ESPECIFICOS

Section 2.6.3 notes that there more organisations have adopted OHSMSs in developing countries. However, the adoption of OHSMSs does not mean that traditional OHS problems, such as those originating from chemical, physical and biological hazards, have disappeared.

A number of new OHS problems during the past decade have emerged as a consequence of the impact of economic liberalism. This started in major advanced economies and has intensified from the global mobility of productive activity (Walters, 2005). Problems include, but are not limited to, occupational overuse syndrome and psychosocial effects (Gunningham and Johnstone, 1999), deteriorating psychosocial work environments (Baird, 2005) and new epidemics in different regions of the world (Walters, 2005). OHS problems tend to be more severe in rapidly industrialising countries such as China (Zhi et al., 2000;

Gao and Sun, 2004).

The journey of industrialisation started after the birth of New China in 1949. However, it was accelerated in the late 1970s when China started its reform policy and opened up China to the world. This thirty years of development has transformed China from a centrally planned economic system to a socialist market system (Zhi et al., 2000; Chen, 2003b), and becoming the workshop of the world (Brown and O’Rourke, 2003; Brown, 2007; Chen and

Chan, 2010). According to National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBSC, 2008), the annual increase of GDP has been on average of 9.8 per cent over the last thirty years. Meanwhile, the rapid development of the economy has contributed to deepened reform policies and fundamental industrial transformation. Along with the expansion of state-owned enterprises, private enterprises, rural collective and foreign invested companies have also flourished (Chen, 2003b).

The quick development of industrialised production was also accompanied by significant OHS problems. In 1996, more than 30 million people were engaged in hazardous occupations, accounting for about 30 percent of industrial workforce in China (Chen, 2003b). The official statistics in 2005 showed that over 16 million enterprises used toxic and hazardous materials and 200 million workers were involved in hazardous jobs (Chen and Chan, 2010). There was no evidence to show that their OHS was well managed. During the 1990s, there was an average of 100,000 fatalities per annum from industrial accidents.

This number is almost 4 times more than those of developed countries (Liu et al., 2005).

In addition, occupational health is also a significant problem in China. In the 1980s, major occupational health problems included ‘occupational lung disease, industrial chemical poisoning, pesticide poisoning, heavy metal poisoning, physical hazards, and occupational cancer’ (Christiani, 1984, p.59). In recent years, traditional health problems such as respiratory disease in China have by no means disappeared (Walters, 2005). The increasing involvement of new occupational hazards such as psychosocial pressures, ergonomic and physiological problems, exposure to radiation and chemical toxic agents, caused new types of OHS problems such as disorders to the central nervous system, circulation, immune system, and reproductive systems, and diseases such as tuberculosis, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and even some tumours (Gao and Sun, 2004).

Apparently, workers fatalities, injuries and occupational health problems pose a serious negative impact to sustainable economic and social development in China.

The discussion in section 2.6 concludes that regulatory action is essential for dealing with OHS problems. As early as 1956, China published the first compendium of industrial hygiene standards, The Tentative Hygiene Standards for Industrial Enterprises (1956), to regulate workplace OHS issues. After 1979, other OHSM guidelines were developed in consideration of local practices and experience. The rapid industrial development in the

1980s and 1990s was accompanied by alarming reports of fatalities, injuries and diseases, which suggest a need for reinforcements to legal measures to protect workers' OHS (Chen, 2003b). In 2002, two new laws were implemented in China: The Prevention and Control of Occupational Diseases Law (2002) and The Production Safety Law (2002). In the same year, other relevant laws and regulations were also launched, such as The Regulations on Safe Management of Dangerous Chemicals (2nd revision), The Regulations on Labour Protection for Using Toxic Substances in Workplace (2002), and The Occupational Disease Control Law (2002). China has also ratified the workplace health and safety conventions developed by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) such as The Occupational Safety and Health Convention (155), Safety and Health in Construction (167), and The Chemicals Convention (170) (Brown, 2007). In general, these rules have played a significant role in safeguarding workplace OHSM in various industries in China.

Given the assumed positive role of those laws and regulations in relation to OHSM, the literature shows that the outcomes of their implementation were generally unsatisfactorily.

Brown (2007) commented that government enforcement and employer compliance were highly variable and generally poor. One of the fundamental problems affecting the implementation was that local governments failed to balance the need for capital investment with the maintenance of OHS standards. For the purpose of attracting foreign investments, local governments tended to ‘turn a blind eye’ to health and safety problems (Chen, 2003b, p.369). Pringle (2003) noticed a local practice in terms of the implementation of the three simultaneous (OHS) measures specified in The Production Safety law. This requirement involved strong coordination between those responsible for planning, construction and supervisory management. In practice, local governments were interested in attracting investors and did not want to complicate procedures for them, as a result of which the maintenance of OHS standards was compromised. The lack of enforcement from official departments partially contributed to the recurrence of OHS problems, slow advances in OHS and appalling OHS records (Christiani, 1984; Chen, 2003b). In general, workplace safety in China was impeded by the absence of rigour and the failure of implementation (see Pringle, 2003).

Moreover, serious OHS problems can also be associated with the top-down management approach towards workplace safety (Pringle, 2003; Chen and Chan, 2004). The effect of this approach was further reinforced by obstacles to worker participation and the weak

collective bargaining powers with employers (as discussed in sections 2.5.3 and 2.5.4). In a more general sense, Su (2003, p.303) summarised some significant challenges to OHSM in China: ‘lack of work safety awareness, backward infrastructure, and loopholes in management as well as strict supervision resulted in a continuing cycle of accidents and a serious prevalence of occupational diseases, which caused great losses in terms of both lives and assets’.

These longstanding OHS problems have not been improved in recent years. Reports on occupational injuries, diseases and unsafe working conditions are often seen in both Chinese and foreign media, particularly in mining and in labour-intensive manufacturing sectors (Chen and Chan, 2010). This produces a picture that there is a lack of effective OHSM in many industries in China. Some western scholars note that the fast economic development in China was shaping ‘an explosive growth of hazardous industries and unsafe workplaces and enormous challenges in occupational health problems’ (see Chen, 2003b, p.369).

The literature mentioned above mainly addressed OHS and its management problems in land-based industries. The literature search shows that little attention has been given to the Chinese shipping industry. Although national laws and regulations have equal impact on OHSM in the shipping industry, the systematic OHSM was not achieved until the introduction of the ISM Code in 1998. The situation on the implementation of the Code in China was given in section 2.6.1. In general, the literature about the OHS status in China presented in this section provides general background information about this study.

Particularly, certain legal requirements need to be considered when a shipping company develops and revises its own OHSMS. This section helps readers to understand the local context of OHSM in the implementation of international standards such as the ISM Code in the Chinese shipping industry.