OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT: AN OVERVIEW OF FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES AND PHILOSOPHY

Occupational health and safety (OHS) is generally defined as the science of predicting, recognizing, assessing, and controlling hazards and risks arising at or from the workplace, which could adversely affect the health and well-being of workers and other persons at work, considering the possible impact on the local community and the general environment. OHS principles are linked to the rights, responsibilities, and obligations of stakeholders who have certain expectations. These include moral, social, legal, and economic issues. The need for OHS is permanent. The philosophy of OHS begins with the basic need or requirement of safety, its fundamentals, cause analysis and assessment, identifying unsafe conditions and actions and the sequence of events leading to accident occurrence. It examines the principles and methodologies for the prevention of accidents and the prompt implementation of control measures. The OHS philosophy critically studies the basic principles and concepts of this field as an integral part of business management, while also emphasizing their practical application to promote a safe and healthy work environment. Based on the theoretical research, the paper presents an overview of the fundamental principles and philosophy of OHS management and provides guidelines for future specific research.