Determining the Occupational Health and Safety of Workers in The Food Manufacturing Sector of Pakistan

Background: For organizations, conducting work in a safe environment has become mandatory under the provisions and guidelines provided by international and local laws. Occupational health and safety (OHS) standards have become a requisite in almost every industry these days; however, many organizations in developing countries are negligent at adhering to the safety measures, and there is also an absence of proper monitoring. Objective: Our objective was to determine the occupational health and safety standards that are prevailing in the food manufacturing sector of Pakistan. For this, we approached several food manufacturing companies and conducted interviews with quality assurance managers and health and safety executives to evaluate and analyze the workplace conditions to understand their OHS practices. Methods: We conducted 7 interviews with quality assurance managers in the food manufacturing and services companies of Pakistan. The interview guide was used for eliciting responses and a coding method was used to arrive at the themes of the data gathered. Results: The interviews conducted with quality assurance managers and those working to ensure that safety measures are practiced in their company, showed that the export-oriented food manufacturing companies in Pakistan are following OHS standards, as it has become a necessity, with numerous benefits such as ensuring worker safety, maintaining company reputation. However, the extent to which these measures are implemented and strictly followed varies, as there are certain issues that arise when companies try to follow and implement OHS practices The problems vary from company to company however, most of them relate to worker adaptability, costs, and training needs.  OHS situation in local firms is concerning. Most of them do not have HSE officers, not the concept of toolbox talk, no preventive and safety measures.  These poor practices make the situation unsafe, which lead to fatalities Conclusion: By establishing a national framework for policies and legislations as per the conventions of ILO for a better workplace environment along with proper law enforcement improvement in occupational health and safety domain can be achieved.      

Estimation of Population Mean of Sensitive Variable Using Auxiliary Information

Warner (1965) introduced Randomized Response Technique (RRT) for qualitative variable, which helps interviewers extract reliable data corresponding to sensitive questions while maintaining respondent anonymity. RRT allow respondents to mark their actual response by giving a scrambled response which the researcher is later able to unscramble at an aggregate level but not at an individual level. In the thesis, we focus on generalized quantitative optional randomized response models and some generalized ratio-type estimators have been proposed for a finite population mean of a sensitive variable based on RRT by using non-sensitive auxiliary variable. These estimators have been proposed under different sampling designs, such as single-phase sampling, two-phase sampling, stratified sampling and stratified two-phase sampling. In Chapter 1, the discussion has been made about randomized response technique. Different methods, related to randomized response models and RRT have been discussed. Furthermore, uses of two-phase sampling, auxiliary information, stratified sampling, ratio and regression estimators based on randomized response technique have been illustrated. In Chapter 2, literature on the randomized response models and mean estimators based on randomized response techniques is discussed. Chapter 3 contains the quantitative randomized response models, already developed in full and optional randomized response devices. The procedure of ratio and regression estimators for sensitive variables by using non-sensitive auxiliary variable based on RRT have also been given in Chapter 3. The major contribution of this dissertation starts from Chapter 4. In this chapter, three new quantitative randomized response models to estimate the mean of a sensitive variable have been proposed. We also improved mean estimation utilizing information from a non-sensitive auxiliary variable by way of ratio and regression estimators in three models. These three models have been constructed under single sample approach, split sample approach and generalized linear combination scrambling approach. Some special cases and privacy protection for generalized quantitative models have also been discussed. Estimators for the mean, ratio and regression of the variable of interest are developed for each model and simulation studies are also done to analyze them. These proposed models are generalization of additive, subtractive and multiplicative models under different parameter assumptions. In Chapter 5, a class of generalized estimators of population mean have been suggested for randomized response technique under simple random sampling. The estimators have been proposed for the two different situations illustrated as: Situation-I: Single Phase Sampling. Situation-II: Two-Phase Sampling. The mean square error and bias expressions have been derived for generalized estimators under the single and two-phase sampling. An extensive simulation study and an application to a real dataset are done for all the study estimators to evaluate their performance. In Chapter 6, a class of generalized estimators of population mean have been suggested for randomized response technique under stratified sampling. The estimators have been proposed for the two different situations illustrated as: Situation-I: Single Phase Sampling. Situation-II: Two-Phase Sampling. The procedure of stratified sampling in randomized response technique in two situations for single and two-phase sampling have been discussed. The mean square error and bias expressions have been derived for generalized estimators under the single and two-phase stratified sampling. We use the simulation studies for efficiency comparison by empirically and theoretically.