Health and Safety in the news this
week
Five Ways to Reduce Office Workers’ Stress
·
Natural
Light: Flood workplaces with
natural light by replacing solid walls or partitions with glass or using full
spectrum light bulbs. Natural light
helps regulate serotonin levels, promoting healthy sleep patterns, learning,
information recall and mental alertness and preventing depression, anxiety and
stress.
·
Colours: Introduce bright colours such as red, orange
and yellow to boost creativity but be aware that too much of them can be
stressful. Alternatively, use a muted
colour palette and use brighter colours for office accessories and branding.
·
Greenery: Add large, easy-care plants, such as Areca
and Kentia Palms or Dragon Trees.
Studies show that planting can reduce tension, depression, anxiety and
fatigue by between 37% and 58%.
·
Relaxing
areas: Create separate zones
for quiet, focused work as well as for conversations and collaboration.
·
Exercise: Provide access to a gym or install standing
meeting tables or sit-stand desks. Even
centralising refreshment, printing and recycling points will encourage people
to leave their desks, walk around and interact with colleagues.
Source: www.ioshmagazine.com
HSE prosecution round up:
Employer liable for injuries in Slip case
The employer of a home care
assistant who slipped on an icy pavement when visiting a client has been found
liable for her injuries in a ruling by the UK’s highest civil court.
The Supreme Court held that
Glasgow City Council-owned Cordia Services had failed to provide suitable
footwear to Tracy Kennedy despite a long-lasting period of severe weather. Ms Kennedy had been wearing flat shoes with a
ridged sole, and the pavement had not been gritted or salted when the accident
occurred in December 2010.
The case was based on breaches
of Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations,
which requires a suitable and sufficient assessment of work risks, and
regulation 4(1) of the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992,
which requires suitable personal protective equipment to be provided to
employees.
The court decided that Cordia
Services had breached its statutory duties because it was obvious that their
employee could slip and fall on snow and ice.
The Company had previous experience of this type of accident, and had
identified the possibility in two risk assessments in the previous five
years. Crucially, the risk had not been
properly evaluated, and not only was the possibility of injury very high, but
it could be serious and include fractures and head injuries. Despite this, no consideration was given to
the possibility of individual protective measures, before relying on the
measure of last resort, namely giving appropriate instructions to
employees. Even then, the instructions
given were limited to advice to wear appropriate footwear, but failing to
specify what might be appropriate, thereby breaching Regulation 3(1) of the
management regulations.
The court decided that Ms
Kennedy was exposed to the risk of slips and falls “whilst at work” because she
was “at work” whilst travelling between clients’ homes. Risks at work refer to those associated with
the natural environment in which the work takes place as well at the nature of
the work.
Cordia Services did not provide
suitable protective equipment to reduce the risk, nor was the risk controlled
by other means equally or more effective as the PPE regulations require,
therefore breaching regulation 4(1) of the PPE Regulations.
The court also found that
Cordia Services had been negligent at common law on three grounds:
· It was a fundamental principle that an employer was bound to
take reasonable care for the safety of its workmen;
· A reasonably prudent employer will conduct a risk assessment in
connection with its operations so that it can take suitable precautions to
avoid injury to its employees – the whole point of risk assessment is to
identify whether the particular operation gives rise to any risk to safety, and
if so, the extent of that risk, and what can be done to minimise or eradicate
the risk;
·
If Cordia Services had carried out a proper risk assessment, it
would have found that there was a potential means of reducing the risk. It did not and was therefore in breach of its
common duty.
The Supreme Court’s judgement
places responsibility for workers when they are out and about in the public
realm squarely back in the laps of employers.
It is another reminder to update risk assessments regularly, to evaluate
risk properly and explore the means to reduce risks. Peripatetic workers must be protected and it
is the employer’s duty to protect them.
Simply conducting a tick-box exercise and then placing the risk
assessment in a file will not suffice to protect employers from liability,
whether civil, as in this case, or criminal.
Source: www.ioshmagazine.com
Sentence after worker injured at prison
Four different duty holders
have been fined after a worker was injured while replacing a window at Leeds
prison.
Leeds Magistrates’ Court heard
how a window on the third floor at Leeds Prison was in need of replacing. Four parties were involved with the
installation and all were charged with safety breaches for their part in the
incident.
Stuart Tombs was the site manager
via his own company SJT Site management Limited (SJT). SJT was contracted by Longcross Construction
Limited (LCL), the principal contractor for the window replacement work.
Fewell Engineering Limited
(FEL) were subcontracted by LCL, and it was an employee of FEL who was pushing
a trolley with the new window on it when the incident occurred.
The court heard an employee of
SJT was operating a mobile elevating work platform (MEWP) and driving it to the
location of the work when one of the wheels struck the FEL employee and
partially ran over his feet.
The injured man suffered
multiple fractures in his right foot, a fracture of his left ankle and
significant soft tissue damage to both feet.
An investigation by the Health
and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident which occurred on 8 September 2014
found that Longcross Construction Limited, Fewell Engineering and SJT Site
Management Limited, all failed to prepare suitable and sufficient Risk
assessments and method statements for the operation.
It was also discovered Stuart
John Tombs forged or fabricated site health and safety documents in an attempt
to deflect responsibility.
Fewell Engineering Limited, of
Fairfield Works, High Wycombe Buckinghamshire, pleaded guilty to breaching
Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and was fined
£20,000 and ordered to pay costs of £702.
Longcross Construction Limited,
of Hill House, Little New Street, London, pleaded guilty to breaching Section
3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and was fined £20,000 and
ordered to pay costs of £303.
SJT Site Management Limited, of
Watling Street, Bridgtown, Cannock, Staffordshire, pleaded guilty to breaching
Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and was fined £600
and ordered to pay costs of £199.
Stuart John Tombs, of Bondway,
Hednesford, Cannock, Staffordshire, pleaded guilty to breaching Section
33(1)(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and was fined £100 and
ordered to pay costs of £149.
Worker falls down service shaft
A company in Derbyshire has
been fined after a worker fell thirteen metres down a service riser shaft.
Leicester Magistrates’ Court
heard how a 36-year-old worker, who was from Romania, was dismantling falsework
(a form of temporary structure) in a building that was under construction at
Fletcher Development, De Montfort University, Leicester.
An investigation by the Health
and Safety Executive (HSE) into the incident which occurred on 15 June 2015
found that there was an unsafe system of work and inadequate supervision of
workers.
David Ashley Construction
Limited, of Lydford Road, Alfreton, Derbyshire pleaded guilty to breaching
Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005, and was fined £20,000
and ordered to pay costs of £1,776.
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