European Health and Safety at Work Week

Why is it important?

Health and Safety should be considered by everyone, both employees and employers to ensure the safety and wellbeing of everyone on site. Each employee has a responsibility for their own health and safety as well as their colleagues as no one should be injured whilst trying to carry out their daily duties.

Each company will have a set of policies it expects its employees to adhere to, with every company having to adhere to the Health and Safety at Work Act.

What is the Health and Safety at Work Act

The Act was first established in 1974 and is designed to protect employees within the workplace. In 2011/12 there were over 1 million work related injuries resulting in 27 million lost working days. With such a significant number of working days lost it is clear to see why the Act was established and why it needs to be enforced.

A complete copy of the legislation can be downloaded from the Health and Safety Executive.

Who are the Health and Safety Executive?

The Health and Safety Executive are responsible for enforcing all legislation pertaining to the safety of employees on a working site. They work with businesses, big and small, to ensure that standards are met and maintained to minimise on site risk of injury. The size of a business is irrelevant as they all still need to provide a duty of care to employees, whether it is just one person or thousands.

Who is responsible?

Ultimately it is the employer who is responsible for what happens on their site as they have a duty of care to all employees to provide safe working conditions. Whilst the employer may be responsible they can enlist the help of others to ensure that standards are maintained, whether in the form of designated employees representatives or third party firms.

Some businesses will have a designated health and safety department whose job it is to ensure the legislation is adhered to and work with other departments on maintaining policy. For small businesses, outsourcing the responsibility is sometimes easier in having someone come into the business to perform checks and offer advice on how to improve standards.

Common Work Related Injuries

Work related injuries can be categorised depending on how they occur, with some types of injuries more common than others.

Same level falls occur where an individual falls on a flat service, whether slipping on a wet floor or tripping over a hazard left in a walkway. This is the most common type of injury seen in the workplace with injuries ranging from sprains and strains to broken bones depending on the severity of the fall.

Manual handling is another common activity resulting in injury and is referred to as overexertion. Lifting an item in an incorrect way can lead to back injuries, which is why it is always important to lift with your knees and not with your back. If you believe an item is too heavy to lift then you should either ask someone else to help or use an appropriate tool to help lift it i.e. fork lift truck, pallet truck etc.

In considering office based injuries RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) can be a common feature of those using computers continually or sitting at a desk for long periods of time. Injuries identified include back and vision complaints and can require specialist equipment being introduced to help such as wrist guards on keyboards.

In every business health and safety should be considered an essential part, or at least should be, in that all employees should look out for each other and ensure standards are maintained. The business should also adopt a culture of continuous improvement by striving to reduce the number of instances reported and making every effort to have a safer and more positive working environment.