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Welcome to the May 2010 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 …
The HSE releases its latest statistics on stress at work
Survey identifies that companies are not managing road based risk effectively
Government backs away from fully endorsing positive Health & Safety duties for directors
With a change in Government what’s ahead for health and safety?
HSE launch new look woodworking website
Telford firm fined £75,000 after worker suffers serious head injury
College fined after window cleaner fell four metres
Corus receives fourth fine in six weeks
Director receives 5 year ban for health and safety failings
Haulage firm director found to have “connived” with drivers to break the law
Are your company’s safety systems up to scratch or are you risking prosecution? At MESH we have extensive experience of helping companies to improve their health and safety and in many cases improve their competitiveness.
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The HSE releases its latest statistics on stress at work |
The HSE has emphasised that stress is a major issue in workplaces and is directing health and safety professionals to examine its statistics on the issue, in order to ascertain the magnitude of the problem in the UK.
The HSE has identified some of the key points about stress in the UK as follows.
- In 2008/09, an estimated 415,000 individuals in Britain who worked in the last year believed that they were experiencing work-related stress at a level that was making them ill.
- Around 16.7% of all working individuals thought their job was very or extremely stressful.
- The annual incidence of work-related mental health problems in Britain in 2008 was approximately 5,126 new cases per year. However, the HSE says: “This almost certainly underestimates the true incidence of these conditions in the British workforce.”
- Data from general practitioners indicates that 30.9% of all diagnoses of work-related ill health are cases of mental ill health, with an average length of sickness absence per certified case of 26.8 working days.
- Occupation groups with the highest levels of self-reported work-related stress are teachers, nurses, and housing and welfare officers, customer service workers, and certain professional and managerial groups.
- People working within public administration and defence also have high prevalence rates of self-reported work-related stress.
Other groups with high incidence rates of work-related mental illness include medical practitioners and those in public sector security-based occupations such as police officers, prison officers, and UK armed forces personnel.
The HSE is urging health and safety professionals to manage and prevent work-related stress. Further information on stress at work can be accessed at www.hse.gov.uk/stress/index.htm. |
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Survey identifies that companies are not managing road based risk effectively |
Two-thirds of fleets have chosen to simply give their drivers guidelines on the use of hands-free phones while driving rather than imposing a ban, according to a survey by Fleet News.
The poll revealed that 68% of respondents have not issued an outright ban on hands-free phones compared to 55% a year ago, although many fleets have implemented guidelines to limit their use. For example, drivers may be told to only use phones when stopped or to call back when it is safe to do so.
Research from the Transport Research Laboratory found that using a hands-free phone while driving was more likely to lengthen reaction times than having the UK limit of 80mg of alcohol in the bloodstream. Other research from the University of Utah indicated that drivers on hands-free phones take longer to brake, fail to keep pace with traffic and have a lower memory performance.
Road safety charities are therefore calling for the use of hands-free phones while driving to be illegal although no political party is presently considering a ban.
Road safety charity Brake has launched a new website www.fleetsafetyforum.org/ which provides advice, information and resources on fleet safety. It also includes guidance for fleet managers on eco-driving and duty of care and gives a range of e-learning tools. |
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Government backs away from fully endorsing positive Health & Safety duties for directors |
Instead there has been a commitment to investigate further reforms around director duties and the government did accept that options for further reform should not be ruled out.
The unions have commented that they feel it is essential that statutory duties are placed upon directors in order to ensure that rogue bosses who ignore health and safety laws can be properly identified and punished. |
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With a change in Government what’s ahead for health and safety? |
Health and safety professionals might reflect on two key safety issues, in order to see what changes may be ahead in the health and safety world.
The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), after consulting its members, asked the political parties a series of key questions relating to health and safety, prior to the election.
Two areas came out with cross-party backing — the need for “accreditation” of health and safety consultants and the fostering of greater “risk intelligence” through better health and safety education.
In a statement on the subject, IOSH said: “Quite shockingly, at the moment, anyone can operate as a health and safety ‘adviser’, without having any qualifications or experience, even if they’ve been convicted of a health and safety offence. The three main parties all supported taking steps to address this situation when asked their views on having a register of accredited health and safety consultants.”
Richard Jones, the Policy and Technical Director of IOSH, said: “We’ve been calling for some form of accreditation to be introduced for seven years now, so it’s encouraging to see the issue firmly on the agendas of the three main parties.”
Accreditation was previously recommended by a Work and Pensions Select Committee in 2008 and IOSH are currently working alongside the Health and Safety Executive and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health on a feasibility study to introduce a programme of accreditation.
The other area where the politicians reached agreement was in health and safety education and the need to equip people, especially younger people, with the skills and confidence to manage risk.
Does your company have access to competent health and safety advice and are your advisors suitably qualified and experienced? At MESH we only employ highly competent consultants that not only keep your employees and company safe but can also offer pragmatic advice on improving health and safety compliance and competitiveness. |
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HSE launch new look woodworking website |
The HSE have launched a newly redesigned website for workers in the woodworking sector. The new website aims to make it easier for workers, supervisors and managers to fully understand the risks they may face and learn how to deal with them.
The woodworking industry is one of the most dangerous in the manufacturing sector. Last year over 300 people suffered major injuries and over 1,100 were off work for more than 3 days following an accident .
The site includes lots of new information, including woodworking machine demonstration videos and advice on best practice. The information that was already available on the HSE site has also been updated and re-organised so that users can easily access specific advice on particular health and safety issues.
There is also a selection of Woodworking Information Sheets (WIS), the Safe use of woodworking machinery Approved Code of Practice (ACOP), and other information that can be downloaded for free.
The new website has been designed in close consultation with the woodworking industry and the HSE hopes it will help to reduce the unacceptably high number of incidents that can seriously affect people’s lives.”
More information can be found at www.hse.gov.uk/woodworking |
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Telford firm fined £75,000 after worker suffers serious head injury |
The HSE has prosecuted a Telford confectionery company after a worker’s head was hit with a one tonne force. Magna Specialist Confectioners Ltd (MSC) was fined a total of £75,000 and ordered to pay costs of £37,500 by Shrewsbury Crown Court.
The company has already pleaded guilty on 9 December 2009 at Shrewsbury Crown Court to breaching Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. A previous prosecution of the company in February 2008, under the same regulation, had already led to the company being fined £25,000.
The court heard how at Magna’s site on Stafford Park Nine, Telford, an employee was attempting to wipe up a leak of refrigerant inside the interlocked safety doors of a machine on the production line. As his head went through the doors into the machine the powered part of the machinery moved forcefully to one side closing the gap between it and a static part of the machine to approximately 5cm (2 inches). The impact to the front of his head did not fully trap his head in the gap but luckily threw him out of the machine and prevented instant death.
The employee spent two weeks in a coma and serious head injuries have left him with a significant level of blindness and deafness, loss of taste and smell as well as suffering personality changes.
The HSE investigating inspector speaking after the case identified that:
“It’s a fundamental expectation that employees should be able to work in safety. Assessing risks and implementing controls often only requires simple, cost-effective actions to be taken. An operative should not have been able to get to the dangerous parts of the machine while it was working at full production speed. When the interlocked doors were opened, the production line should have been designed to stop”.
The injured man was only in his early 30s and had the promise of a healthy future but now has such permanent damage that his future prospects and employment potential are severely restricted.
The fine imposed by the Crown Court was deemed to reflect the previous history of systemic machinery guarding failures in the company and the lack of risk assessment leaving employees exposed to risk to their health and safety. |
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College fined after window cleaner fell four metres |
Lincoln College has been fined £1,500 after a window cleaner fell four metres – suffering broken ribs and a serious back injury. The man from Lincoln, was employed by A Nicoll & Son Ltd, when he was contracted to clean windows at Lincoln College.
He had accessed the roof of the main reception building using a ladder and leaned against the building to clean nearby windows, when he fell.
He spent a week in hospital and was forced to stay off work for months. Even now he can only carry out restricted duties.
Lincoln College pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety Regulations 1999 at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court today for failing to conduct a sufficient risk assessment. As well as the fine, the college was also ordered to pay £9,500 towards prosecution costs.
A Nicoll & Son Ltd, of Crofton Drive, Allenby Road Industrial Estate was prosecuted in October 2009 by HSE after pleading guilty for its role in the incident and was fined £2,500 and ordered to pay costs of £2,948.20.
The HSE warn employers and organisations that hire contract staff that they have a joint responsibility to ensure the safety of all staff who work on site, to avoid serious incidents such as this. |
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Corus receives fourth fine in six weeks |
The latest court appearance was in relation to the death of a lorry driver at the company’s site in Staffordshire. The fatality occurred when an overhead crane was being used to lift steel plates onto a trailer.
The driver was standing on the trailer and together with the crane operator attached the lifting tackle to the plates. Because of a mis-communication between the two men the tackles were placed into different spaces; when the three ton load was lifted they were not level and fell. The driver was struck to the ground and he died of serious crush injuries.
The HSE identified that the absence of a safe system of work was to blame; as people can make mistakes no matter how well trained and motivated they are. Corus was fined £240,000 and ordered to pay costs of £112,500.
Does your company have suitable and sufficient risk assessments and where appropriate, safe systems of working in place? Why not take a look at some of the companies that MESH has assisted to ensure both legal compliance and the safety of workers. |
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Director receives 5 year ban for health and safety failings |
A Worcestershire company and its managing director have been fined a total of £87,000 for a raft of safety failures that saw workers exposed to risks of lead poisoning, falls from height and being crushed by falling objects.
The director was criticised by the HSE for blatant lack of attention to the health and safety of employees at the Stratford upon Avon premises. The HSE investigation came as a result of a tip off from an employee and resulted in four prohibition notices and four improvement notices being issued.
Workers were found to be spray painting fuel tanks without any safety equipment, working beneath half tonne vessels they were painting with no protection from being crushed if lifting gear failed and working on top of tanks with no fall protection in place.
The company was fined £70,000 and ordered to pay costs of £27,507 and is now in administration. The director was fined £17,000 with costs of £9,169 and he was also banned from directing a company for five years. |
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Haulage firm director found to have “connived” with drivers to break the law |
The director of Dorset based Translact Ltd was found guilty of safety failings in relation to the death of two people in a road accident; he has been disqualified from holding a transport operators licence for eight years.
At a separate hearing in 2009, 16 of the drivers working for the firm all had their licences revoked and were disqualified for periods of between 8 – 12 months for offences that included falsification of tachograph charts and failure to record working hours.
The company and the director were fined more than £50,000 for health and safety breaches. |
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