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4 Issue 4 |
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| This Issue Feature Article: Do you need a safety manager?. World News Safety Smart
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Volume 2 Issue 1 Newswire Volume 4 Issue 3 Advertising Features Safety Superstore The articles contained in Newswire are summaries only and should not be considered definitive. Appropriate advice must be obtained before proceeding.
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Australian OHS Regulation for the 21st CenturyThe National Occupational Health and Safety Commission and the National Research Centre for OHS Regulation are pleased to announce the Conference on Australian OHS Regulation for the 21st Century. Over 30
years ago, in July 1972, the Robens Report, Safety and Health at Work, was
presented to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Report had a
profound effect on OHS policy making in Australia and resulted in
widespread legislative change from the traditional prescriptive model to a
more “self-regulatory” regime. Since that time significant changes
have occurred to the economy, the organisation of work and the nature of
employment which have important implications for OHS and the quality of
working life. In the context of these changes, this Conference will
examine whether current OHS regulation has outlived its usefulness, and if
so, what should replace it?
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The creation of a post of safety manager as a distinct management position is predicated on the assumption that such a position is necessary to the management of the business. However when considering the principles of accident prevention, established in the UK almost half a century ago,[1] it can seen that the position of safety manager is not only superfluous but in fact may contribute to the artificial dichotomy between work and safety. Although drafted in the UK these principles may be considered as universal. The
principles are:
Within
the UK many of these are now incorporated into law and the general ethos
of OSH. However in practice
the first principle, until fairly recently, has been generally
misunderstood. The
interpretation has been that the management structure should include
someone with a specific responsibility for safety, whether that is to
manage it or to advise on safety issues when requested. In
effect the principal requires that good managers manage their departments,
projects etc. safely. In
Ireland this is taken further in that the courts have interpreted the law
on an employers duty of care to include employing staff that are
reasonably competent to perform their work so that in the course of their
duties they will not expose other employees to unnecessary risk of injury. This
clearly ties in with “good workmanship” in principle 1, but good
workmanship also extends to management, and the manager who is unable to
carry out his duties without exposing his subordinates to unnecessary risk
of injury is failing in his duties. The
concept of competence necessarily includes doing the work safely, and that
means considering all sources of harm and eliminating or controlling them
before the work operation commences. Managers
and managed must therefore work together to identify and control the whole
work operation. The manager
must ensure that those working under him are competent, and to take such
steps as are necessary to ensure that their level of competence is
maintained, (to assign an incompetent worker a task renders the manager
incompetent). This requires
that the manager be aware of the safety issues within his department,
either through personal knowledge and experience or through seeking
information from those competent to give it, workers, advisors,
consultants etc. But
ultimately his task is to manage the work operation and therefore his task
is to manage safety. Where
the post of safety manager has been created as a separate management
position within a company, there is a real risk that other managers see
themselves as being absolved of safety management responsibilities and
that whilst they may consult with the safety manager, they may also feel
free to ignore the specific recommendations he makes, particularly when
there are substantial resource or time commitments being asked of them. It
is preferable that companies engage safety advisors whose task is, as a
specialist, to assist managers with their safety duties.
In this respect the advisor, as a competent person, is responsible
only for the accuracy and timeliness of the advice he gives, where-as
responsibility for safety remains firmly within the line management
structure, Board - Manager - Worker. Further information on Dynamic Management may be obtained in the following paper presented to the International Symposium ISSA – Construction Section in Paris in 2001. [1]
Ministry of Labour & National Service, 1956 by: Philip McAleenan Safety Smart! Magazine
Regular features include:
Safer Driving through Roadworks - Campaign
OSHA's Targeted Inspection Plan - 2003About 3,200 high-hazard worksites will be targeted for inspection under OSHA's Site Specific Targeting Program for 2003. This year's program begins June 16 and will initially target those sites that reported a lost workday injury and illness rate (LWDII) of 14.0 or higher and, for the first time, sites that have a days away from work injury and illness (DAFWII) rate of 9 or higher. The program stems from OSHA's Data Initiative for 2002 that surveyed approximately 95,000 employers to attain injury and illness data for 2001. Have you watched a video, read a book or been on a training course recently that you feel you could write a review of? Please do. Submit to info@web-safety.com and we will consider it for publication on the website. Alternatively if you have written any papers or designed a presentation that you would wish to share with the safety community then forward those to us. We always acknowledge original sources. 220 workers killed in last 10 years on Island of Ireland A North-South initiative to tackle the serious problem of fatal accidents in the construction sector, today released shocking figures on the scale of the problem on both sides of the border. In the ten years from 1993 to 2002, 220 workers lost their lives in construction-related accidents on the island of Ireland, 173 in the South, and 47 in Northern Ireland. Of the total, almost half (98) resulted from falls from heights. Already this year, 9 people have lost their lives while working in construction-related activities on the island of Ireland. The shocking figures have emerged as a result of an analysis carried out by a new cross-border working group drawn from the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland and the Health & Safety Authority in the South. It is hoped that by sharing expertise in the area, the two Authorities can develop joint initiatives aimed at reducing the number of these tragic accidents this year and beyond. One of the first such initiatives will be a major campaign on falls from heights, which will be officially launched later this month. During the campaign, which is part of a Europe wide initiative sponsored by the EU Committee of Senior Labour Inspectors both Authorities will carry out an inspection blitz in June 2003, and senior inspectors North and South are warning that poor safety standards will not be tolerated. Jim Heffernan, Senior Inspector with the Health & Safety Authority in the Republic said: "We will be intensifying our inspection rate in the first two weeks of June, and where we see poor safety standards, we will not turn a blind eye. Contractors should be in no doubt that where we see breaches, we will use our statutory powers to ensure they are addressed, and if that entails requiring an immediate stoppage of work, then that is what we will do". Ken Logan, Principal Inspector, HSENI said: "HSENI will serve Prohibition Notices, and stop work activity that is dangerous rather than waiting until the tragic accident occurs. We will not hesitate to prosecute those contractors whose name appears too often on a Prohibition Notice". Getting the ‘work safety’ message to Europe’s SMEs The
first safety and health-funding scheme aimed at Europe’s SMEs, initiated
by the European Parliament and the European Commission, has produced a
total of 51 innovative accident prevention projects across the industries
and countries of the European Union. The SME Funding Scheme, which focuses
on the need to promote enhanced work safety standards in small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), is managed by the Bilbao-based European
Agency for Safety and Health at Work
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