Health and safety statistics published in October 2018 showed that there is still plenty to do to make workplaces safer in the UK. While the numbers of accidents and fatalities continue to fall, they still don’t make pleasant reading. Here’s a snapshot of the figures for 2017/18:

• 555,000 injuries occurred at work according to the Labour Force Survey
• 71,062 injuries to employees reported under RIDDOR
• 144 workers killed at work

In addition, 1.4 million people suffered from a work-related illness. Because of work-related illness and injury, almost 31 million work days were lost. In 2016/17, it was estimated that work-related illness and injury cost British business £15 billion. Put another way, poor health and safety at work costs British business almost twice the UK’s EU payments each year.

In this article, you’ll learn four ways to make a workplace safer.

1.      Conduct a health and safety audit in the workplace

Health and safety laws, rules, regulations and best practices evolve over time. What may have helped to keep your employees healthy and safe two or three years ago may be poor practice today. A health and safety audit in the workplace is essential to appraise your current procedures and processes and ensure they are fit for purpose and legal.

Your health and safety audit must be conducted by a competent person with the knowledge, skills and experience to do so – and they must not be one of your employees or otherwise associated with your organisation. This independence ensures a non-biased audit.

(Read more in our article “What is a health and safety audit in the workplace?”)

2.      Make sure your employees understand the most common workplace hazards

No workplace can be hazard free, but making certain that your employees understand the most common hazards and how to reduce the risks of accident and injury will help to reduce the number of days lost and associated costs. The main hazards are:

• Slips, trips and falls
• Electrocution
• ‘Caught-in’ hazards
• ‘Struck-by’ hazards

Get your employees actively involved in their own health and safety. Ask them to consider what hazards and risks there are, and have them think about how to reduce those risks.

Start the ball rolling by sending your employees a link to our article “How to protect your employees from general workplace hazards” and discussing their thoughts at your next team meeting.

3.      Carry out an HSE risk assessment

An HSE risk assessment will help you to analyse your workplace and working practices, so that you identify the risks and put in place the controls needed to minimise these risks and reduce loss, damage, or injury. There are five steps to making an effective HSE risk assessment:

1. Identify the hazards
2. Decide who is at risk

• Evaluate those risks and produce precautions

1. Record significant findings
2. Review and update

A tip here is to use an HSE risk assessment template to make sure that you cover everything needed.

(Learn more and discover an easy way to carry out an HSE risk assessment by reading this simple guide to an HSE risk assessment.)

4.      Create a culture of health and safety in your workplace

Above all else, it is essential to create a culture of health and safety in your workplace. Let your employees know that your organisation puts the health and safety of them above profit. There are a few strategies you can employ to change your workplace culture and get people thinking more about health and safety. For example:

• Ensure that H&S training is conducted at induction and then updated regularly
• Reward employees for safe behaviour and good H&S ideas that make the workplace safer
• Partner with an H&S expert to provide independent training and conduct H&S audits and risk assessments
• Ensure signage draws attention to hazards, risks and required procedures
• Put H&S on the agenda of every team meeting

Health and safety is everyone’s responsibility

If you create the right culture within your organisation, then everyone will start to take responsibility for health and safety. Your employees will become part of a workplace coalition that improves wellbeing in the workplace, reducing accidents and injuries, and cuts the cost of workplace illness and injury. Your organisation will become a more productive, happier place to work. And your organisation will be doing its bit to drive health and safety in the right direction in the UK.

Ensure your company is admired for being a conscious employer that puts the wellbeing of its employees at the top of its agenda. To learn how we can help you achieve all this, contact Integral Safety Management today.

In this article, you’ll learn about the most common injuries caused by machinery in the workplace, and the responsibilities of employers and employees to minimise risks – as provided for in the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER).

When do the regulations apply?

PUWER applies to all equipment supplied by the employer in the workplace. Crucially, it also applies to equipment that the employer allows the employee to use. Therefore, you will need to ensure that an employee’s own equipment complies with PUWER. For the sake of PUWER, workplaces that are covered by the regulations include all those where the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 applies – including factories, offices, shops, construction sites, hotels, offshore installations, etc.

What types of injuries are caused by machinery?

Common injuries caused by workplace machinery include:

• Amputation
• Crushing
• Electric shock
• Hearing loss
• Broken limbs
• Cuts and abrasions
• Burns

Machinery causes such injuries by:

• Cutting
• Shearing
• Puncturing
• Tearing
• Stretching
• Entangling
• Burning

Why does machinery cause injuries?

Evidence as to why machinery so often causes injuries is readily available in the HSE news pages. At the time of writing this article, seven of the first 10 press releases detail fines handed out to employers because of injuries or deaths caused by machinery in the workplace – all of which could have been avoided.

Typically, reasons why machinery causes injuries include:

• Inadequate or no guarding on machines
• Guards not properly fastened or removed for maintenance
• Opening in guards that allow operators to put their hands into the machine
• Interlocked guards that open while the machine is running
• Mechanisms from switches have been removed
• Single-light beam safeguards have been switched off
• Ineffective power isolation systems

All of the above are mechanical deficiencies, and many of them are perpetrated by the employer or employee. Worryingly, accidents caused by such inadequacies are commonplace. Fortunately, there are strategies an employer can put in place to minimise the risks of accidents in the workplace caused by machinery.

How can employers minimise machinery accidents in the workplace?

The best way to deal with risks of injury in the workplace is to manage the hazard that causes the risks.  The key is to first identify all machinery hazards and conduct health and safety risk assessments. You should then seek ways to eliminate the risk (e.g. ensuring guards are fitted, checked and used correctly), and if this isn’t possible, then to minimise the risk. Strategies to minimise risks include:

• Ensuring safe working practices are used
• Training of employees in machinery use and health and safety issues
• Using PPE to help protect against risks
• Monitoring employees for adherence to health and safety at work and operational processes

The employer’s responsibility for the use of machinery

As an employer, PUWER places many responsibilities on you for the health and safety of your employees and others when either using machinery or in an area where machinery is being used. You will need to ensure (as far as is practicably possible) that you:

• Identify hazards and risks and manage them
• Train employees so they can carry out their jobs safely
• Ensure work is carried out safely, and supervise employees when and if necessary
• Provide adequate personal protective equipment
• Ensure accidents are reported and investigated, and procedures are updated to help avoid similar accidents in the future
• Have procedures for dealing with emergencies

Training and supervision – a workplace obligation

If you don’t provide adequate training to employees who use machinery and they are injured while operating that machinery, it could cost you thousands in fines and a loss of productivity due to absenteeism (plus a hit to your reputation as a business and employer). For example, in 2017, a Birmingham-based packaging company was fined £100,000 for a lack of guarding on a machine and a lack of training and supervision which led to an accident in which the operator had two fingers partially amputated.

Training on machinery must include:

• Explanation of actual and potential hazards associated with the machinery
• Safety precautions that must be taken
• Health and safety processes and procedures

The employee should be able to show that he or she can:

• Check and adjust the machine before operating it
• Stop and start the machine
• Recognise faults
• Correctly use and adjust machine guards
• Use all machine controls

In addition, the employer must:

• Have an inspection and maintenance regime in place, with work carried out by a competent person
• Take reasonable precautions to ensure that the machinery has stopped when maintenance or cleaning is carried out
• Ensure that any modifications made are completed by a competent person, and validated to meet set standards

The employee’s responsibility for the use of machinery

The employee also has health and safety responsibilities when using machinery. These responsibilities include:

• Their own health and safety
• Not harming others because of their actions or omissions
• Complying with the employer’s procedures
• Identifying and reporting hazards
• Using all PPE as needed and stipulated by the employer
• Reporting any faults

In summary

Health and safety is a joint responsibility between employer and employee. However, the buck will always stop with the employer. To ensure you comply with current health and safety regulations and that your machine operators are not put at risk unnecessarily, you should:

• Carry out an inspection and audit of your workplace
• Conduct workplace risk assessments
• Provide health and safety training to your employees

Whatever your H&S needs, we can tailor our consultancy services accordingly to help ensure your employees stay safe and the risk of injury when operating machinery is fully minimised.

To learn more and discuss your specific requirements, contact Integral Safety Management today.

There are several good reasons to ensure your workplace vehicles are maintained in a good condition. Well-maintained vehicles perform better, lowering your costs and increasing productivity. Most importantly, well-maintained vehicles are safer. The law, of course, doesn’t care about your costs or profitability. It does care about the safety of your workforce, customers and visitors, and, where your vehicles are used on public highways, other road users.

In this article, you’ll find a workplace transport safety checklist to help you comply with your legal obligations, making sure that your vehicles are in good working order.

Prevention is the key to workplace transport safety

Most accidents involving workplace transport (and machinery) are caused by either driver error or poor vehicle maintenance. The former is corrected by driver health and safety training and good working practices. The former is corrected by ensuring that you do all you can to prevent mechanical errors. Preventative maintenance is essential to detect vehicle wear and tear as well as ensuring vehicles are in good repair and efficient working order.

Daily checks for drivers to do

There are daily checks that all drivers should make, and these should form part of your drivers’ description of role and duties. Their workplace transport safety checklist should include a daily (start of shift) check of:

• Tyres
• Windscreen
• Windscreen wipers and washers
• Lights
• Indicators and hazard lights, and warning devices (e.g. reversing alarm)
• Mirrors

Drivers and vehicle operators should be provided with adequate training to undertake these checks, as well as a procedure to follow should any inspection of the vehicle indicate that it is less than satisfactory. There should also be a procedure in place for drivers to follow if they suspect any mechanical (or other) deficiency detected during vehicle operation.

Drivers should also be tasked to ensure that vehicles are kept clean and vision is not impaired by dangling pennants or window stickers.

Regular and planned maintenance

In addition to daily checks performed by drivers, you should ensure that regular preventative maintenance work is undertaken on your vehicles. You’ll need to consider manufacturer’s guidelines when such maintenance work should be done – for example, according to mileage or time.

This work must be carried out by a competent person, trained to work on the particular vehicle type or vehicle. Your regular vehicle maintenance checklist should include:

• Brakes
• Steering
• Tyres
• Mirrors, cameras, etc.
• Windscreens and washers
• Warning devices
• Fitted safety systems
• Pneumatic and hydraulic hoses, fittings, pistons and systems
• Lights

Stay safe when maintaining your vehicles

Any employee working on a vehicle should take precautions to ensure that they do so safely. They should:

• Apply brakes
• Check wheels
• Securely prop raised parts
• Use a tyre cage when inflating tyres on split rim wheels
• Remove tyres before carrying out any welding or heating work on a wheel
• Beware of and take precautions against the risk of explosion from fuel tanks and batteries
• Use respiration masks to protect against inhaling asbestos when working on brakes and clutches

Record keeping

It is essential to keep records of all checks and maintenance work carried out on vehicles. Provide drivers with a daily workplace transport safety checklist to complete and sign. When maintenance is carried out, ensure that it is signed off by your maintenance technician or external technician. Your records should include defects found, causes, actions taken, and who undertook the work or reported the defect.

These preventative maintenance checks help to keep your vehicles fit for purpose. This should help maintain vehicle performance, and improve performance. It will result in safer vehicles and less likelihood of injury or other health issues caused by vehicle defect.

Ensure your vehicles, machinery and equipment are correctly maintained, and that your company is compliant with the ever-changing health and safety rules and regulations. Ensure your company is admired for being a conscious employer, who puts the wellbeing of its employees at the top of its agenda. To learn how we can help you achieve all this, contact Integral Safety Management today.

While the responsibility for health and safety in your workplace falls on all shoulders – including your employees – as an employer you have a ‘duty of care’ toward you employees and visitors. This principle can be used to establish fault where firms are sued for workplace injuries, providing a basis in law for an employer’s responsibility for health and safety management.

In this article, you’ll learn what ‘duty of care’ means, and some of the major requirements with which you must comply to operate within the law.

What is ‘duty of care’?

The term ‘duty of care’ refers to the requirement for you to ensure that you have taken all reasonably possible steps to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of your employees and visitors of your workplace.

While there are laws that dictate the steps to which you must go to protect your employees – for example, the Health and Safety at Work Act etc. 1974 – looking after your employees is also good business practice. A good health and safety record helps to build trust, increase morale, decrease absenteeism, and, ultimately, improve productivity.

How do you comply with your duty of care in the UK workplace?

To ensure that you comply with your duty of care, you must do all you can to ensure that your employees and visitors are protected from harm in the workplace. This boils down to controlling risks that could cause injury or ill health, including both physical and mental risks.

It is essential that you carry out risk assessments to address all workplace risks, and you should include your employees in the process of identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks. These risk assessments should provide the knowledge to:

• Takes steps to reduce or eliminate risks
• Put in place appropriate training and coaching on the risks and how to deal with them

Common duty of care requirements

In addition to carrying out risk assessments and consulting your employees about health and safety issues, there are several other common duty of care requirements, though some may not appear to be obvious. These include:

• Defining job roles and tasks clearly
• Providing appropriate training and performance feedback
• Not making employees work excessive hours
• Providing areas to escape the workplace and rest/relax
• Protecting employees from discrimination/bullying/harassment
• Providing ways for employees to raise concerns about health and safety
• Ensuring a safe workplace

If you do not do all that is reasonably possible to keep your employees safe and healthy in the workplace, you will be deemed to have breached your duty of care. This can lead to civil prosecutions through the law courts, potentially resulting in large claims for compensations.

The consultancy services of Integral SM include Health and Safety Appraisals, Workplace Risk Assessments, Workplace Inspections and Audits, and Health and Safety Training. This in-depth, independent approach is preferred by many organisations. It shows that you are serious about health and safety and your duty of care, and is a good strategy to get your employees discussing health, safety and wellbeing openly and honestly.

Take the first step toward full compliance with your duty of care – contact Integral Safety Management today.