Welcome!
Welcome to our May Health & Safety Brief - your plain English health & safety update.
In this edition, we will provide:
- Clarification on the status of the old "Health and Safety Law: What You Should Know" poster
- Advice on induction of new employees
- News of the first prosecution under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007
- A warning for factories on machine safety
- Compensation claims for Breach of Statutory Duty
- Advice on workplace temperatures
- HSE's Stress Management Competency Indicator Tool
New health and safety poster
Just a quick clarification - as previously mentioned the new “Health and Safety Law: What You should Know” poster is now available.
However you may continue using the older version of the posters as long as they are readable and contain up to date contact details. However, the deadline for using the old posters has been fixed as 5th April 2014. After this they must be replaced.
Alternatively you can elect to give workers copies of the equivalent 1999 leaflet until 5 April 2014. After this date, you must display the 2009 approved poster or give workers personal copies of the 2009 equivalent pocket card/leaflet, available from HSE Books.
Employee induction
When a new employee starts work, both the organisation and they will benefit if you introduce them to their colleagues, explain their new role to them and describe how their work relates to the rest of the business.
In addition, since you have a legal duty of care for your employees, you will need to make sure they can do the job safely and competently, and that in an emergency they know the right action to take. The best way to accomplish these aims is through an induction process.
A good induction will help new staff to:
- establish themselves quickly in their job and therefore maximise their productivity
- become motivated to do well and fit into the business early on
- understand any health and safety issues relating to their job - this will not only help to reduce accidents at work but also help you ensure that you are meeting your duty of care obligations under the health and safety legislation
- understand your corporate culture
The health and safety induction
You are legally required to provide workers with the health and safety information they need to carry out their job safely. Provide them with a copy of the business' health and safety policy and employee handbook and get them to sign to acknowledge receipt once they have read it.
You must inform them - preferably on the first day - of fire safety procedures and what to do if the fire alarm sounds. If there are particular hazards, you must ensure that new employees are made aware of them and what precautions need to be taken.
Show the new worker where they will be working and the location of welfare facilities, permitted smoking areas (if any), fire exit routes, alarm call points, assembly points, fire extinguishers, first aid boxes and the Accident Book.
Introduce the new workers to their team colleagues in turn. You might also want to introduce them to:
- their line manager
- those responsible for HR or training
- the health and safety officer/manager
- trade union/employee representatives (if applicable)
- first aiders or appointed persons
New employees should also be told to whom or how they can raise safety concerns and the procedure to be followed.
If their job involves the use or operation of machinery, you must ensure that they are properly trained, that they understand any associated risks, and that they have been issued with all appropriate safety equipment.
If Personal Protective Equipment is issued, the rules for use and care, the arrangements for keeping it clean, safe storage and replacement must be clearly explained. Do keep a record of equipment issued to each new employee.
For office workers, ensure they know how to operate any office equipment they will be using and show them where everything is kept. If their job involves significant use of a computer ensure they are given information on how to set up a workstation, complete a workstation assessment and issue them the rules for eye tests and glasses.
Employees that drive on company business must be made aware of the company rules regarding safe driving, taking breaks, mobile phones and breakdowns.
A simple checklist that outlines the content of your induction can be invaluable in ensuring that all necessary points are covered and provides a record for future reference. A template is available in the Ellis Whittam Health and Safety Manual in the Forms and Records section, or alternatively in the library of forms and records on your Ellis Whittam client login area on our website, www.elliswhittam.com
Corportate manslaughter and corporate homicide act 2007
Since its introduction, we haven't heard a great deal about the corporate manslaughter legislation. However recently, Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings became the first company to be charged under the legislation and this serves as a sharp warning and reminder to employers.
The charge concerns the death of an employee - a junior geologist - who was killed when a pit which had been excavated as part of a survey collapsed and crushed him in September last year.
Under the legislation, an organisation is guilty of corporate manslaughter if the way in which its activities are managed or organised causes a death and amounts to a gross breach of duty of care to the person who died. In addition to the manslaughter charge, a Director is also charged under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, of causing death to an employee through gross negligence and could be jailed if convicted and the company can expect an unlimited fine, if found to be at fault.
As the first case to be brought under the Corporate Manslaughter Act, it could provide a guide, if the prosecution succeeds, as to the amount of fines that we are likely to see in future cases.
The case is due to be heard on June 17th.
Factories warned over machine safety
Factory owners are being urged to make sure they have good safety procedures in place after an Oldham worker had the tops of two fingers sliced off.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted a company based in Oldham, which produces corrugated cardboard, following the incident in July 2008. The company was charged with having breached Section 2 (1) of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 by failing to ensure the safety of its employees. The company pleaded guilty to the offence and was fined £10,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,769.50.
The employee lost the top of his index and middle fingers on his left hand while he was working at a cutting wheel in the factory. He had been trying to remove waste cardboard when the incident happened.
The HSE found that an automatic safety switch, which should have stopped the machine when the access gate was opened, had not been working. This meant the wheel continued to rotate when it should have stopped.
The HSE said: “Safety switches are there for a reason. If they're not functioning properly then employers are putting their staff at risk of serious injuries.”
It's therefore clearly essential for all employers who use potentially dangerous machinery to ensure that all guards and other protective devices are present, adjusted correctly and functioning properly. Ellis Whittam recommends regular, documented checks.
Compensation - negligence is not the only factor
It's hard to ignore the presence of "no win, no fee" offers for personal injury claims, and the associated advertising claims. The general approach takes the line that if you've been injured in the last 3 years due to no fault of your own, then you can seek damages for negligence on some other person's part. Negligence is fundamentally a breach of a duty of care owed by one person to another. The duty of care for an employer to their employees is well established in law.
However negligence is not the only grounds on which compensation can be awarded. In certain circumstances (i.e. where the law doesn't expressly prohibit it) the breach of a legal duty (such as failing to follow a specific requirement of some health and safety regulations) can also be grounds for a claim of "Breach of statutory duty".
The main sections of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 cannot be used because they are expressly excluded by a section in the Act. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 still have an exclusion for "persons not in employment", for example members of the public who therefore still cannot cite the regulations in making a civil claim, but other exclusions were removed in 2003.
It's important to note that a breach of a statute is not sufficient on its own to prove the tort of breach of statutory duty in a civil claim. The following four conditions must be fulfilled:
- The statute cited must apply to the claimant, for example an employee must use a statute which applies to employees, and a member of the public must use a statute which applies to the public.
- The statute used must have been designed to prevent the type of injury incurred by the claimant. So for instance the COSHH Regulations are unlikely to be suitable in a case where the injury relates to manual handling.
- The statute must have been breached. Note: if there has been a prosecution by the appropriate enforcing authority, this may aid the claimant's case.
- The injury must have been caused by the breach of statute. For example, was the claimant's hearing loss due to a breach of the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 by their employer, or was it due to the claimant attending pop concerts in their own time?
A long hot summer?
We've been promised a summer fit for barbeques in 2009. Assuming this prediction becomes reality then we can reasonably expect some workplaces to experience very warm temperatures. So what does the law have to say about temperature in (indoor) workplaces?
Firstly there is no legal maximum temperature, and no legal minimum (though a figure of 16°C minimum temperature for sedentary work is mentioned in the Approved Code of Practice, not the Regulations themselves). The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations say only that "During working hours, the temperature in all workplaces inside buildings shall be reasonable."
However what is reasonable in the workplace depends on the nature of the work carried out there. For example staff at a bakery, or a commercial kitchen might reasonably expect their working environment to be warmer than an office worker, or indeed someone working in a refrigerated warehouse.
So what “reasonable” steps should employers take? The HSE suggest that where the workroom temperatures would otherwise be uncomfortably high, for example because of hot processes or the design of the building, all reasonable steps should be taken to achieve a reasonably comfortable temperature, for example by insulating hot plants or pipes; providing air-cooling plant; shading windows and siting workstations away from places subject to radiant heat.
Where a reasonably comfortable temperature cannot be achieved throughout a workroom, local cooling should be provided. In extremely hot weather fans and increased ventilation may be used instead of local cooling.
Where, despite the provision of local cooling, workers are exposed to temperatures which do not give reasonable comfort, suitable protective clothing and rest facilities should be provided. Where practical there should be systems of work (for example, task rotation) to ensure that the length of time for which individual workers are exposed to uncomfortable temperatures is limited.
HSE Tools - Stress management competency
Stress in the workplace is increasingly recognised as a problem, and with tough economic times facing us it is likely to remain an issue. A key element in managing stress is the competency of line management in identifying and dealing with it effectively. It's likely that line managers will be amongst the first to notice stress-inducing factors and changes in staff behaviour that may indicate a problem. Therefore it is important that line managers possess the correct skills and behaviours to be able to manage these situations.
The HSE, in association with the CIPD and Investors in People, has designed a tool to allow managers to assess whether they currently have the skills and behaviour as effective for preventing and reducing stress at work; its aim is to help managers consider and assess their behaviour and management style.
The tool - the Stress Management Competency Indicator Tool to give it its full title - is available in two formats: one is an interactive spreadsheet that takes the manager through a sequence of questions before presenting with the findings and recommendations, the other is a PDF document designed to be printed out and worked through manually.
Both documents can be found at the following address:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/mcit.htm
Employers requiring further support or assistance with stress issues may wish to know that Ellis Whittam offers a confidential stress management service which can help individuals deal with both everyday situations and more serious problems.
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