Issue: Relationship between Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) and the age of workers. Introduction World Health and the International Labor Organization

University Degree Subjects allied to Medicine

Topic: Occupational Health and Safety

Issue: Relationship between Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) and the age of workers.

Introduction

World Health and the International Labor Organization (1950) cited in “Regional strategy on Occupational Health and Safety in SEAR Countries” defines occupational health and safety (OHS) as “the promotion and maintenance of the highest degree of physical, mental and social wellbeing of workers in all occupations; the prevention among workers of departures from health caused by their working conditions; the protection of workers in their employment from risks resulting from factors adverse to health; the planning of and maintenance of the worker in an occupational environment adapted to his/her physiological and psychological equipment and, the adaptation of work to man and each man to his job”. Basically, it is the control and prevention of danger, injury or risk in the workplace or, the preservation of the health and safety of all people at work. Appendix 1 shows the report of injury for the year 2004-2005.

One of the current major issues facing employers now is the ageing workforce (Beharie, 2005). It has become an important issue in OHS and in Australia. Over the past 20 years, Australia's total fertility rate fell from 1.9 children per woman in 1983 to 1.8 children per woman in 2003 (Australia Bureau of Statistics, 2006). Meanwhile, life expectancy has shown continued improvement throughout Australia's history (Australia Bureau of Statistics, 2006). With sustained low fertility levels and increasing life expectancy, it has resulted in an increase in the proportion of all age groups above 40 years between 1954 and 2004 (Australia Bureau of Statistics, 2006). In 2004, these age groups also included the majority of the 'baby boomers' (those born between 1946 and 1965) (Australia Bureau of Statistics, 2006).

In assessing the capability of manpower in industries, age is an important factor. There has not been a specific definition of old age, but based on most research, it can be assumed old aged workers consist of workers above 50 years old. The theory of ageing within literature proposes that work capabilities, both physical and mental, deteriorate with the advancement of age (Haight, 2003). Therefore, it is not surprising that there are many negative attitudes towards older workers, connecting them to higher accident rates, poor health and increased illness (Bland, 2005).

Over the past years, researchers have gone about trying to find the connection between age and OHS. This assignment presents the many findings and highlights specific issues that may have been left in the dark.

Issues relating to old age

a) Physical Ability

Many human functions deteriorate with age. One of the most common physical impairment facing older workers is the decline in perceptive motors capacities (Haight, 2003). According to a research by Haight (2003), motor impairments have been linked to a loss of sensory receptivity, decrease in muscle mass and elasticity, decrease in bone mass, and reduction in central and peripheral nerve fibers which in return affects a worker’s ability to control movement rapidity and accuracy. An example would be falls. Dr Juurlink noted that older people tend to be more susceptible to falls (Beharie, 2005). Research shows that it is caused by a less effective vestibular system, which controls one’s sense of balance (Beharie, 2005). It becomes less effective in sensing a body’s position and movements which causes a decline in balance and coordination (Beharie, 2005). Other physical abilities that are known to decrease with age are aerobic power, “elasticity in almost all the tissue of the body” which leads to a “decreased range of movement in the joints”, reaction and movement times and visual acuity (Munk, 2003). Previous research has also indicated that decline in information-processing capacity of older workers is seen during more complex and some stressful conditions (Munk, 2003). Older workers may face physical disability in certain areas but research has also shown that this may be different for workers who try to stay physically or mentally fit (Munk, 2003).

b) Workplace injuries & Sick Leave / Absenteeism

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b) Workplace injuries & Sick Leave / Absenteeism

There has been much research on the link between older aged workers and work related injuries or accidents. Common beliefs suggest that work injuries and accidents will increase with age. It is believed that older workers would tend to be more vulnerable to injuries or accidents. Despite this, Rogers & Wiatrowski (2005) state that older workers are actually prone to the same workplace hazards as all other workers. Australian statistics indicate that trend in injury are rather similar across age groups and workers of age generally aren’t at any greater risk of sustaining injury (Munk, 2003). In fact, Munk (2003) highlights that international statistics show that old age and safety do not indicate higher incidents rather, those of older age are more aware of workplace safety and are less likely to have work accidents.

Despite this, statistics do show that fatality rates are higher for older aged workers than younger ones. According to data of workplace fatalities in America, the fatality rate of older workers were nearly 3 times that of the younger ones (Rogers & Wiatrowski, 2005). The more common ones were transportation incidents and falls (Rogers & Wiatrowski, 2005). In the case of heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers aged 65 and older, they experience “twice the percentage of fractures as do such drivers of all ages” (Rogers & Wiatrowski). When it comes to falls on the same level, Rogers & Wiatrowski’s (2005) case study shows that while sprains, strains and tears are the most common injuries caused by a fall on the same level for all workers, for workers aged 65 and older, the most common injury is a fracture (Rogers & Wiatrowski, 2005). Laflamme (1995) cited in Munk (2003) findings also suggest that falls are more frequent among older workers and that “fractures, hernias, heart attacks, and sprains and strains due to overexertion are more frequent in older workers”.

There is also an assumption that older workers are less productive than the younger ones due to more sickness and injury (Cant, O’Loughlin & Legge, 2001). Arguments against this state that older workers can still be more productive than the younger workers because they can take advantage from their skills and knowledge of their past experience (Munk, 2003). Research has been done to try and find whether older workers are less productive than the younger ones. To do this, we can look at the number of sick leave that they take. Cant et al. (2001) did a case study on sick leave and absence patterns of the employees in a local council in Australia. Contrary to what people think, their findings’ suggest that older workers who were past the pensionable age took the least amount of sick leave (Cant et al., 2001). They found that “older employees (40+ years) had lower average incidents of leave compared with the incidents for younger workers” (Cant et al., 2001). However, Barmby, Ercolarni & Trebel (2002) found the opposite. In a study “to make an international comparison of sickness absence behavior for 9 countries, they found that for the most part, older workers have higher absence rates than the younger ones. They were careful to note that there are many other aspects of sickness absence that they were unable to study for their research at that time (Barmby et al., 2002).

Besides this, research findings do show that for each incidence of sick leave, older staff took longer leave (Cant et al., 2001). Rogers & Wiatrowski (2005) in their research also found that older workers take a longer time to recover from their injury than the younger workers. However, it is important to note that in Cant et al. (2001) case study, this varied according to departments. In the finance department, younger employees took more sick leave than the older workers but this was the other way round in the library (Cant et al., 2001). One probable explanation for this is that there were more women employees in the library than in the finance staff (Cant et al., 2001). This just shows that reasons for sick leave cannot just be explained by age and or severity of injury due to age, but there are many other factors involved that could explain the reasons for taking leave. In fact, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (1996) cited in Cant et al., (2001), factors affecting the use of sick leave “include employment sector (public or private), occupation, employment status (full-time, part-time), family commitments, gender and age”. In fact, James (1993) cited in Cant et al. (2001) found that “non-reported illnesses were disproportionately high in the sampled population for workers over the age of 45”. A human resource manager being interviewed in the case study by Cant et al. (2001) acknowledged that the work ethic of older workers’ is strong. Their research also showed that older workers tend to save sick leaves for real sickness or for important crisis (Cant et al., 2001).

Most researchers agree that severity of injury increases with age and older workers need more time to recover from their injury. Australian statistics show that accident severity increases with age and more time is required for recovery (Mital, Pennathur & Kansal, 1999 cited in Munk, 2003). Contrary to the case study by Cant et al. (2001), recent study by Rogers & Wiatrowski (2005) showed that “the median of days away from work for all workers was 8 days; for those aged 55-64, it was 12 days, and for those aged 65 and older, it was 18 days” (Roger & Wiatrowski, 2005).

c) Ability to handle work stress

Contemporary data reports older employees have a greater resilience to stress than their younger counterparts (Beharie, 2005). Results from a recent research by WarrenSheppell Research Group in Canada show that older workers are more likely to report workplace stress issues and face more work stress (Beharie, 2005). Generally, everyone faces stress but it increases at a faster rate for older workers (Beharie, 2005). With more pressure in the workplace to perform better, there’s a higher vulnerability in terms of workplace accidents (Beharie, 2005).

Younger aged workers

There has also been research on the younger workers. Schulte, Stephenson, Okun, Palassis & Biddle (2005) show that in general, the injury rates of workers aged from 16 to 19 are two-fold the rate of all age. In an assessment of The National Occupational Health and Safety Commision (NOHSC) about work-related fatality study (WRFS2) throughout Australia, “of the total 593 traumatic deaths recorded in WRFS2, 103 were aged less than 20 years” (Department of Employment, Training and Industrial Relations, 2000, p.2). This could be due to lack of experience or overconfidence of the health and safety issues (Schulte et al., 2005). Australian workers’ compensation data indicated that “in Western Australia in 1994-95, workers aged between 15 and 24 were 20.7% of the total employed workforce, but had 27.4% of all lost time injuries/diseases (Department of Employment, Training and Industrial Relations, 2000, p.2). This is contrary to research shown about older workers mentioned earlier.

Australian OHS Safety Law

In Australia, there are two legislations that govern OHS. There is the federal and the state legislation (De Cieri, Kramar, Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart and Wright, 2005). The National Occupational Health and Safety Commission Act, 1985 introduced by the federal government established the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission (NOHSC) to “lead and coordinate national efforts and campaigns to prevent workplace injury, disease and fatality in Australia” (De Cieri et al, 2005).

The state legislation, The Occupational Health and Safety Act, 1985, is introduced to “improve safety standards to meet the requirements of a dynamic, technologically-advanced industrial society” (De Cieri et al, 2005). The various OHS Acts put “obligations on employers to ensure safety of employees in workplace, to maintain a healthy and safe working environment, with emphasis placed on duty of care and co-regulation by managers and employees” (De Cieri et al, 2005).

Why is all this important to HRM?

OHS involves significant personal and financial implications to a company (De Cieri, Kramer, Noe, Hollenback, Gerhart & Wright, 2005). As mentioned earlier, there are legal requirement in regards to this area as well. As the majority of workers in the near future are going to be older workers, it is important that human resource managers see the effects of this workforce demographic. According to Parker and Worringham (2004), workforce demographics should be considered in the assessment and management of injury risk. As human resource management is all about helping the human resources of the corporation to work towards the direction of the business objective, they need to design jobs, and also ensure the work environment is suitable to increase productivity from the workers. “Managing human resource activities, such as OHS, within legal constraints and in a strategic, proactive and preventive manner, is a source of competitive advantage” for the organization (De Ceiri et al., 2005).

Conclusion

Research has shown that it is difficult to establish a strong relationship between age and accidents that occur at work. Be it in regards to a decline in physical disability, absenteeism or productivity, there is no clear cut answer showing that older aged workers are at a disadvantage to firms. Findings from research vary from different countries and in different years. Some go in favor of old aged workers, while some point out that with younger aged workers, we might face similar issues, such as absenteeism and work productivity. Why is it that in some research, workplace accident rates are linked to younger workers while other research show that the rate actually increases with age? Maybe more research needs to be done to find out the factors that cause these different results.

As companies can no longer hide from the fact that the majority of workers will be older aged workers, it is important that companies understand the need for improved work conditions and a safer environment tailored especially for the older workers. “Age-related errors and performance decrement appear to be manageable” (Haight, 2003). Furthermore, “whatever is done in the workplace to support older workers usually reduces the risk factors for all workers” (Munk, 2003). Quantifying this benefit could also be another topic for research in the future (Haight, 2003).

Appendixes

Appendix 1: Injuries (2004-2005)

The table below shows claims reported for report year or date the claim was notified to WorkCover and injury year or date claimant’s injury occurred (Victorian WorkCover Authority, 2004).

Appendix 2: Age Group (2004-2005)

The table below shows claims reported for report year by age group, based on the age of the worker at the time of affliction (Victorian WorkCover Authority, 2004).

Reference List

Australian Bureau of Statistics (2006), Ageing Australians 2006, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra.

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Beharie, N. (2005), “Shades of Grey”, OH & S Canada, Vol. 21, No.1, p.26.

Bland, V. (2005), “Old Gold, Safe and Sound”, New Zealand Management, Vol. 52, No. 8, pp. 66-68

Cant, R., O’Loughlin, K. & Legge, V. (2001), "Sick Leave – Cushion or entitlement? A Study of age cohorts’ attitudes and practices in two Australian workplaces", Work, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 39 - 48.

Department of Employment, Training and Industrial Relations (2000), “Occupational health and safety issues for young workers in the fast-food industry”, Queensland Government, Queensland.

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Munk, K. (2003), "The older worker: everyone’s future", Journal of Occupational Health and Safety – Australia & New Zealand, Vol. 19, No. 5, pp. 437 - 446.

National Occupational Health & Safety Commission (2002), National OHS Strategy 2002-2012, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra.

Parker, T. & Worringham, C. (2004), “Managing the Ageing Workforce: Issues and Opportunities for the Queensland Coal Mining Industry”, In Proceedings Queensland Mining Industry Health and Safety Conference, Townsville Queensland.

Rogers, E. & Wiatrowski, W. J. (2005), “Injuries, illnesses, and fatalities among older workers”, Monthly Labor Review, Vol. 128, No. 10, pp. 24 – 30.

Schulte, P. A., Stephenson, C. A., Okun, A. H., Patassis, J. & Biddle, E. (2005), “Integrating Occupational Safety and Health Information Into Vocational and Technical Education and Other Workforce Preparation Programs”, American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 95, No. 3, pp.404-411.

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“Regional strategy on Occupational Health and Safety in SEAR Countries”, World Health Organization, .