Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995- This regulation places a legal duty on: employers, self-employed people, people in control of premises to report work-related deaths, major injuries or over-three-day injuries, work related diseases, and dangerous occurrences (near miss accidents). This applies to working in our class, as we are students working and the teacher is like the responsible for us. So it’s the teacher duty to report any accident that happens to us in class when working with machines, electronics or others types of work, also if there are others aggravations derived to a work we did in class it will have to be reported. To help us all in class to work safely, not only the teachers or technicians have to follow this regulation, the students should also follow to make everything safer. To follow this regulation, we (students) should always report to teachers or technicians, every time we injure ourselves, even if it is a small thing we should report, because in some cases they aggravate. Also if any of our colleagues gets injured we should help and report to a teacher or technicians which are the responsible for the work we are taking.
Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER) 1998- “In general terms, the Regulations require that equipment provided for use at work is:
- suitable for the intended use;
- safe for use, maintained in a safe condition and, in certain circumstances, inspected to ensure this remains the case;
- Used only by people who have received adequate information, instruction and training; and accompanied by suitable safety measures, e.g. protective devices, markings, warnings.”
If referred to our class this regulation would imply that all the equipment that we are given to work with has to be appropriate for the work we doing and also in good shape. Also, the equipment has to be safe for the work we are doing, and even after working with it, it has to be maintained in a good condition, to make sure that this happens; sometimes the equipment has to be supervision. Also we should only use the equipment after receiving specific information and training on how to use it. The equipment needs to have appropriate safety measures like protective devices, markings and warnings. For example, when we are using the pillar drill if it doesn’t have the protective guard the pillar drill won’t be suitable for work so it would be against this law. Other example is that if we are using something which is flammable it has to have a warning saying that the substance is flammable.
Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992- As we are working in a class these regulations will apply for most every aspect in our class. In the section related to lighting it says, “(1) every workplace shall have suitable and sufficient lighting”. This means that when we are working in class we have to be provided with enough and appropriate lighting. In this regulation there’s also a section related to the temperature one of the regulations in this section says, “(1) during working hours, the temperature in all workplaces inside buildings shall be reasonable”; this implies that when we are working in class, the temperature in class has to be controlled, this means that the temperature can’t be too hot neither too cold, so the room needs to have adequate heating and cooling systems. In this same section there’s other regulation that says, “(2) a method of heating or cooling shall not be used which results in the escape into a workplace of fumes, gas or vapour of such character and to such extent that they are likely to be injurious or offensive to any person”, this means that heating and cooling systems that the room has cannot release any substances that can be harmful to whoever is working in the room which is the workplace. In the section that refers to ventilation there’s a regulation that says, “(1) effective and suitable provision shall be made to ensure that every enclosed workplace is ventilated by a sufficient quantity of fresh or purified air”, so this regulation implies that there’s the need to check that the room we work in has the adequate ventilation, so we are provided with the appropriate amount of fresh air.
These regulations are explained with the workplace in mind being related to contruction.
The Work at Height Regulations 2005- In construction a lot of times the work is made in heights, and for these situations there are regulations. When working at heights there’s danger for whoever is working and also for people who are around the area and fragile areas are dangerous for both of these groups. There are regulations that apply to this situations such as these one, “(1) Every employer shall ensure that no person at work passes across or near, or works on, from or near, a fragile surface where it is reasonably practicable to carry out work safely …”. As we can see most of the times the employer has a big responsibility in keeping everyone safe, and this law proves it; in this law it says that when working in heights if there a fragile area, it is the employer responsibility to keep workers and other people away from walking or working in that area if there’s no need for it, for example in construction there are numerous fragile areas when a construction of a building starts, so it is the employers responsibility to keep people aware and safe of these areas. Also when working at heights there’s always the dangerous of objects falling and there are laws applying for this, such as this one, “(1) Every employer shall, where necessary to prevent injury to any person, take suitable and sufficient steps to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, the fall of any material or object”, this regulation implies that the employer has to prevent has much as he/she can, the falling of objects, because if these happens, people can come out injured of the situation so it prejudice the construction because the person or company responsible for the construction could be sued and could end up paying that person who got injured. However there are regulations that apply for employees, “(1) Every person shall, where working under the control of another person, report to that person any activity or defect relating to work at height which he knows is likely to endanger the safety of himself or another person”, for example in construction if an employee finds or suspects that something might be wrong related to the working at height such as the scaffold and can be dangerous for him and other people involved in the construction he must report it to his boss, supervisor or whoever is in charge of the construction.
Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992- There are numerous types of construction, and most of them involve manual handling operations and other which do not involve. There are laws which apply to this types of work, such as this one:” (1) Each employer shall—(a)so far as is reasonably practicable, avoid the need for his employees to undertake any manual handling operations at work which involve a risk of their being injured”, this regulation implies that employers should prevent his employees whenever it’s possible, of doing manual handling operations, for example in construction there are operations be done by manual handling or by using other apparels which would provide a safer way of doing the operation, so it would be the employers responsibility of making his employees completing the operation with the apparels instead of the manual handling. When it’s not possible to complete the operation without a manual handling service there measures to be taken to reduce the risk such as this one, “(ii)take appropriate steps to reduce the risk of injury to those employees arising out of their undertaking any such manual handling operations to the lowest level reasonably practicable”, this implies that when doing manual handling operations the employer has to make arrangements to reduce the risk. For example in building to prevent the risk the employer could give his employees training so they would be more aware of how to do manual handling operations safely.