Everything You Need to Know About Occupational Health and Safety (OHS)
OHS is the set of measures that must be taken to create a safe working environment in order to prevent accidents at work. As industrialisation has accelerated and technology has developed, the measures that must be taken regarding the safety of the people working in a workplace have grown, and the importance of occupational safety — necessary to make workplaces a safe environment — has risen in direct proportion.
OHS is the set of measures that must be taken to create a safe working environment in order to prevent accidents at work. As industrialisation has accelerated and technology has developed, the measures that must be taken regarding the safety of the people working in a workplace have grown, and the importance of occupational safety — necessary to make workplaces a safe environment — has risen in direct proportion.
What Does OHS Mean?
OHS is the abbreviation for "Occupational Health and Safety"; it is the body of practices and studies, established through regulations, laws and communiqués, that work to protect all employees. The aim of these studies and practices is to reduce and ultimately eliminate the health problems and occupational risks arising from the physical environmental conditions in workplaces.
Although OHS is broadly aimed at ensuring the safety of employees, the safety of temporary workers, customers, visitors and indeed anyone present in the workplace also falls within its scope. In short, everyone affected by the organisation's activities should be covered by OHS protection. The legal basis for all of these processes rests on Occupational Health and Safety Act no. 6331. This Act covers everyone working in any sector, under any job title.
How Is an OHS Policy Prepared?
To prepare an OHS policy, the hazards in the workplace must first be identified and the risks assessed, and control measures must then be decided upon. Through its OHS policy, a company should set itself clear targets and express its commitment to improving every factor that threatens the safety of its employees. Some of the important commitments within the policy are as follows:
- Creating healthy and safe working conditions in order to prevent accidents at work and illnesses likely to arise from the occupation
- Complying with legal requirements
- Providing OHS training to all employees
- Making improvement continuous
- Setting targets and establishing a system for auditing those targets
- Creating a channel of communication through which employees can obtain information on OHS
- Checking processes at periodic intervals
- Continuously improving OHS performance
How Do You Obtain an OHS Certificate?
People who work in the occupational safety sector and want to build a career in the field need to obtain an OHS certificate. So how is an OHS certificate obtained?
To obtain an OHS certificate you must first attend occupational safety training courses, and then sit the Directorate General of Occupational Health and Safety's Workplace Physician and Occupational Safety Specialist Examination. After this examination, a certificate can be obtained for the relevant class.
The occupational safety certificate has three classes, as follows:
- Class A for workplaces regarded as very hazardous,
- Class B for workplaces regarded as hazardous,
- Class C for workplaces regarded as low-hazard
The documents that need to be prepared when applying to obtain an occupational health and safety certificate and become an OHS specialist are as follows:
- A letter of application addressed to the institution being applied to, in which the candidate has selected the course they want from among the designated occupational safety training courses and which includes their national ID number and contact details
- Graduation certificates and diplomas evidencing the applicant's level of education
- For candidates wishing to attend class A occupational safety training, a class B occupational safety specialist certificate and a letter confirming five years of employment somewhere while holding that certificate
- Likewise, for candidates wishing to attend class B occupational safety training, a class C occupational safety specialist certificate and a letter confirming five years of employment somewhere while holding that certificate
- Occupational safety specialist certificates obtained abroad must be approved by the relevant ministries.
What Does OHS Specialist Mean? How Do You Become an OHS Specialist?
People who complete all of the processes above and train to work in the field of OHS are called OHS specialists . They may be graduates of university chemistry and physics departments, technical teachers, or graduates of Occupational Health and Safety programmes.
The OHS Examination
Candidates wishing to become an OHS specialist must sit the OHS examination held by the Ministry after completing their training programmes. If a candidate does not pass at the first attempt, they may sit the next examination. However, candidates who do not pass at the second attempt must undergo OHS training again before sitting the examination. The OHS examination is marked out of 100, and candidates scoring 70 or above are deemed to have passed. So how is an OHS examination application made?
Candidates wishing to apply for the OHS examination must log in to the İSG-KATİP section through the e-Government portal.
The procedure facing candidates who have logged in to the İSG-KATİP section is as follows:
- Click the Query & Application button.
- In the window that opens, select the application category you want and click the Query & Application button again.
- Click the Examination application button.
- Click the Make New Application button.
- In the window that opens, select the application type and application category you want. Then click the Save button.
- Upload the required documents to the system.
- Finally, click Save again and complete your application.
- After applying through the İSG-KATİP application, you can follow the rest of the process in the "Review Status" section.
When Is the OHS Examination? Where Is the OHS Examination Held?
The second session of the 2019 OHS examination will be held on 14 December 2019 . The provinces in which the examination will take place are Adana, Ankara, Antalya, Bursa, Diyarbakır, Erzurum, Eskişehir, Gaziantep, Istanbul, İzmir, Kayseri, Konya, Malatya, Samsun, Sivas, Trabzon and Van. According to the ÖSYM examination calendar, applications for the second-session OHS examination must be made between 25 October and 6 November 2019 . The late application date is 14 November 2019.
When Will the OHS Examination Results Be Announced?
According to the ÖSYM calendar, the results of the 2nd session OHS examination will be announced on 7 January 2020.
