Question

WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES of

Mandatory occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS)

Voluntary occupational health and safety management systems(OHSMS)

Answer 1

Solution:

Mandatory Occupational health & safety management systems are designed for cases where the risk of human life is high. Where the involvement is with high risks work environment where there is risk involved for loss of life possibilities. In such cases, it becomes mandatory to have safety standards set and hence we have mandatory Occupational health & safety management systems designed for such cases. The advantages are that it protects people from being exposed to a high-risk work environment with proper precautions and also to ensure a set of regulations is followed to maintain the safety of the individual. The disadvantages of mandatory Occupational health & safety management systems at times can be of redundancy for certain cases where the risks involved are not high enough to have mandatory Occupational health & safety management systems in place. Hene, in such cases there are added expenses and processes that become lengthy because of added redundancy.

The voluntary Occupational health & safety management systems are the ones that are voluntary and do not require an individual to compulsorily be the part of the system. These systems are used at places with lower risk quite and where people can manage their own risks appropriately without additional external support. In such cases, these voluntary Occupational health & safety management systems are kept in place. The advantages of these systems are that they are lean and do not add redundancy to the business processes also it perfects takes care of the safety issues as well. The disadvantage is that it is becoming difficult to determine the cases where voluntary Occupational health & safety management systems are needed and because of which there can be a lot of expenses catering to the perfect place and cases for voluntary Occupational health & safety management systems. Also, the voluntary occupational health & safety management systems are trusting the people on their ability to manage the risks which can even backfire for some individuals. This is a serious drawback of this system.

Hence, this is an overview of mandatory and voluntary occupational health & safety management systems.