Safety Matters - january 2006

Welcome to the January 2006 edition of the Mesh Consultants Safety Matters email newsletter.

This newsletter is available on free subscription only and is our way of keeping you informed about developments in Health and Safety. To review or amend your subscription details, please see the notes at the end.

In this issue:

HSC to examine directors' safety duties

Employers may have to pay for workplace injuries

Quarry director jailed for breach of prohibition notice

Poor health and safety due to a lack of time

Factory worker in Nottinghamshire awarded one of the biggest payouts for industrial injury in British history

Chemical company fined £45,000, plus costs, for failing to ensure the health and safety of employees in the storage and handling of a dangerous substance

Security guard fall through a skylight costs firms £22k

Insurers called upon to reduce employer's liability premiums for companies employing Chartered Safety & Health Practitioners

Workers are to be encouraged to take a new five-minute hearing check

Report suggests that 30 British construction workers die every day from cancer

Staff that drive for work face far higher risks than domestic drivers

HSC to examine directors' safety duties

The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) has overruled advice from civil servants and will look at the prospect of binding safety duties for directors.

The HSC believes that, on top of tougher enforcement of safety laws, there is a need for specific safety duties to be placed on directors. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will now consider options for potential legislation covering new health and safety duties for directors.

The move has been welcomed by the Centre for Corporate Accountability (CCA) which has campaigned for a change in the law because no director of a medium or large company has ever been convicted of a health and safety offence.

If you are a director are you confident that you have suitable health and safety systems in place that help to keep your employees safe? Would you be confident that you could persuade an inspector that there was no case to prosecute? If not then look at the companies MESH has worked with to develop robust Health & Safety systems.

Employers may have to pay for workplace injuries

Employers could be made to pay compensation to employees who suffer violent crimes at work, under new Home Office proposals.

Plans to exclude cases of workplace injury from the criminal injuries scheme are part of a wider cost saving initiative to free up resources for larger compensation payouts.

However, business leaders have criticised the proposals, warning that they would lead to hikes in employers' liability insurance.

Quarry director jailed for breach of prohibition notice

The director was jailed for 9 months for operating the quarry in an unsafe manner and for failing to comply with the prohibition notice (PN). Another director was fined £25k and ordered to pay £30k in costs.

The HSE had issued the first PN following an accident where an employee suffered a broken pelvis and a punctured lung. A second notice was subsequently issued at which time the director verbally abused the HSE inspector.

The HSE commented that the case involved serious and prolonged breaches and that the director put people's lives at risk for profit.

Poor health and safety due to a lack of time

In a recent survey, small and medium sized companies cited that they simply don't have enough time to devote to health and safety.

The results from the Government survey through Business links identified that main barriers to SMEs are:

• 72% lack of time
• 50% cost
• 35% lack of staff awareness

To assist companies to assess and benchmark their Health & Safety performance an online self-assessment tool has been developed, which can be accessed at www.businesslink.gov.uk/healthsafetyindicator

It is recommended that all SMEs try the performance indictor tool out to assess their Health & Safety performance and identify where it could be improved.

Are these reasons that lead to your organisation failing in health and safety? Why not contact MESH for a free no obligation discussion on how we can help you to develop systems that not only improve Health & Safety but also make good business sense.

Factory worker in Nottinghamshire awarded one of the biggest payouts for industrial injury in British history

Foundry worker Jeff Smalley has won £1.45 million following the loss of both his arms in separate incidents in 1980 and 2001.

Mr Smalley lost his right arm at James Maude & Co, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, in 1980 following a fall. And following a second accident in 2001 in which he was injured by a sand-blasting explosion, Mr Smalley is to have his left arm amputated this month.

James Maude & Co's agents agreed to the £1.45 million out of court settlement with Amicus. The trade union commented that the payout is one of the largest industrial accident payments in history.

Chemical company fined £45,000, plus costs, for failing to ensure the health and safety of employees in the storage and handling of a dangerous substance

In a joint prosecution by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Environment Agency, Shanks Chemical Services Ltd pleaded guilty to three charges under s.2(s) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

Speaking after the case, HSE inspector Linda Donachie said: "Sensible health and safety is about managing risks". Currently, the Health and Safety Executive and the Environment Agency are working together to visit sites handling hazardous wastes to give advice and take enforcement action where necessary.

Security guard fall through a skylight costs firms £22k

A security guard at a Birmingham shopping centre slipped and fell through an unguarded fragile roof skylight, sustaining a broken shoulder and thumb.

Two companies were found at fault over the incident and were fined £22k and ordered to pay costs of £5.5k.

The Mall Corporation management company pleaded guilty to the charge of not ensuring the safety of non-employees and charged with the failure to ensure the safety of its employees. The guard had been accompanying an air-conditioning engineer on the roof of the shopping centre when he slipped and fell onto the fragile skylight.

Insurers called upon to reduce employer's liability premiums for companies employing Chartered Safety & Health Practitioners

The Institute of Occupational Safety & Health (IOSH) has called upon the insurance industry to take into account where companies are employing Chartered Safety & Health Practitioners, when setting premiums.

IOSH argues that companies receiving competent Health & Safety advice from a Chartered Practitioner are likely to suffer fewer workplace accidents, resulting in fewer claims. Some insurers are already beginning to react.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has welcomed the new chartered status and says it is happy to raise awareness amongst its members.

Is your organisation receiving the best advice on health and safety? At MESH we have highly experienced chartered practitioners that can offer competent advice, see some of the many clients we have worked with.

Workers are to be encouraged to take a new five-minute hearing check

Employers are being urged to encourage employees to take the unique telephone hearing check at a quiet place at work or at home. It is hoped the test will benefit the four million workers in the UK that research shows would benefit from a hearing aid but do nothing about it.

Half of the UK's adults believe that embarrassment prevents people with hearing problems from seeking help. Postcards advertising the test will be handed out at mainline train stations across the UK.

Brendan Barber, TUC general secretary, commented: "Many older workers are struggling to get by at work either because they are too ashamed to admit to their hearing loss or because they have no idea what to do about it. Many may also be reluctant to advertise it for fear that their employers may treat them less favourably as a result. But good bosses know that it makes sense to do all they can to help employees be as productive as possible at work and so most will I'm sure be keen for their staff to take RNID's hearing check."

Report suggests that 30 British construction workers die every day from cancer

A recent report in Hazards magazine found that 30 British construction workers die every day from cancer.

One of the reasons is the wide use of Crystalline silica (CS), which is present in almost all types of rock, sand and clays, and materials made from these substances such as bricks, tiles and concrete. CS has been found to be carcinogenic when inhaled as dust.

According to the HSE, at least 100,000 workers are exposed to respirable crystalline silica on a regular basis, with up to two million employees coming into contact with the substance more infrequently.

Workers exposed to respirable CS are also at increased risk of developing silicosis, a slow-developing, irreversible lung disease commonly associated with coal-mining.

Staff that drive for work face far higher risks than domestic drivers

Driving is recognised as being the most dangerous thing that the majority of people do and with a third of all deaths and injuries involving at work-drivers, companies are advised to ensure suitable risk assessments are in place.

Each year more than 3,000 people are killed and nearly 32,000 injured on UK roads. Very few companies operate without using vehicles and people driving for work make millions of road journeys, so the chances of being involved in a crash is a very real possibility.

Companies must ensure that they have policies in place that help to protect these staff and members of the public. This must include systems to ensure that the vehicles being driven are roadworthy and well maintained. This is made more difficult as many employees now opt for a car allowance rather than a company car.

Some employers have mistakenly assumed that as drivers use private cars, that they have a reduced duty of care towards them. But in the eyes of the law the employer has ultimate responsibility for the safety of the employee and their vehicle while driving for business purposes.

Has your organisation considered the risks to staff that drive as part of their jobs? Would you be confident that you are doing all that is possible to minimise the risks to staff and members of the public? At MESH we have worked with companies to develop risk assessments and policies that are based around best practice. We also ensure that controls identified are achievable and workable to your organisation.