Element 1: Foundations in Health and Safety

Scope and nature of occupational health and safety.

Health and safety practitioners need to be familiar with:

• Chemistry/physics/ biology.

• Engineering.

• Psychology.

• Sociology.

• Legislation:

– Standards which apply.

– Strengths and weaknesses of options.

Potential Barriers to Good Standards of Health and Safety:

1. Complexity of the workplace.
- Work nature
- Co-ordination of PEME
2. Competing:
– Providing false information
3. Conflicting demands:

– Timescales.

– Standards.

– Budgets.

– Resources

4. Behavioral issues:

– Individual benefits

– Conflicts between Individual and group values

Definitions:
• Health – absence of disease
or ill-health.

• Safety – absence of risk of

serious personal injury.

• Welfare – access to basic

facilities. [ Drinking water, toilets

Wash and rest areas, first aid]

Reasons for Maintaining and Promoting Good Standards of Health and Safety

 Moral reasons.

 Legal (or social) reasons.

 Economic (or financial) reasons.

Moral reasons:
– Employer moral obligation to take care of workers health and safety at workplace
– Duty of care / Ethics & responsibilities
– Avoid pain and suffering
– Avoid trust deflect

Legal Reasons:
Everybody – but most of the responsibility lies with the employer to provide:

• Safe place of work.

• Safe plant and equipment.

• Safe systems of work.

• Training, supervision and competency of staff.

• Responsible for foreseeable risk and reduce is as low as possible

Fails to meet the Legal requirements:

1. Breach of law
2. Enforcement action
3. Fines/ Imprisonment
4. Civil Claims

Economic Reasons:
Accidents and ill-health cost money.

Costs may be:

– Direct – measurable costs arising directly from accidents.

– Indirect – arise as a consequence of the event but may not directly involve money. Often
difficult to quantify.

– H&S failure can affect the broader economy as well as individual companies.

An employee has been injured at work.

Identify potential:

– Direct costs of the accident.

– Indirect costs of the accident.

Direct costs include:

– First aid treatment, sick pay,

lost production time.

– Fines and compensation.

Indirect costs:

– Lost time for investigation.

– Lost morale and damaged worker relationships.

– Cost of recruitment of replacements.

– Lost reputation.
Insured Costs

• Fire.

• Worker injury/death.

• Medical costs.

• Compensations

Uninsured Costs

• Loss of raw materials due to accidents.

• Sick pay.

• Overtime.

• Loss of image and reputation

• Loss of clients and future business

• Loss of management time.

What is “Competence"?

K – KNOWLEDGE,

S – SKill

E – EXPERIENCE

A – Authority

Workers’ Responsibilities

Article 19 of C155 also places obligations on workers, expanded in R164 as follows:

• Co-operate with their employer, by following the Safe System Of Work

• Report any work related accident or ill-health

• Report any situation which could be dangerous

• Own safety and that of others who might be affected by the thing they do and the things that
they fail to do.

• Safety equipment to be used in a proper way

Workers’ Rights

• Given adequate information on actions the employer has taken to ensure safety and health.

• Given the right to the necessary training in safety and health.

• Consulted by the employer on all matters of safety and health relating to their work.

• Given the right to leave a workplace which he has reason to think presents an imminent and
serious danger to his life or health, and not be compelled to return until it is safe.

Enforcement Agencies

• No harmonised global standard.

• Country-specific agencies may include:

– H&S Enforcement Agency.

– Fire Authority.

– Insurance companies.

• Police may be involved in enforcing H&S law in some countries.

Consequences of Non-Compliance

Breach of H&S legislation is usually a criminal offence leading to:

Enforcement action:

– Improvement.

– Prohibition.

Prosecution:

– Organisation may be fined.

– Individuals may be fined or imprisoned.

Claims for Compensation

Fault-Based Compensation Systems

• Worker brings claim against

employer.

• Civil legal system.

• Must prove employer was negligent and therefore to blame for injury/ill-health.

• UK and USA.

No-Fault Systems

• National or regional schemes.

• No need to prove negligence.

• Decided by a panel of experts.

• No lawyers or courts.

• New Zealand and Sweden.

Sources can be:

• internal, or

• external

List all the internal and external sources you can think of and discuss them.

Internal

• Accident records.

• Medical records.

• Risk assessments.

• Maintenance reports.

• Safety inspections.

• Audit reports.

• Safety committee minutes.

External

• National legislation.

• Safety data sheets.

• Codes of practice.

• Guidance notes.

• Operating instructions.

• Trade associations.

• Safety publications.