Health & Safety

Natasha Sandhu 12WP

GNVQ Intermediate Business

Task: The Human Resources Function

Health & Safety

Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HASWA) is the most important Act of parliament relating to health and safety. The law requires both employers and employees to comply with health and safety legalizations. The Act sets out the general duties and responsibilities that employers have to their employees and to members of the public, and those that employees have to themselves and each other. The Health and Safety at Work Act is an ‘umbrella’ Act which includes various Regulations that can be revised to ensure the law is kept up to date. Details of the responsibility of an employer under the HASWA are given in The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992. Any person who is negligent under the Act can face criminal prosecution for breaching a health and safety requirement, therefore all organizations must display details of the Act in a prominent place; this includes your school or college. Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has its own inspectorate and advisory service and also is the agency, which enforces the HASWA Act.

Since the introduction of the HASWA, several other regulations have been introduced, even thought they do not have to be known by heart, you should know they exist. These are the main ones:-

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1992 (RIDDOR)
The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health 1999 (COSHH)
The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989
The Noise at Work Regulations 1989
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
Display Screen Equipment Regulations 1992
Provision and use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998
Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992
The Fire Precautions Act 1971 updated by the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997 and amended Regulations in 1999
Health and Safety (first aid) Regulations 1981
The Health and Safety (safety signs and signals) Regulations 1996

In 2002, Tesco launched a Health and Safety Step change programme to further improve standards of health and safety across the business 2203/2004 and has seen significant progress on this programme including:-

The re-launch of our staff health and safety consultation forums at all stores
The introduction of improved Health and Safety management for store managers and senior team; again across all stores
Completion of three safety campaigns covering our most common hazards in-store.

This is a preview of the whole essay

The re-launch of our staff health and safety consultation forums at all stores
The introduction of improved Health and Safety management for store managers and senior team; again across all stores
Completion of three safety campaigns covering our most common hazards in-store.

Display details of the Act in a prominent place must be displayed by all organizations; this also includes school and college. If a person were to breach a health and safety requirement they could, being negligent under the Act, face criminal prosecution. There is a substantial quantity of legalization with which all organization is obliged to comply with ensuring they are met, as an element of the Human Resources function. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have an advisory role and supplies guidance for employers and those responsible for implementing health and safety legalizations, as well as inspecting premises.

It also issues approved codes of practice, which gives advice on how to comply with the law. The first stage for a business is to draw up its safety policy. For any organization with five or more people this is a legal requirement. The policy must state, what the aims of the company are in relation to the health and safety of employees. This should also include the key members of staff and the arrangements for carrying out the policy, for example arrangements covering training and instructions, company rules, emergency arrangements, the system for reporting accidents and the identification of risk areas. The policy must be signed by a senior manager and is then revised regularly to ensure it is kept up to date. The business also decides its own Code of Practice, which states the procedure all employees must follow in the event of an emergency, such as a fire, bomb scare, gas leak, or an accident occurring. This will also contain how to contact a first-aider, where the medical room is situated, how to contact a doctor or send for an ambulance and when an accident must be reported.

Here is a copy of Tesco health & Safety policy:-

Here are some general duties of all employees:

It is your duty:

To take reasonable care of your own and others’ health and safety, who may be affected by your acts, or omissions, at work;
To co-operate fully with anyone who is responsible for carrying out duties regarding health and safety in order to help them carry out their tasks;
To not intentionally or recklessly interfere with, or misuse, anything provided for the purposes of health, safety or welfare;
To observe the safety rules. Failure to comply with these rules could mean you are liable under the disciplinary procedures; and
To be aware that it is a criminal offence to be in breach of the Health & Safety legislation and individuals may face a heavy fine or imprisonment.

You will be given training to ensure that all safety rules required by law and by ourselves are properly carried out and we will review all instructional programmes from time to time.
You will be kept informed of new developments in Health & Safety matters which concern you. This could be through written communications or properly structured training sessions.

General Health and Safety Guidelines and Accident Prevention.

The guidelines below are intended to provide guidance to you on general health and safety, with more detailed guidelines relating to specific subjects.

By following the Health & Safety Policy and these supporting guidelines, you will gain an understanding of our approach to health and safety and of the need to comply with the numerous statutory requirements in operation, which affect our premises. The required health and safety standards will also be achieved.

Housekeeping:

you must keep the premises in a clean and tidy condition with stairways and passageways kept clear;
you must make sure that wires and leads do not trail across the floor; where this is unavoidable, it should only be for a short period and you must then keep them close to furnishings or arrange them so that they do not cause a tripping hazard;
When outside contractors are on the premises you must monitor their work and take all reasonable steps to ensure that they do not endanger the health and safety of staff or visitors;
You should clear up without delay anything spilled or dropped onto the floor, e.g. liquids, paper, flower petals, food etc.;
You must keep the public areas clean and tidy at all times and empty waste bins daily; and
You should not leave members of the public alone in the service areas normally used by the staff.

Furniture, Furnishing and Fittings:

You should move items as little as possible and seek assistance when required;
You should take broken furniture out of service immediately and report this for prompt repair or replacement;
You should not keep cupboard/cabinet doors open and take care concerning the operation of four-drawer filing cabinets. Some designs of these cabinets allow more than one drawer to be opened at any one time. Please ensure that only one drawer is ever opened at any one time; and
You must not remove fire extinguishers from their specific locations such as wall-mounted brackets, other than in emergency situations, and under no circumstances use them as door-stops.

Equipment:

you must not operate equipment until you have been trained in its use and you are aware of the safe working instructions relating to its operation;
you must switch off electrical equipment and machinery and unplug it from the energy supply prior to maintenance, repair or cleaning work, or in the event of a fault occurring; and
only if you have been specifically trained and have read the safe working instructions, should you undertake minor maintenance on appropriate equipment, such as the clearing of jams on copying machines; only appropriate maintenance engineers employed by the manufacturers, or their accredited agents, should undertake general maintenance, repairs, cleaning, or fault rectification.

Accommodation and Upkeep:

You must keep the premises clean and in a sound and safe structural condition;
Signs are displayed to identify drinking from non-drinking water;
All parts of the building used by the staff are adequately heated and ventilated;
You should not prop fire doors open unless they are held open by automatic means i.e. linked to the fire alarm system.

We are committed to providing a working environment and a shopping experience that protects the health and safety of our people, our customers, and our visitors as far as is reasonably practicable. We meet this commitment through a comprehensive risk management process that ensures the ongoing identification and minimization of occupational health and safety risks across the business.

Effective control measures have been developed and incorporated into our operational

procedures including investment in training for all staff. We constantly monitor and review our performance and seek feedback from our people. Every store measures health and safety performance and report on this to their employees, as well as to management. Our aim is to eliminate preventable accidents and ill health associated with our work and premises, and to reduce the rate of reportable accidents as the business grows.

Here is a new article showing Tesco dealing with a Health and Safety issue.