• ISSN: 2010-023X (Print)
    • Abbreviated Title: Int. J. Trade, Economics and Financ.
    • Frequency: Quaterly
    • DOI: 10.18178/IJTEF
    • Editor-in-Chief: Prof.Tung-Zong (Donald) Chang
    • Managing Editor: Ms. Inez. Chan
    • Abstracting/ Indexing:  Crossref, CNKI, EBSCO

    • Article Processing Charge (APC): 500 USD

    • E-mail: ijtef.editorial.office@gmail.com

IJTEF 2011 Vol.2(5): 412-418 ISSN: 2010-023X
DOI: 10.7763/IJTEF.2011.V2.141

Occupational Safety and Health Committees: How Fares the Pulse of the Self-Regulatory System in Malaysian Manufacturing Firms?

Ummu Kolsome Farouk, Stanley Richardson, and Arul Jeganathan Solucis Santhapparaj

Abstract—Occupational Safety and Health Committees (OSHC) were owing to a legislative mandate via section 30 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 (OSHA 1994) required to be established in workplaces with 40 or more employees. They were a manifestation of employee involvement and joint commitment of employer and employee; the twin pillars of the workplace occupational safety and health self-regulatory system that was attributed to the Roben’s Report of 1972 issued in the United Kingdom. The self-regulatory approach was adopted in Malaysia to replace the former approach that was dependent upon prescriptive based regulations and a command and control form of enforcement on the part of the government enforcement agency now known as the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH). To understand the efficacy of the self-regulatory system in so far as it relates to manufacturing firms in Malaysia, survey data from 231 manufacturing firms were empirically studied. The findings indicate that in terms of the extent of executing legislatively prescribed functions in general, OSHCs fall on a medium scale indicative of the self-regulatory system functioning at an average level. However, functioning in these areas were discovered to be lagging: access to reports provided by external experts, access to safety audits, collect general information on safety and health issues, assist employer in safety and health competitions, carry out studies on safety and health at the place of work, form sub-committee to assist in function, access to internal and external experts in determining safety and health issues and seeking intervention of DOSH when non implementation of OSHC recommendation was unjustified.

Index Terms—Employee Involvement, Manufacturing Firms, Occupational Safety And Health Committees, Self-Regulation.

U. K. Farouk is with Multimedia University, 61000 Cyberjaya, Malaysia (e-mail: ummu@ mmu.edu.my).
S. Richardson is with Multimedia University, 61000 Cyberjaya, Malaysia (e-mail:s.richardson@mmu.edu.my).
A. J. S. Santhapparaj was with Multimedia University, 61000 Cyberjaya, Malaysia. He passed away after this paper was submitted for review.

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Cite:Ummu Kolsome Farouk, Stanley Richardson, and Arul Jeganathan Solucis Santhapparaj, "Occupational Safety and Health Committees: How Fares the Pulse of the Self-Regulatory System in Malaysian Manufacturing Firms?," International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance vol.2, no.5, pp. 412-418, 2011.

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