SCENARIO

You are the newly-hired health and safety adviser for an amusement park. The park employs
90 permanent workers and 500 temporary workers (many of whom are students from the
local college). There are permanent attraction managers (AMs) and shift supervisors; with
the workforce covering the day and evening shifts. There is also a park CEO who spends
most of their time in their office, occasionally walking around the park speaking to the AMs.
So far, the CEO and AMs have been too busy to meet you.
This year the park CEO wants to win the ‘Amusement Park of the Year’ award. This award is
judged on the number of visitors, as well as service satisfaction ratings. The CEO has told
the AMs that if the park does not win the award, permanent staff roles will be reviewed. The
AMs manage one attraction each, and have told the shift supervisors and workers to keep
the attraction queues moving by any means necessary. Any worker who causes a delay will
be given a verbal warning.
The Haunted House
This Halloween, the park has reopened its haunted house attraction, after it had been closed
for a year for renovations. The attraction’s AM brought the reopening deadline forward by
one month, but this did not give the contractors enough time to complete the renovation.
Therefore, the park used their own workers and in-house maintenance team to help the
contractors. Double shifts were worked by all workers to meet the new reopening deadline.
The attraction looks like a dimly-lit, 200-year-old derelict house, and has a maze built on the
inside. As visitors move through the Haunted House, they pass by cobweb-covered props,
horror scenes, and animatrons that suddenly move when the visitors are nearby. Some
workers jump out of dark corners to scare visitors, and others stand behind fake corridor
walls making sound effects.
The public are especially excited that the attraction is reopening. More temporary workers
than usual have been hired for the attraction, and given basic job training by the shift
supervisors. The new workers are given a 10-minute induction tour of the Haunted House
and its backstage areas. This is followed by 15 minutes of job training. Most of the workers
will be acting as zombies in the attraction, with others backstage making sound effects. Only
a few workers will be operating mechanical props; these workers will receive separate
training before carrying out the task. All the workers are shown where the exits are for each
room and are given a map of the attraction. At the start of their first shift, everyone is given a
newly-printed leaflet called ‘What to do in a fire’. This is available in several languages. The
AM relies on their shift supervisors to remember what type of training each worker has
received.
The new hydraulic monster
During the renovation, a large hydraulic monster was installed in the haunted house
attraction. The monster is operated from a control panel located in a dimly lit area, behind a
fake wall. The monster lunges out from the fake wall, pauses, and then quickly returns to its
previous position. Only trained workers are allowed to operate it. An access gate to the
hydraulics area is located to the left of the control panel, which separates the operator from
the hydraulics area. A safety protection device is fitted to the gate that disables the
hydraulics when the gate is open. The hydraulics area is also equipped with a small light that
turns on when the gate is opened.
At first, only the most experienced shift supervisors were trained to operate the hydraulic
monster and were expected to subsequently teach the other supervisors and relevant
workers. The supervisors developed a safe system of work (SSOW) for operating the
hydraulic monster. Some of the workers did not fully understand the SSOW and asked for
clarification. The supervisors were extremely busy when the attraction opened and were
often difficult to locate. Those who could be found told workers that they would help ‘soon’
but were not able to assist them before the shift ended. Some supervisors requested more
time from the AM to conduct extra training sessions, but this was dismissed by the AM as “a
waste of time”. After three days of requests the workers and supervisors stopped asking.
One week after the reopening date of the Haunted House it has become the park’s main
attraction. During the day shift, the safety protection device on the hydraulic monster’s gate
stops working. The day supervisor contacts the maintenance team by hand-held radio, but is
told it cannot be fixed until the park closes that night. The day supervisor informs the AM,
who then tells the workers not to use the hydraulics monster until it is fixed. During the shift
handover, the day supervisor tells the evening supervisor that the hydraulic monster is “not
working properly”. The day supervisor has written a report and left it on the monster’s control
panel. The day supervisor leaves quickly because they want to revise for an exam the next
day.
The accident
The evening supervisor has recently been promoted and this is their first shift as a
supervisor. They eagerly begin with a behind-the-scenes walk-around before going to find
the report. When they arrive at the control panel, they notice the monster is not being
operated, but they know this sometimes happens during shift changes. The supervisor is not
able to read the report due to the lack of light in the current location and tries to activate the
monster, which appears to be working properly; this confuses the supervisor.
They remember seeing another supervisor using the small light in the hydraulics area, which
is activated by the safety gate, so they decide to do the same. They open the gate and reach
in with the report to read it. At the same time, the hydraulic monster returns to its starting
position, which crushes the supervisor’s hand. The supervisor’s cries for help are easily
mistaken by workers and visitors as part of the attraction’s atmosphere. After several
minutes, the supervisor remembers their hand-held radio and calls for help.
The worker, who receives the call, quickly responds by locating the injured supervisor and
helps to free their hand. The shocked worker then looks for the park’s first-aider, but the first-
aider is already dealing with a minor accident. As the supervisor’s hand is starting to swell,
they ask the worker to take them to the local hospital. Once there, the supervisor finds out
that some of their fingers will require amputation.
As soon as the AM is informed of the accident, they call the park CEO. The park CEO tells
them to padlock the safety gate on the hydraulic monster, so that the haunted house
attraction can continue to be used, and an investigation can begin in the morning. The AM
padlocks the gate and places an ‘out of order’ sign on the monster’s control panel.
Early the next morning, the park CEO asks you to carry out an accident investigation. The
CEO hints that they would like the investigation to be carried out quickly. You are alarmed by
this attitude and strongly argue that the investigation must be thorough. You ask why the
investigation did not begin yesterday. The park CEO replies that “health and safety is your
responsibility” and “you do not work evenings”. You also ask if anyone filled out the accident
book last night, but do not receive an answer. The CEO is concerned that this accident could
affect the park’s image and ruin any chance at winning the ‘Amusement Park of the Year’
award. They joke that the Haunted House may truly be haunted because this is another
injury to add to its history.
Task 1: Duties of the workers
The injured worker, and their fellow workers, may have contravened some of their
responsibilities as workers within International Labour Organisation Convention C155 -
Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No.155) Article 19 and associated
Recommendation R164 - Occupational Safety and Health Recommendation, 1981 (No.164)
recommendation 16.
Comment on the extent to which Article 19 of C155 and recommendation 16 of R164 may
have been contravened. (7)
Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant information from the
scenario.