retrieved from https://www.impgroup.org/uploads/papers/8204.pdf

Holmgren, R., Haake, U., & Söderström, T. (2019). Firefighting training at a distance–a longitudinal study. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 71(1), 65-86. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13636820.2018.1464054?af=R

Legislation.nsw.gov.au. (2019). NSW Legislation. Retrieved 21 October 2019, from https://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/regulation/2017/404/full

Mill, J. S. (2016). Utilitarianism. In Seven masterpieces of philosophy (pp. 337-383). Routledge. Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/26443440/stuart-mill_utilitarianism.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DUtilitarianism.pdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A%2F20191021%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20191021T084027Z&X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=acdcff3a9d9e93ddc0509843571e32d71c563124a63f0951c5bc84dddbcef87b

Safe Work Australia. (2019). Law and regulation. Retrieved 21 October 2019, from https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/law-and-regulation

Smith, S., Pang, V., Liu, K., Kavakli-Thorne, M., Edwards, A., Orgun, M., & Host, R. (2016). Adoption of data-driven decision making in fire emergency management. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5d3f/951ae7fbae0d7ed0516afc53ccd3acf114a6.pdf 

Worksafe.vic.gov.au. (2019). Occupational health and safety – your legal duties – WorkSafe. Retrieved 21 October 2019, from https://www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/occupational-health-and-safety-your-legal-duties

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