The 43rd week of each year is European Health and Safety at Work
Week where numerous events are organised throughout Europe in a bid to
increase awareness of practices and improve safety among employees.
Events throughout the week include exhibitions, conferences and training sessions with a full list of events available online.
Why is it important?
Health and Safety should be considered by everyone, both employees and
employers to ensure the safety and well being of everyone on site. Each
employee has a responsibility for their own health and safety as well as
their colleagues as no one should be injured whilst trying to carry out
their daily duties.
Each company will have a set of policies it
expects its employees to adhere to, with every company having to adhere
to the Health and Safety at Work Act.
What is the Health and Safety at Work Act?
The Act was first established in 1974 and is designed to protect
employees within the workplace. In 2011/12 there were over 1 million
work related injuries resulting in 27 million lost working days. With
such a significant number of working days lost it is clear to see why
the Act was established and why it needs to be enforced.
A complete copy of the legislation can be downloaded from the Health and Safety Executive.
Who are the Health and Safety Executive?
The Health and Safety Executive are responsible for enforcing all
legislation pertaining to the safety of employees on a working site.
They work with businesses, big and small, to ensure that standards are
met and maintained to minimise on site risk of injury. The size of a
business is irrelevant as they all still need to provide a duty of care
to employees, whether it is just one person or thousands.
Who is responsible?
Ultimately it is the employer who is responsible for what happens on
their site as they have a duty of care to all employees to provide safe
working conditions. Whilst the employer may be responsible they can
enlist the help of others to ensure that standards are maintained,
whether in the form of designated employees representatives or third
party firms.
Some businesses will have a designated health and
safety department whose job it is to ensure the legislation is adhered
to and work with other departments on maintaining policy. For small
businesses, outsourcing the responsibility is sometimes easier in having
someone come into the business to perform checks and offer advice on
how to improve standards.
Common Work Related Injuries
Work related injuries can be categorized depending on how they occur, with some types of injuries more common than others.
Same level falls occur where an individual falls on a flat service,
whether slipping on a wet floor or tripping over a hazard left in a
walkway. This is the most common type of injury seen in the workplace
with injuries ranging from sprains and strains to broken bones depending
on the severity of the fall.
Manual handling is another common
activity resulting in injury and is referred to as overexertion. Lifting
an item in an incorrect way can lead to back injuries, which is why it
is always important to lift with your knees and not with your back. If
you believe an item is too heavy to lift then you should either ask
someone else to help or use an appropriate tool to help lift it i.e.
fork lift truck, pallet truck etc.
In considering office based
injuries RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) can be a common feature of those
using computers continually or sitting at a desk for long periods of
time. Injuries identified include back and vision complaints and can
require specialist equipment being introduced to help such as wrist
guards on keyboards.
In every business health and safety should
be considered an essential part, or at least should be, in that all
employees should look out for each other and ensure standards are
maintained. The business should also adopt a culture of continuous
improvement by striving to reduce the number of instances reported and
making every effort to have a safer and more positive working
environment.
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