Describe Industrial Safety Concerns: Audits or Scam (Essay Sample)

INDUSTRIAL SAFETY CONCERNS: AUDITS OR SCAM?
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Introduction
Industrial processes need a continuous policing action to ensure that all the operations adhere to the standards. The operations should be audited frequently, not only to ensure quality of production but also the safety of the workers. Many industries have become profit-driven that the safety of the workers is not given a grave outlook. If the safety of the workers is taken into consideration, even the image of the industry and productivity will improve. However, some industries have come up with archaic mechanisms through which they get shortcuts to audits. This ends up being costly to the industry at large.
The Bangladesh garment industry
The current issues that happened in Bangladesh have raised questions on what the industries hold dear. Are they concerned about the safety of their workers or making profits? As much as every industry is set up to realize profits, the safety of the industrial workers must be of utmost concern. The collapse and fires faced in the apparel industries in Bangladesh have left many questioning what was not done right. The apparel industries claim that their operations were frequently audited and that they were compliant with the regulations. If they did that, how could they fail to detect the cracks in the walls of the buildings? How could fire devour over 1000 company workers if the fire equipment was frequently assessed? There seems to be a loophole at a certain point in the operations. Could be that someone is sleeping on the job or corruption has grown to the brim that the image of the industry would rather be protected than to make amendments.
The Rana plaza and Tazreen fashion occurrences have marred the reputation of the garment producing industries. There seems to be a wide variability in the audit reports and reality. A large gap is realized because the revealed audit reports are in contrast to the results after the audit. The audit reports may be out of fear, or the auditors are shady in their work. Perchance there are auditors that fear pointing out defects in the management of the industry due to fear of intimidation. The qualifications of the auditors for the audit assignments remain questionable. Some managers and executives hire unqualified and untrained auditors at low costs. In the process of saving on costs, the auditors end up doing a shoddy work that ends up being costly to the industries. The effectiveness of government regulations on industrial production also presents a major challenge in the policing of the operations of the industries.
A lot of improvements and adjustments need to be done in the apparel industry and other industries. The government regulatory industries should play their role in regularly assessing the operations of such industries. The welfare and health of the company workers should be considered. They should be free to work and report an abnormality without fear of intimidation or of being laid off. Vigilance in the industries should be improved through use of security cameras. The workers should also be educated and involved in safety measures in the organization. The industries should put in place a robust inspection system that would encourage vigilance within and without the facilities. The industry should endeavor to hire qualified and competent auditors no matter how costly it may seem for the industry. Putting up regulatory measures would be useless if the implementation is poor. The regulatory measures should thus be implemented to ensure that the industrial operations are streamlined towards productivity. The auditors should be informed to put into consideration safety issues in their operations.
The department of justice in OSHA and EPA enforcement process
The Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) work together to improve the safety of operations within the industries (Ferguson & Janicak, 2015). OSHA and EPA put combined efforts to advocate for the safety of the workers, the members of the public and the environmental facilities. They have a memorandum of understanding that helps them in identifying environmental and health hazards in the industries (Ferguson & Janicak, 2015). The involvement of the OSHA/EPA in the industrial operations would improve the safety of the workers. The health of the workers is given priority while the industries also work concomitantly to realize profits (Ferguson & Janicak, 2015). Fur...