Health & Safety

Accidents, ill health, and even death at work can only be prevented if risks can be identified before harm results. Risk assessment laws are vital in allowing people to return safely home from the workplace.

The employer at each workplace has a general duty to ensure the safety and health of workers in all aspects of their work. The purpose of carrying out a risk assessment is to enable the employer to take effective measures necessary to protect the safety and health of workers.

Just who's taking these risks, then?
When you start to think about risk assessments, just remember who ends up taking the risks.
A super-cheap knapsack pesticide sprayer might seem just the job to a manager who's interested in doing away with the weeds and jobs, but it's less attractive to the operator who has the fluid dripping down the back of their neck and pesticide mist covering their overalls, the flower beds and any toddler passing by. A floor buffing machine might seem like the very best available cleaning technology to the manager in charge, but it's not so popular with the cleaners who have to lug it up and down staircases and possibly ends up with carpel tunnel syndrome from wrestling with the beast on a polished floor. You can bet the risk assessment glossed over that.
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Every day, in every workplace members face risks to their health and safety. And it is not just the obvious things like unguarded machinery or dangerous chemicals that are the problem. Offices contain hazards from badly designed equipment which forces people to awkward postures to badly designed jobs which keep people at their keyboards for eight hours a day. Workers in the public service frontline often end up on the wrong end of a tongue lashing or even worse. What about stress- which tops the safety concerns of many of our members, this can affect workers in every workplace, from kitchens, to schools, to gardens, to refuse collection / disposal, to hospitals and offices.
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No workplace risks are inevitable. A properly managed workplace should be healthy and safe. And it is the employers responsibility to identify the risks and to take "reasonably practicable" measures to minimise these risks.

Risk assessment, what it all means?
Risk assessment means identifying the hazards in the workplace and assessing the likelihood that these hazards will cause harm to employees and others. It is part of the systematic approach that employers are now required by law to adopt in order to manage health and safety effectively. It helps spot the prevention or control measures needed to protect workers and the public from harm.
Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (MHSWR) requires that a formalised risk assessment is carried out to determine the risks associated with working operations. The assessment will need to identify risks both to the employees and to any other person, who may be affected, such as contractors, visitors, members of the public etc.
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Challenging any shortcomings
If you think your employers risk assessments or action plans are inadequate or if your employer is failing to implement the preventative or protective measures that have been identified, you can challenge such shortcomings and take up health, safety and welfare issues by contacting your steward or by contacting me via the branch.

Contact the Branch Office on 01274 432291