Development of multi-attribute compliance rating tool in occupational safety and health for steel manufacturing in Uganda

Abstract

The ILO estimated that globally, every year, more than 2.3 million workers died from an occupational injury or disease. It was further projected that nearly 5% of world GDP was lost due to occupational diseases and accidents. In Uganda, the manufacturing sector scored about 20% of work-related fatal accidents. This research yielded an Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Compliance Assessment Tool (OSHCAT) using the Simple Multi-Attribute Rating Technique (SMART) in Microsoft Structured Query Language (MSSQL) Server Management Studio and C-sharp programming language. The tool can rate, recognize the well-performing enterprises and identify those that expose workers to eminent danger for reprimand. A total of 34 respondents were selected from 20 organizations with stake in steel industry in Uganda, among which 47% were employed by government, 32% worked with steel manufacturing factories, 6% were employed by workers’ associations, and another 6% by employers’ association and 9% were into private practice / OSH consultancy. They enumerated, ranked in order of importance, ten (10) core OSH compliance requirements in steel manufacturing as; OSH management policy(18%), integration of OSH into all business processes(16%), communication and display of policies, safe work procedures(15%), employee competence and training in OSH(13%), mechanisms for hazard identification, prevention & control(11%), clear roles, responsibilities & accountability(9%), workers’ participation in OSH activities(7%), OSH documentation & statistics(5%), internal and external audits & investigation reports(4%), contractors’ engagement and responsibility on OSH(2%). Participants, averagely established OSH compliance levels by percentage scores into three categories of poor (0-49%, thus, Red code), fair (50-64%, as Orange code) and good or excellent (above 65% score, so, Green code). This research further guided on the development of similar tools for other work environments, pertaining OSH compliance which may later be merged to have a comprehensive assessment mechanism across all industries. Other multiattribute decision analysis techniques can be used to check consistency with this research, to adjust importance levels of parameters or correct the bias among participants (decision makers). It has been recommended that the OSH Department implements the OSHCAT to set ground for evaluation of the ultimate impact to the workplace safety regime.