Occupational safety and health management in small and medium scale rubber manufacturing enterprises in Sri Lanka

Abstract

An emerging need has been identified in effective implementation of Occupational Safety and Health Management (OSHM) Practices in rubber manufacturing small and medium scale enterprises in Sri Lanka due to their importance as a valuable economic source for the country. Further, these industries provide a significant number of job opportunities, yet the risk is persistent in a noteworthy amount for the health and safety of the employees. Therefore, it is essential to find the current OSHM practices in such industries as well as the existing barriers and to determine the possible solutions for key barriers. The population consisted of 40 OSH experts from different SMEs in the industry located in Western province. The data were gathered using questionnaire, and personal interviews. The personal interviews were conducted among 10 OSH experts. The data analysis was done using SPSS (Version 21). The key findings of the study revealed that there are essential practices which were accepted to be high in importance level, but lower in performance level than expected. More concentrate was found to be needed for the practices including OSHM manuals and procedures are formulated and followed, OSH aspects are considered in the process designs and layout designs, a system is established and followed for hazardous waste management and OSH aspects are considered in the change management system. The key barriers found were poor monitoring system of safety performance, inadequate budget allocation, production based culture, inadequate information flow within the organization, lack of training and awareness, lack of senior management commitment, inadequate support and influence from other organizational members and inadequate legislation. Lastly, solutions were developed through expert perspectives. The key findings can be used as a tool to ensure the effective implementation of the OSHM practices in rubber manufacturing SMEs and the study can be expanded to other industry types as well to get a more broaden idea on the industry inherited practices.