FM Ireland Conference – Shane Lynam Guest Speaker
FM Ireland
FM Ireland incorporates Health & Safety Ireland and Fire Safety Ireland. It is your opportunity to see and hear the latest in New Ideas, New Technologies, Best Practice, Products, Services, Suppliers and Solutions. These can help deliver safe and secure working environments that are cost effective, and which add value to an organisation.
As well as needing to be up to date with the latest relevant legislation (whether that be related to Health & Safety, Cleaning, Fire Safety, Working at Height, etc…) a modern Facility Manager with their team also have to address issues including Staff Well Being and creating an effective Work Space, which improves the well being of staff, this can have a direct impact on illness and staff retention.
As well as addressing all these issues the FM Ireland Conference will also look at how new technologies will impact the role of the Facilities Manager and the delivery of services. Whether that be drones to clean buildings and windows, autonomous robots designed to cut grass or clean floors, smart buildings and IOT delivering information on how the work space interacts with employees and occupants.
Source – FM Ireland
Shane Lynam
Who should do this course?
Any person or company for whom a building project is being carried out such as architects or engineers.
What will you learn on this course?
At the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Describe the requirements for notification to the Health & Safety Authority
- Describe the requirement of the client with regards to appointment of competent designers and contractors, in writing, to carry out the work.
- List the reasons why it is important to comply with current legislation
….. find out more here.
Emergency safety procedures for your restaurant or bar
We at Elearn are always looking to share valuable information with our followers. Light Speed have written a great blog on how every restaurant needs to be prepared for an emergency;
Every restaurant needs to be prepared for an emergency. To have an effective emergency plan and you need to know the types of threats your restaurant is vulnerable to. But even after completing a risk assessment for your building and creating detailed safety procedures, you still have to make sure that the plan can be executed in the moment of truth. In order to get the most out of your emergency safety procedures, be sure to that you take the following advice to heart.
Perform effective drills
It is important to keep up to date on emergency preparation. The restaurant industry has changed a lot in the last 10 years, and that has demanded changes that could leave some security planning outdated. Updated floor plans, seating arrangements and server training can all affect an emergency plan. Or at least it should. Your planning should be specific enough that changes to any of these variables will need to be addressed. In order to know if your strategy is too vague or outdated, you need to test it.
Emergency procedure drills should be run with some level of frequency. And if things about the restaurant change, drills need to happen as soon as possible. These drills can be run before opening, or after closing, so customers and daily operations are not affected. The key to making these drills effective is to take them seriously.
Make sure to:
- Check doors to make sure they are opening properly
- Test lights to see if they are secured and providing the necessary visibility … Continue reading
Related courses
Free Poster – CPL Regulation Classification and Labelling
We at Elearn are always looking to share valuable information with our followers. The Health and Safety Authority of Ireland have a handy poster that explains the classification and labelling and packaging of chemical substances. This Poster clearly explains the elements of The CPL Regulation.
What is The CPL Regulation?
The GHS has been implemented in the EU by Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures (the ‘CLP Regulation’). The CLP Regulation entered into force on 20 January 2009. The deadline for substance classification according to the new rules was 1 December 2010; for mixtures, the deadline is 1 June 2015. The CLP Regulation replaces previous rules on classification, labelling and packaging of substances (Directive 67/548/EEC) and preparations (Directive 1999/45/EC) after this transitional period.
In line with the GHS standard, CLP allows for the identification of hazardous chemicals and the communication of these hazards to users through labelling. It also provides the basis for safety data sheets (SDS) regulated under the REACH Regulation, and sets requirements for the packaging of hazardous chemicals.
Source – https://ec.europa.eu
Poster Link – CLP Poster 1 (A4 size) – Classification and Labelling elements
Check out our Chemical Safety blog – How chemicals enter and effect the body
Health and Safety checklist for SME’s
The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 – All employers are required to follow this legalisation by law. The sole purpose of occupational health and safety law is to reduce the number of workplace injuries or deaths, the vast majority of which can be easily prevented by taking very straightforward safety precautions.
Under Section 8 of the Act the employer has a duty to ensure employees’ safety, health and welfare at work as far as is reasonably practicable. In order to prevent workplace injuries and ill-health the employer is required, among other things, to:
- Provide and maintain a safe workplace which uses safe plant and equipment
- Prevent risks from use of any article or substance and from exposure to physical agents, noise and vibration
- Prevent any improper conduct or behaviour likely to put the safety, health and welfare of employees at risk
- Provide instruction and training to employees on health and safety
- Provide protective clothing and equipment to employees
- Appointing a competent person as the organisation’s Safety Officer
Source – Citizen’s Information
Checklist: Work safety procedures
Assign a Safety officer
The Safety Officer is responsible for monitoring and assessing hazardous and unsafe situations and developing measures to assure personnel safety. Having someone assigned to this role will bring focus to ongoing procedures and best practices.
Identify hazards
Identify any hazard by carrying out a workplace assessment with your newly appointed Safety Officer. From this determine how employees might be at risk and evaluate these risks. If possible eradicate this hazards immediately and record and review these hazards at least once annually.
Educate and train workers
Ideally everyone in the office should be able to use a fire extinguisher, not just the Safety officer. Holding demonstrations is a great way for workers to feel confident while using extinguishers, especially in the event of a fire where nerves are high. A simple way to do this is to use the PASS method;
- P – Pull the pin on the extinguisher.
- A – Aim the hose nozzle low toward the base of the fire.
- S – Squeeze the handle to release the extinguishing agent.
- S – Sweep the nozzle from side to side at the base of the flames until extinguished.
Fire exits and procedures
Educate your staff about where the fire exits are and where they are to go in an event of a fire or other evacuation types for example; gas leaks, chemical leaks or equipment malfunctions.
Provide a First Aid box
The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 require employers to provide adequate and appropriate equipment, facilities and personnel to ensure their employees receive immediate attention if they are injured or taken ill at work. These Regulations apply to all workplaces including those with less than five employees and to the self-employed. Source – HSE
The HSA have prepared Guidelines on First Aid at Places of Work as part of the Guide to the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (General Application) Regulations.
10 Rules for Food Safety in the Workplace
What is meant by Food Safety in the workplace?
If your workplace has a fridge, a microwave, or a kitchenette of any type, food safety rules apply to you. If your work has ever held a potluck, food safety rules apply to you. If your workplace has ever ordered in food, food safety rules apply to you. If you bring a lunch to work, food safety rules apply to you. Essentially, food safety rules ought to be followed anywhere that there is food! Below are ten rules for food safety. These are general tips that apply to all workplaces.
Rule #1
Keep raw food separate from cooked foods to avoid cross-contamination. If raw food is spilled, or comes in contact with cooked food, clean it up and discard cooked food.
Rule #2
Know the Danger Zone! Bacteria can grow in temperatures between 40F and 140F, so keep hot food hot (above 140F) and cold food cold (below 40FC)!
Rule #3
Place raw food on the bottom of fridge. Avoid having raw food thaw and rip on other refrigerated items by placing raw food on the lowest shelf.
Rule #4
Wash fresh fruits, vegetables, and bagged salads and spinach. Washing produce ensures that harmful pesticides or raw food bacteria are removed before consumption.
Rule #5
Clean your work fridge out from time to time. Removed outdated products, questionable looking items, and any Tupperware that looks like a science experiment.
Rule #6
Keep the work refrigerator cool (below 40F). Install a thermometer in the fridge to be sure.
Rule #7
If you work has a microwave, be sure to keep it clean and free of debris. Have all employees cover their food when microwaving to prevent food from splattering.
Rule #8
To avoid harmful bacteria growth after a pot-luck lunch, ensure that all left overs get packaged up separately, and refrigerated right away.
Rule #9
If your work has a barbeque and hosts cook-outs for staff, ensure that meat is grilled to the appropriate internal temperatures. Have a meat thermometer on hand.
Rule #10
After preparing your lunch, heating a dish for a pot-luck or a BBQ, or dishing out some ordered food, ensure that proper clean up and disinfecting of all prep areas is completed.
Working at heights can kill you
How working at heights can seriously harm you
If you are in a job where you have to take risks and are working at heights, it is imperative that you are protected. It is your employer’s duty of care but it is also your responsibility too. Your employer needs to make sure that there are certain safety procedures and protocol in place. To adhere and comply with health and safety regulation.
It is also up to you to be safe and make sure your colleagues are too. Risk assessments needs to be carried out in every place of work in every sector.
There have been many deaths due to falls and collapses in Ireland with 21 of the overall total falls from heights in farming.
There are many work procedures for working at heights and here are some:
- Stairs should not have an excessive pitch or angle
- Each step should have an equal rise in height and width
- The sides of stairs should be protected by a wall or railing of sufficient strength
- Where a railing is used, there should be at least two rails, with the lower rail positioned mid-way between the top rail and pitch line
- To prevent falls, lofts, work platforms and walkways should have a protective barrier at the edge
- Over ground slurry tanks and grain or meal bins should have a secure working platform with protective rails and a safe means of access, such as a caged ladder
- Surfaces of stairs and walkways should be firmly fixed and should not become slippery while in use
- Sighting rails should be installed on silage-pit walls. The purpose of these is to indicate the location of the walls to the machine operator loading the silage when the silage is above the walls. They are not intended to prevent a machine overturning. In addition, sighting rails provide protection against a person falling
Requirements for employers
The Work at Height Regulations require employers to ensure that:
- The risk assessment All work at height is properly planned and organised
- A risk assessment is carried out for all work conducted at height
- Appropriate work equipment is selected and used
- People working at a height are competent
- Equipment used for work at height is properly inspected and maintained
- Risks from fragile surfaces are properly controlled
It should include a careful examination of what harm could be caused from working at height with a view to taking the effective steps to reduce the likelihood of this harm occurring, either through avoiding the activity or, where this is not reasonably practicable, by carrying it out in a safe manner using work equipment that is appropriate to the task and the level of risk.
If you want to know more about risk assessment to decide the best, take our working at heights online course. We will be able to help you to plan and organise, give you the correct legislation and safe work procedures using a ladder, MEWP and work platforms.
Are you safe at work?
Safety in the workplace
Work at height means working in a place (except a staircase in a permanent workplace) where a person could be injured by falling from it, even if it is at or below ground level.
The Work at Height Regulations apply to all work at height where there is a risk of a fall liable to cause personal injury. They place duties on employers and the self-employed.
Some examples of activities covered by the Regulations include:
- Using a kick-stool or step ladder in a stock room or library
- Order picking using a fork-truck with an integrated platform
- Using a mobile elevating work platform to erect steel work
- Using trestles and ladders to paint or clean
- Changing lamps or ceiling tiles in an office
- Working on the back of a lorry to sheet a load
- Working on top of a fuel truck
- Climbing masts or poles
- Rigging lighting for a concert or stage production
- Using harnesses and ropes professionally to instruct in abseiling or rock climbing
- Working close to an open excavation or cellar trap door
- Erecting bill posters at a height
- Erecting or working on a scaffold
Click here for the safe at work information sheet.
What is the No 1 Rule of an Employer?
Look after your employees and they will look after your Business. A happy employee is a more productive employee
There are so many reasons to look after your employees in the work place and make sure that they are happy.
Research suggests that a happy person works better and lives better. It’s a stressful world around us and sometimes it can be difficult to stay happy in all aspects of life, and to get a good work-life balance. Of course, working better can further improve your employees’ happiness if it leads to promotions or pay rises. So why not make them happy and look after their wellbeing. In return you should see your own benefits with reduced absence management levels.
So how can you look after their health and wellbeing at work?
- Talk: It’s a simple action done all day – but the important part is talking about what matters. It can help hugely in general wellbeing to just learn to let it out and deal with those times with others, rather than alone no matter how small. Everyone has moments when they feel overwhelmed and sometimes it helps to just talk to someone.
- Eat Well: The better your employees eat the better they will feel about themselves and everything around them, mentally and physically. Provide a free fruit day in the office to promote healthy eating.
- Have fun with friends and family: Spend time with those you are close too, encourage laughing as it is infectious!
- Stay Active: Employees don’t need to run marathons but they can just go outside and take a stroll. They’ll get fresh air, they’ll get exercise and they’ll enjoy the sun (when it’s there!). There are experts that believe exercise releases chemicals in the body that make people feel good – so go grab those walking shoes!
- Do something you love: It doesn’t matter what it is just something it!
- Sleep: People do not get enough of this; there is always something that needs to be done, something they want to watch on TV, but trying to ensure and encourage your employees to get enough sleep is essential in their wellbeing.
Everyone deserves to get the most out of themselves and their life and it’s amazing how one thing can affect everything else around you in your personal and professional life.
Always have a health and safety plan in place because you never know when you will need to put this plan into action. Educate and inform employees of the dangers in a work place.
Are you safety aware in the work place?
Take a moment to think about how your employees look after their wellbeing and what you do as a company to help.
You need a Safety Management System (This is Why)
Safety Management System
What is a safety management system?
A safety management system is in short, a way for an organisation to ensure that they are, planning, acting, measuring and improving their approach to health & safety on an ongoing basis.
What are the benefits to having an accredited safety management system?
An organisation will see many benefits such as, increased safety performance, improved work morale, reduced chance in insurance premium hikes and importantly the chance of legal costs. This can be detrimental to a company and can result in closure of business.
What are some of the accredited safety management systems an organisation can aspire to?
- ISO 45001
This ISO standard was developed by a committee of occupational health & safety experts and follows the same approach to management control as ISO 14001 (Environmental) and ISO 9001 (Quality). It takes into account other internal standards such as OHSAS 18001 and international Labour Organisation Guidelines.
- Safe T Cert (Construction)
Safe-T-Cert is a certification scheme designed for certifying the Safety Management Systems of contractors working in the construction industry. The Scheme’s objective is to improve health and safety management by providing objective standards and certifying those contractors whose safety management systems have been assessed, and can demonstrate that they:
- Are in line with the ILO guidelines for safety management systems
- Meet the basic requirements for training and competence
- Implement an occupational health and safety management system which meets the requirements of the organisation – incorporating continual improvement.
- Address relevant national legislation
- Demonstrates commitment at all levels within the organisation
All organisations need to have a safety management system in place in order to safeguard them and their employees. There are many injuries caused in work and it is vital that the correct training and procedures are put in place in order to minimise the risk. We have lots of online and onsite courses available for you and your work colleagues.