Role, Function, Benefits & Limitation of Legislation
Preamble
It is not realistic to expect that all organizations will adopt the good health and safety standards voluntarily because the benefits of the good standards will not be immediately obvious to all employers, since good standards will incur the cost.
To ensure that minimum standards are met whether they relate to health and safety in the workplace or other matters to do with the regulation of society, the government will introduce legislation to regulate the organizations. For example introduction of health and safety legislation has set minimum standards for employers to meet. Few are listed below;
- Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSWA) of the United Kingdom
- Occupational Safety & Health Act 1970 (OSHA) of the United States of America
- Work Environment Act 1977 (WEA) of the Government of Sweeden
The legislation introduced by the government can either lead to civil or criminal consequences. Firstly, understanding the meaning of LEGISLATION is mandatory, hence defined hereunder.
Legislation is statutes, and other legal instruments that have been enacted by the government of the country.
In Criminal Law, a CRIME is an offense against the state, and violation of state rules can lead to prosecution of the culprit/ offender, and as a consequence, he/she can be punished with either a fine, imprisonment, or both at a time.
Contrary to that, a CIVIL ACTION is concerned with an individual who has suffered losses such as being injured when performing a work activity and met an accident. In a civil action, the victim (claimant) will seek financial compensation from the defendant (employer) for wrongdoing.
Limitations
As the legislation helps the government to implement good standards, there are limitations associated with the introduced legislation. For example;
- The organizations will comply with minimum standards defined by law, instead of complying with its spirit and going beyond what the law defined.
- Organizations adopting these good standards might be at a competitive disadvantage, due to the high costs of good standards.
- The introduction of legislation comes with a requirement of ENFORCEMENT, hence it is also mandatory to identify those who don't comply with minimum standards. Accordingly, enforcement officers who are hired to inspect, identify, and investigate must be trained.
- A proper and well-defined procedure for prosecution and punishment of organizations and individuals is necessary who fail to comply.
Goal Setting Legislation vs Prescriptive Legislation
Two different models are adopted by the government bodies, Goal-Setting & Prescriptive to define and set the minimum acceptable standards. The former sets an Objective to achieve and leaves it to the duty holder to decide on the best way of achieving the defined goal. The latter defines the standard to be achieved in far more explicit terms. Both are defined below for better understanding.
1. Goal-Setting Legislation
Goal-setting legislation as the name suggests defines and sets an achievable objective, and now its duty holder's responsibility to decide on the best way to achieve the objective. The duty holder is the one on whom the legal duty is imposed e.g., individual, employe, organization, etc.
A splendid example of goal-setting legislation is the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 of the United Kingdom. The law defines the duty imposed on the employer as;
It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work off all his employees.
The law has set a goal of "health and safety at work" but the Act doesn't define how this should be done. It is the duty holder's duty to identify and evaluate the different ways of meeting this requirement and choose what is most reasonable in existing circumstances.
2. Prescriptive Legislation
Prescriptive language as the name suggests defines the standard in far more explicit terms. For example, in the United Kingdom (UK) a law is enforced titled Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER) 1998. Regulation 26 is concerned with the information & instructions provision to equipment users.
In practice, legislation shouldn't be thought of as being entirely goal-setting or entirely prescriptive. For example, Regulation 8 of Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER) 1998 states that;
Every employer shall ensure that all persons who use work equipment have availale to them adequate health and safety information and where appropriate, written instructions pertaining to the use of the work equipment.
The above-mentioned statement requires the employer to provide adequate information to users of equipment, it has an element of prescriptive legislation however, what constitutes "Adequate" needs to be decided by the employer.
Benefits & Limitations: Goal-Setting Legislation vs Prescriptive Legislation
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|
Goal-Setting Legislation |
Prescriptive Legislation |
|
B e n e f i t s |
·
More flexibility; ·
Related to actual risk present; ·
Requires less revision; ·
Applicable to much wider workplaces; ·
Duty holder can decide what is the best way to
achieve the objective; |
·
Clearly defined requirements; ·
Easily understood by the employer/ individual; ·
Enforced by the regulator; ·
Doesn’t require a higher level of expertise; ·
Uniform standards to be complied with; |
|
L i m i t a t i o n s |
·
More difficult to enforce; ·
Need a high level of expertise to interpret
what is adequate/ sufficient; ·
Sometimes need court intervention to provide
judicial judgment; |
·
Inflexible; ·
Circumstances can lead to high or low
standards; ·
Doesn’t take account of duty holder’s circumstances; ·
Require frequent revisions; |
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