Scheduling of occupational health and safety personnel: joint health and safety unit Türkiye implementation

Abstract Occupational health and safety (OHS) is a crucial requirement for all individuals involved in working life to work in healthy and reliable conditions. OHS service is provided by OHS personnel working in this role. One of the primary duties of OHS personnel is to guide employers so that employees can work in healthy and safe environments. In this context, enterprises in Türkiye can fulfill their service obligations with their expert personnel or through units that provide OHS services from outside the enterprise. Consultancy companies called Joint Health Security Unit (JHSU), which includes occupational safety specialists, workplace physicians, and other health personnel, have been established for outsourcing services. Despite providing OHS services to the employees in general, the physical and psychosocial risks faced by the OHS personnel serving in JHSU with a wide working area are ignored. This study handles the scheduling problem of the OHS personnel working in a JHSU and aims to realize the business assignment that would ensure an equal and fair distribution of the workload of the personnel. In this way, the physical and psychosocial risks OHS personnel face have been reduced. In line with the targeted purpose, the assignment of 2 workplace physicians, five occupational safety specialists, and one other health personnel in JHSU with 43 workplaces was carried out using the goal programming method. As a result, the model solution ensured the employees’ equal and fair workload distribution.