A New Safety Team
With the changes brought by World War II, a new tone in safety was set. How business owners addressed safety changed around the world. Employee safety was the right thing to do, and it saved money at the end of the day. With a motto of, ‘if I did this better, could more money go back into the bottom line?’ owners set forth a plan to build the right safety team.
An integrated approach was sought after. People working in unison for a better way to protect themselves and the interests of the company as a whole. The goal was to build a team that could be better at identifying, predicting, controlling and correcting safety and health issues. Using team members to fill in where they are best suited, hiring experienced professionals, or even by employing an outside agency that specializes in approaching these issues on a regular, and compliant basis.
This integrated style would convert the old system of an owner or foreman solely managing the safety aspect, to a team of safety engineers, industrial hygienists, chemists, technicians, managers’ nurses and even onsite physicians to employ their best practices to positively impact workers.
Roles
Universities today offer so much more in the way of redefining safety roles, and role players by offering degree work at associate, baccalaureate and advanced levels. Safety team members will include engineers and chemists whose roles include testing the environment and the people within the environment, such as ventilation, particle levels and, noise levels, re-establishing new processes to simplify each step and procedure, and designing equipment to be more ergonomically correct to better suit the users.
Roles involved in safety include practitioners such as technicians, nurses and, physicians that monitor and compile employee history factors through their tenure. Managers, who are employed as dedicated safety and health experts, or incorporate them within their realm of daily activities. These manager duties include creating and implementing safety programs, accident prevention and investigations as well as hiring, training and retraining for employees. The greatest benefit to the employment of health and safety professionals’ in the workplace, are the new materials and processes with safety and health problems that they can share with the team of associates.
Expectations of an Integrated Safety Team
• Sharing knowledge and problems from experience in the workplace.
• Providing a better level of expertise to the workplace associated with managing health and safety issues.
• Creating a database to compare workers' health and safety histories within the company, and comparing different companies within the same industry.
• Creating a safety program that encourages accident prevention.
• Making employee health and safety a high priority within the organization.
The trend towards an integrated safety team is highly likely to continue. Employers see their responsibility increase each day in terms of not just who they are protecting, but what they are protecting. The workplace, the community and the environment are all viable connections that organizations are answerable to, in terms of their people, their products, their byproducts, and their waste. An integrated safety team is a necessity to promote a healthy organization that will be proactive to the needs of the workers, and its community.
Find out how to manage your business' health and safety better
RIDDOR and COVID-19
Many employers are concerned about their reporting obligations for COVID-19/Coronavirus/SARS-CoV-2 under RIDDOR in the ongoing pandemic. You may be pleased to know that you do not have to report everything to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). We'll provide more info about when, what, and how to report.
The most common concern we've seen recently from employers is whether they need to report all COVID-19 and coronavirus testing results to the HSE. The short answer is no. According to the HSE: “There is no requirement under RIDDOR (The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013) to report incidents of disease or deaths of members of the public, patients, care home residents or service users from COVID-19. The reporting requirements relating to cases of, or deaths from, COVID-19 under RIDDOR apply only to occupational exposure, that is, as a result of a person's work.”
Generally speaking, the ordinary RIDDOR rules already cover COVID-19. You should only make a report under RIDDOR when one of the following circumstances applies:
• an accident or incident at work has or could have caused the release of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). (Report as Dangerous occurrence)
• a worker is diagnosed with COVID-19 due to occupational exposure. (Report as Disease)
• a worker dies because of occupational coronavirus exposure. (Report as Work-related death due to exposure to a biological agent)
The bottom line is that existing rules cover most COVID-19 measures, and most of the COVID-19 guidance comes from public health authorities rather than the HSE. The environment remains chaotic, but you can minimize your legal exposure by continuing your existing compliance steps. This will include communicating with your insurer about risks, following public health guidance, and communicating regularly with your workers or unions on any of their concerns.
© Gavin Coyle, 2021