Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) in Malaysian Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) and effective safety management practices

Occupational safety and health (OSH) is an issue inseparable from most workplace in Malaysia particularly high-risk industries such as manufacturing and construction. Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) in Malaysia is in dire needs to implement OSH properly as Che Man (2010) estimated that around 80% of workplace accidents that occurred are accounted to SME. More attention and assistances must be extended to SME to help them in the implementation of OSH as their apparent lack of financial resources and expertise hamper their ability to effectively implement OSH. SME can rely on several management practices such as safety training, employee participation, safety rules, and supervisory support in order to make their workplace safer for employees to work in. A review of literature on the four management practices and a brief description on the OSH scenario as well as SME in Malaysia are discussed. SME should make use of the 4 management practices as they were found to be effective in other settings.