Process Safety Management employee participation

Employers shall develop a written action plan that implements employee participation in developing and conducting process hazards analyses and other elements of process safety. management. 

The first major element is Employee Participation [29 CFR 1910.119 (c)]. This requires that affected employees (those who could be affected by an incident) not only have access to pertinent Process Safety Management information, but also be allowed to provide input to its development and use. It is expected that affected employees will be trained in the standard s content. Many companies not only welcome employees input, but also involve them in the development and management of the individual elements. It is expected that all employee participation in PSM implementation will be documented. ... 

The discussion in Chapter 1 showed how safety and risk management programs developed over the last 200 years. Typically new programs and approaches were introduced once existing systems had become mature and well established. The discussion also showed that current risk management initiatives are largely to do with the topic of culture and employee participation. Hence much of the recent literature to do with Process Safety Management (PSM) speaks to the topic of company culture. For example, the Baker Commission report to do with the 2005 accident at Texas City... 

In designing the Process Safety Management standard (PSM), OSHA looked at overall process safety from a broad system s view and identified 14 key elements that industry should address to minimize catastrophic accidents. The 14 elements cover the things that can cause a process failure and accidents. Some of the major causes of process accidents are a lack of training, lack of information about process equipment, lack of equipment inspections, poor coordination with contractors, and lack of employee participation in process planning and implementation. The program is triggered by above-threshold quantities of any of 136 chemicals. The purpose of the standard is to minimize the consequences of a catastrophic release of a toxic, flammable, reactive, or explosive chemical. The importance of this standard is that it requires safety analysis and names certain analytic techniques to use or their equivalent. 

Employee Involvement A written plan of action must be developed regarding employee participation. Employees and their representatives must be con-suiter on the conduct and development of process hazard analyses and on the development of other elements of process safety management required under the rule. Employees and their representatives should have access to process... 

Employee Participation Employers must create a written plan of action for employee participation. Employers must consult with employees and their representatives on PHA, and other steps in process safety management. 

OSH A and the EPA developed the process safety management (PSM) standard to prevent the catastrophic release of toxic, hazardous, or flammable materials that could lead to a fire, explosion, or asphyxiation. Several critical elements of the PSM standard include employee training, operations procedures, process safety, employee participation, and hot work. 

In addition, just as employee participation is the key element of process safety management systems, worker involvement is crucial to the effective application of Safety Cases. Unfortunately, the perception among many that a Safety Case is a lengthy, highly technical document that can only be understood by specialists, mitigates effective employee participation. For example the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technique used to model explosion over-pressure uses very sophisticated mathematics. This sophistication makes communication with nonspecialists a challenge. In addition the sheer size and complexity of a Safety Case may serve as a barrier to the involvement of nontechnical personnel. 

Q Ensure employee participation in the process safety management program. 

Employee Participation Preparation for startup is an excellent opportunity to document employee participation. If a toller is covered under the OSHA PSM regulation, they must record PHA participants, procedure writers and reviewers, PSSR team members and test run team members. All these roles reflect the true intent of this element of process safety. Eveiyone benefits from intimate involvement in the management system used to protect life and health. 

Increases in any of our three main HRM practices— epdm. Employee Participation in Decision Making epfr. Employee Participation in Financial Returns and mgtcult, the level of management involvement in the safety processes of the firm—all lead to substantial reductions in workers compensation costs per employee. In Table 3.6, we measured per-employee safety gains both as a unit change in each of these indices and as a change to the Tjest practice levels. 

In addition to consulting with employees, it is important that management makes sure that employees know that they have a right to access to information to do with process safety. The fact that PHAs are specifically identified within this element has prompted many companies to make sure that operators participate in the PHAs, often on a rotating basis. 

This chapter discusses the nature of culture as it applies to the safety and general risk management of process facilities. Also discussed here are related issues such as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Employee Participation, Behavior-Based Safety (BBS) and Inherent Safety. 

When the operator acts in this manner both the participation and the PHA elements of the process safety program are working perfectly. Employee participation is not a stand-alone activity instead, it should be woven into the fabric of all the elements of a risk management program. 

Safety committees provide a formal channel through which management and the employees can communicate with regard to process safety issues and overall company culture. There are many references to the involvement of employee representatives in the OSHA standard. These would usually be on the safety committee. If the facility is nonunion, it is essential that the employees representative is selected by the employees, not appointed by management. But it is important to ensure that the committee is not isolated the effective implementation of this element requires that everyone participate in the process safety program. 

So had the safety culture changed Yes The entire culture moved from a reactive mode into a proactive safety mode with the implementation and maintenance of a world s best safety management system led by the management teams. They provided the resources and allowed for the development of those resources, and also participated in the development process by attending the training and getting involved in safety inspections, committees, and recognizing employees. 

It should be understood that Section 3.0 is the standard s most important section. Safety professionals will surely agree that Top management leadership and effective employee participation are crucial for the success of an Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS). Top management leadership is vital because it sets the organization s safety culture and because continual improvement processes cannot be successful without sincere top management direction. Key statements in the shall column of the standard follow ... 

Data follow with respect to two situations in which deterioration in safety management leadership and employee participation resulted in catastrophic incidents. Negative safety decision making resulted in a deteriorating safety culture, failure to adequately involve employees in the safety process, and poor communication. 

The effectiveness of the processes outlined in ZlO s Section 3.0, Management Leadership and Employee Participation, would be the basis of performance measurements on employee input. The provisions in Section 3.2, Employee Participation, states that The organization shall establish and implement processes to ensure effective participation in the occupational health and safety management system by its employees at all levels of the organization, including those working closest to the hazard(s). ... 

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