Employers Beware: COVID-19 and Remote Working Obligations

The Safety Health and Welfare at Work legislation boils down to the fact that Employers are obliged to provide a safe place to work.

There are significant sanctions for employers who breach the legislation including fines up to €3 million and imprisonment for up to 2 years for a serious breach. In 2019 in HSA v Walker the defendant was prosecuted for a breach of s11(1)(c)(ii) of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and sentenced to 6 months with only 2 month suspended.

In these COVID 19 times a workplace can mean working from home for many employees. Employers have a duty therefore to check that their employees have the appropriate facilities and equipment to work safely. The big difference now is that people working from home are doing so for their  full working day or at least a large part of their working hours. Appropriate desk, chair and work station ergonomics need to be considered. How do you keep in touch with your staff to check on their well-being? Is there inappropriate online activity? How is everyone’s mental health holding up? These are just a few of the considerations that you need to consider and find ways of dealing with issues that were previously dealt with in the office environment.

 

“Having a designated COVID-19 Compliance Officer within the workplace

is looking like becoming the new norm.”

 

Having a designated COVID-19 Compliance Officer within the workplace is looking like becoming the new norm. This person or persons will be tasked with ensuring businesses meet any instructions or rules issued by the Government in order to allow them to continue trading. Online training, health and safety awareness and carrying out up to date risk assessments can be implemented easily and at low cost. A simple example is asking your employees to send a photo of their workstation. This can then be reviewed by an appropriate qualified person to assess its suitability. Creating appropriate checklists and procedures can help employers and employees assess what needs to be done in everyone’s best interests.

 

Myelearnsafety.com provides a range of courses and our experts are on hand to give advice and courses to suit your business helping you create a better safer workplace in a changed pandemic world and helping you meet your legal requirements to provide a safe place of work.

Safety Tips for Transportation Companies

We at My Elearn Safety are always looking to share valuable information with our followers. The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has a publication on Workplace Transport Safety Management.

Workplace Transport Safety Management

What is a Risk Assessment?

A risk assessment is a careful examination of what could cause harm to people as a result of a work activity. It allows you to take precautions to prevent harm occurring. What’s involved in conducting a risk assessment? There are five key steps to a risk assessment:

1. Look at the hazards
2. Decide who might be harmed and how
3. Evaluate the risks and decide whether the existing precautions are adequate or whether more should be done
4. Record your findings
5. Review your assessment on a regular basis at predetermined intervals as part of the safety management procedures

What should the Workplace Transport Safety Management System include?

Vehicle safety in the workplace must be competently managed. The size and form of the management system will vary depending on the size of the operation – however it should address the following:

1. Definition of the policy and rules for the management of vehicles at the workplace and identification of responsible person for managing vehicle safety.
2. How to carry out and record risk assessments – this means writing down the most significant hazards, identifying who is at risk and listing the safety precautions which should be in place.
3. Determine the training needs of workforce and the preventative maintenance program required for ensuring ongoing workplace vehicle safety. Any changes to vehicles, workplace or personnel which might have implications for the safety of the system must be allowed for.
4. Employees who may be affected must be kept fully informed of the system and of any changes to it.
5. Details of how acceptable standards for workplace vehicle safety are achieved and should also be included in the site specific Safety Statement.

What areas need to be considered?

The Workplace Layout of the place of work;

• Are vehicles and pedestrians kept safely apart?
• Are there suitable walkways for pedestrians?
• Are there suitable parking areas for all parking needs?
• Do the vehicle routes avoid sharp or blind bends?
• Is there scope for introducing a one-way system on vehicle routes within the workplace to reduce the risk of collisions?
• Are the lighting arrangements adequate both inside and outside?
• Where loading bays are longer than the width of five vehicles are appropriate numbers of exits or safe refuge points in place?

Suitability of traffic routes;

• Are they wide enough?
• Are they well constructed and maintained?
• Are they free from obstructions and other hazards?

Suitability / provision of safety features;

• Are roadways marked where necessary e.g. to indicate the right of way at road junctions?
• Is there a need for direction signs, speed limit signs, and, where applicable, signs such as ‘Give Way’, ‘No Entry’ etc.?
• Is there a need for features such as fixed mirrors to provide greater vision at blind bends, road humps to reduce vehicle-speeds, or barriers to keep vehicles and pedestrians apart?
• Is there adequate warning at the interface of the site with public areas?

 

The publication goes on to include:

• Vehicles
• Employee Selection, Training & Supervision
• Loading & Unloading Operations
• Legislation

….. Continue reading publication here.

Check out our Transport and Tourism sector specific online Safety Courses here.

Construction Site Safety Best Practices

Construction Site Safety

Assess the risks

Slip, trips and falls

According to OSHA, falls are the leading cause of death in construction. Think about the exposed high-rise buildings or buildings with scaffolding around them. Even falls from ladders cause a significant amount of on-the-job industries. Injuries occur when workers do not install scaffolds securely or use ladders incorrectly which is the leading cause of accidents.

 

Hazardous materials/ Chemicals

A concerning rising safety hazard in the construction industry is the mishandling and misuse of hazardous materials.

The use of hazardous materials and chemicals is commonly identified as a key hazard in manufacturing industries but can often be overlooked in construction. Perhaps unknowingly, construction workers are handling, using and emitting hazardous materials every day on site.

Access all hazardous materials and Chemicals that will be on the construction site before the work begins and make sure the workers know the safety procedures around them.  For more information on how you can educate your employees on hazardous materials and chemicals please click here.

 

Electrocution

Electricity is one of the great inventions of the past century, but there’s no getting around the fact that it can be extremely dangerous if it’s not handled properly. Any construction site has the potential to expose construction workers to electricity. Many tools and pieces of equipment require electricity to operate. This is why it’s so critical for any type of construction worker to receive appropriate safety training for the use of electricity on a job site.

It’s also important for construction workers to have access to appropriate safety gear and equipment if they are required to work with or around electricity.

 

Heavy and/or powerful tools

The greatest hazards posed by hand tools result from misuse and improper maintenance. The employer is responsible for the safe condition of tools and equipment used by employees. Employers shall not issue or permit the use of unsafe hand tools. Employees should be trained in the proper use and handling of tools and equipment.

These tools also often cause hand-arm vibration. According to the HSE; By law, as an employer, you must assess and identify measures to eliminate or reduce risks from exposure to hand-arm vibration so that you can protect your employees from risks to their health.

 

Mental Heath

Dermot Carey, Director Safety and Training, Construction Industry Federation (CIF) said;

“Research shows that 10 people a week in Ireland take their own lives – 8 out of these ten are men. The construction sector is 96% male. We know from feedback we have received that workers in the construction sector are part of these statistics. As an industry we have focussed a lot of our effort in the past at managing safety issues – recently we have realised that we need to give time to managing people’s wellbeing…. the slogan for the day is “ Mind Your Head”. 

For more information on how you can educate your employees on Mental Health please click here.

 

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

The fundamental principle is that personal protective equipment (PPE) should only be used as a last resort. The safety and health of employees must be first safeguarded by measures to eliminate workplace risks at source, through technical or organisational means (e.g by substituting hazardous chemical ) or by providing protection on a collective basis (e.g providing scaffolding instead of harnesses).

The employer has to make an assessment of the hazards in the workplace in order to identify the correct type of PPE to be provided and to ensure that PPE is appropriate to the risk. Care must be taken in selecting PPE as certain types give reasonably high levels of protection while others,  that may appear almost the same, give relatively low levels of protection. Source – Health and Safety Authority

 

If you would any further information on how you can be more safe or have questions please don’t hesitate to get in contact with us either by mailing Shane@elearn.ie or calling Tel +353 1 693 1421.

Fire Safety in Construction

We at My Elearn Safety are always looking to share valuable information with our followers. The HSE has a great publication on Fire Safety in Construction, Guidance for clients, designers and those managing and carrying out construction work involving significant fire risks.

Have a look at our Fire Safety Awareness course overview here.

Fire Safety in Construction

Fire risk assessment

Legislation requires a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment to be carried out by a responsible person (the employer or persons in control).

The FSO places responsibility for compliance on the ‘responsible person’. Article 3 defines the responsible person as:

• The employer (for a workplace to any extent under the employer’s control); or
• A person who has control of a premises in connection with them carrying out any trade, business or other undertaking (for profit or not); or
• The owner, where the person in control of the premises does not have control in connection with the carrying on by that person of any trade, business or other undertaking.

As with assessments of risk from other hazards, the fire risk assessment should be based on the following approach:

1. Identify the hazards.
2. Identify people at risk.
3. Evaluate, remove, reduce and protect from risk.
4. Record, plan, inform, instruct and train.
5. Review.

Step 1 Identify the hazards

The basic principles which follow are relevant to fire risk assessment in all circumstances. However, it is important to note that there will be different things to consider for new builds compared to the refurbishment of an existing building.

For a new build, your assessment will include its location and proximity to other buildings, the type of construction materials and methods. While completed buildings have the standards of fire protection required by Building Regulations, during construction and before final fire protection is in place the building will be more vulnerable to fire.

This vulnerability can often lead to the whole structure being involved in fire with resultant on- and off-site fire spread issues, eg the building could be timber framed and more vulnerable to fire before the external finishes are in place. This vulnerability needs to be taken into account early in the design process.

In some situations the additional costs entailed in providing adequate controls might make it more cost effective to specify alternative methods or materials from the outset. For a refurbishment project it will be important to take into account, among other things, the age and construction of the premises, eg the building could have a relatively heavy fire load due to lath and plaster ceilings and walls, wooden panelling and floors. There may also have been changes to the fabric of the building that could have significant consequences in a fire.

 

The publication goes on to include:

• Staps 2 – 5 in a fire risk assessment
• Detailed guidance on fire risk assessment and fire precautions
• Legal and enforcement responsibilities

To continue reading this publication please click here

Have a look at our Fire Safety Awareness course overview here