Level 3 NVQ Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety Unit: Promote a culture of health and safety in the workplace Question: Explai...
Level 3 NVQ Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety
Unit: Promote a culture of health and safety in the workplace
Question:
Explain employers, employees and moral and legal responsibilities for health and safety
Answer:
Summary
of Employer’s responsibilities:
· make the workplace safe.
· prevent risks to health.
· ensure that plant and machinery is
safe to use.
· ensure safe working practices are
set up and followed.
· make sure that all materials are
handled, stored and used safely.
· provide adequate first aid
facilities.
Summary
of Employee’s responsibilities:
· Take reasonable care of their own
Health & Safety.
· Take reasonable care of someone
else's Health & Safety.
· Use safety provisions correctly.
· Co-operate.
Question:
Explain own legal responsibilities for health and safety in their job role.
Answer:
To take
reasonable care of the health and safety of themselves and of others who may be
affected by what they do or do not do, by cooperating with the employer on
health and safety matters and not misuse any equipment that is provided for
safety purposes. For examples PPE or Excavator. Other responsibilities may
relate to job description, own duties under various acts, own level of
authority and autonomy, reporting procedures such as
· Working in compliance with the
provisions of the Act, regulations, and internal policies and procedures.
· Using or wearing the equipment,
protective devices or clothing that is required to be used or worn.
· Reporting to his/her supervisor
the absence of or defect in any equipment or protective device of which the
worker is aware and which may endanger him/herself or another worker.
· Reporting to his/her supervisor any contravention of the OH&S Act, regulations, policies and procedure
Internal
Sources of Data:
· Data is collected from reactive
methods, such as as accident and ill health records, this enables an
organisation to understand the incidents that have caused injury, damage or
loss and to assess the weakness and strengths of the organisation. Absence records
can also provide more detail.
· Active monitoring, such as
completed inspections and maintenance data can also assist to see how
effectively arrangements are being carried out and indicate were more
investment or further processes are required.
· Audits can identify areas where
compliance is strong and also where it requires further development.
· Investigation reports provide data
on failures and identify areas where improvements are required.
External
Sources of Data:
· Legislation can provide critical
sources that can be used by an organisation to firstly ensure compliance and
secondly outline areas for improvement and further development.
· Manufacturers data will provide
guidance on maintenance requirements, safe operations and vital statistics of
any equipment or machinery being used within the workplace.
This can
be assessed through information on workplace hazards available to employers and
workers, from both internal and external sources by Collecting, organizing, and
reviewing information with workers to determine what types of hazards may be
present and which workers may be exposed or potentially exposed to. which may
include:
· Equipment and machinery operating
manuals.
· Safety Data Sheets (SDS) provided
by chemical manufacturers.
· Self-inspection reports and
inspection reports from insurance carriers, government agencies, and
consultants.
· Records of previous injuries and
illnesses, such as OSHA 300 and 301 logs and reports of incident
investigations.
· Workers' compensation records and
reports.
· Patterns of frequently-occurring
injuries and illnesses.
· Exposure monitoring results,
industrial hygiene assessments, and medical records (appropriately redacted to
ensure patient/worker privacy).
· Existing safety and health
programs (lockout/tagout, confined spaces, process safety management, personal
protective equipment, etc.).
· Input from workers, including
surveys or minutes from safety and health committee meetings.
· Results of job hazard analyses,
also known as job safety analyses.
Identify
the information needs of those affected
by
the plan, to include:
a)
sources of information on health and safety
b)
the importance of keeping people informed and discussing their involvement
a)
Health
and Safety Executive (HSE)
International
Labour Organisation (ILO)
European
Agency for Safety and Health at Work
b)
To make
them aware of their H&S role
To
establish responsibility and accountability
To
improve communication and worker participation in the health and safety plan
c)
Health
and Safety policy
Information,
Instruction and Training
Explain
the awareness of:
a)
workplace hazards that exist and the
importance
of remaining aware of them
b)
the importance of dealing with or promptly
reporting
risks
c)the
particular health and safety risks present in own job role and roles of others
(A) The
awareness of a workplace hazards that exist and the importance of remaining
aware of them:
This can
be achieved by employers and employees identifying hazards at your workplace,
where one will be better prepared to control or eliminate them and prevent
accidents, injuries, property damage, and downtime. In a hazard assessment, it
is important to be as thorough as possible because after all, you can't protect
your workers against hazards you are unaware of such as;
· Biological: Biological hazards
include viruses, bacteria, insects, animals, etc., that can cause adverse
health impacts. For example, mould, blood and other bodily fluids, harmful
plants, sewage, dust and vermin.
· Chemical: This hazards are
hazardous substances that can cause harm. These hazards can result in both
health and physical impacts, such as skin irritation, respiratory system irritation,
blindness, corrosion and explosions.
· Physical. Physical hazards are
environmental factors that can harm an employee without necessarily touching
them, including heights, noise, radiation and pressure.
· Safety. These are hazards that
create unsafe working conditions. For example, exposed wires or a damaged
carpet might result in a tripping hazard. These are sometimes included under
the category of physical hazards.
· Ergonomic. Ergonomic hazards are a
result of physical factors that can result in musculoskeletal injuries. For
example, a poor workstation setup in an office, poor posture and manual
handling.
· Psychosocial. Psychosocial hazards
include those that can have an adverse effect on an employee’s mental health or
wellbeing. For example, sexual harassment, victimisation, stress and workplace
violence.
(B)
Dealing and promptly reporting of risk is a very vital thing at work place. As
part of managing the health and safety of your business, one must control the
risk at work place. To do this one need to think about what might cause harm to
people and decide whether one is talking reasonable steps to prevent that harm.
This process is known as risk assessment and it is something that is required
by law to carry out.
In
reporting risk any paperwork one produce should help you to communicate and
manage the risk at workplace for most people this does not need to be a big
exercise. Just to note the main points down about the significant risk and what
one concluded.
A risk
assessment must be suitable and sufficient i.e it should show that
A proper
check was made.
You asked
who might be affected
You dealt
with all the obvious significant hazards taking into account the number of
people who could be affected
The
Precautions are reasonable, and the remaining risk is low rate
Employees
representative should always be involve in the process.
(c) The
particular health and safety risks present in own job role and roles of others
:Knowing the hazards that exist in the work place is a very important aspect of
workplace safety. One of the most important thing is identifying the potential
hazards in one workplace. A good starting point is to walk around ones work
place and think about any hazards, example are the kind of activities carried
out in the work place, processes or substances used that could injure workers
or harm their health.
When you
work is a place every day it is easy to overlook some hazards, which include
one
taking of manufacturer’s instructions or data sheets for chemicals and equipment
as they can be very helpful in explaining the hazards and putting them in their
true perspective.
Look back
at your accident and ill-health records - these often help to identify the less
obvious hazards.
Take
account of non-rout operation (e.g maintenance, cleaning operation or changes
in production cycles).
Remember
to think about long-term hazards to health (e.g high levels of noise or
exposure to harmful substances).
Knowing
the different types of working practices present in the work places.
Holding
everyone Accountable - you can have a safety program in place, but it is not
good to you or your employees if people are not held accountable.
Know Laws
- various local, state and federal laws are in place to guide companies in
providing a safe workplace for their employees. Ignorance of any law is not an
excuse, the therefore appoint a a safety manager to keep abreast of legislation
impacting the work practices.
Meet with
Insurer- the Insurance carrier keeps tabs on compensation trends and can furnish
that information to workers. Those details can help one in Identifying and
correcting problems, including trends that may drive up Insurance cost.
Identify
workplace Hazards - Holding people accountable, knowing the law and having
grass on insurance needs are important. But, handle hazards, the placement of
warning signs, removal of fluids or toxic material and tools needed to remove
the hazards.
First Aid
Response - Develop a detailed action plan on how to handle injured employees
know your emergency numbers, the location of nearby medical facilities and have
a first aid kit stocked and available to everyone. Importantly, consider having
workers trained in first and care.
Follow
through - once an accident or incident takes place, be prepared to follow up
with your team to review how the problem was handle. Make changes to your
safety policy as needed and offer training on new steps incorporated.
(D)
limitations within own job role: Example like a Safety Officer prohibiting a
user from performing a certain task due to safety concerns.
Employees
may be prohibited from performing certain aspects of their jobs for a number of
reasons such as not having the proper training or equipment to safely perform
the job.
· The area in which they must work
is unsafe to work in. For example, it is undergoing construction, or an
accident has occurred here which is being investigated.
· They have a medical condition (not
sustained on the job) that prevents them from performing the job. For example,
pregnant workers may be restricted from lifting heavy objects, or a worker that
has a concussion may be restricted to minimal computer use until fully healed.
· They have been injured on the job
and cannot perform their usual tasks until the injury is fully healed.
· Work restrictions may be
implemented in order to follow medical professional's orders, government
regulations (such as work restrictions for pregnant workers), or may be
implemented by a site's safety officer taking precautionary measures (such as
not working in an area until an accident has been fully investigated).
· When workplace incidents occur,
the safety officer can track all related work restrictions and then assess the
impact of the incident on operations.
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