Health and Safety at Work: the basics
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSW Act) is a wide ranging topic. It is a criminal offence to breach duties imposed under it. The main act is merely enabling legislation, to be filled from time to time with detailed regulations, having the full force of the law. This Act is also supported by Approved Codes of Practice and Guidance.
This article explains the basic duties both employers and employees have under the Health and Safety at work regulations.
It will be useful reading if you are;
- A safety representative;
- A health and safety professional or;
- Interested in health and safety.
Additionally, if you are an employer, are self employed or are in control of premises at work, you will have a duty under the regulations.
Net Lawman hosts four additional articles on Health and Safety at work. They are:
- Update on Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations, 2005;
- Management of Health and Safety of Work (MHSW) Regulations, 1999;
- Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations, 1995 (RIDDOR);
- Control of Substances Hazardous to Health – COSHH.
Employer’s duties
Every employer has the general duty "to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees".
This includes:
- Maintenance of premises, plant and other systems related to work in a safe and risk free environment;
- Measures for safety and absence of risks to health in connection with the use, handling, storage and transport of articles and substances;
- Provision of instruction, training and supervision as necessary to ensure the health and safety at work of your employees.
The fact that compliance may be expensive, or may seem to you to be out of proportion, is not a matter which has been taken into account! In practice however, there is obviously a limit to the extent to which compliance is manageable in a small or medium sized business.
The law here does allow you to make cost-benefit analysis of all decisions you implement to make your workplace risk free, so that you could be excused for not implementing a security measure or policy if you could show that the cost of doing so would have grossly outweighed the benefits arising out of it. The key word here is “show”. That means providing written evidence that you did consider it.
As of October 1st 2006, new legislating has come into place which puts an extra duty on employers and all those "in control of a premises" to ensure that a fire assessment has been completed. The older style, fire certificates are now invalid. We have an in-depth article on the new legislation.
Further, the law expects you to adopt modern risk management techniques, which includes:
- Having a systematic approach to identifying risks. This could include walking round your premises and looking at the work done by each employee and the environment in which he works, then considering what risks are present;
- Evaluating the nature and extent of any risk, who is affected by it in the short term and the long term. Consider what risks are presented and how likely they are to cause injury;
- Controlling the risk so as to prevent people being exposed to it;
- This means evaluating alternatives and following the “lowest risk” compatible with business efficiency;
- Providing information and training for your workers regarding any risk and control measures in place;
- Monitoring the effectiveness of these arrangements. Someone should make a periodic review of the whole system. If you make widgets or clean sky-scrapers that means quarterly, or on each project. If you run a small office, it means monthly;
- Training employees as to their own responsibilities for health and safety. You cannot blame them for failing to take proper care for themselves or others if they are unaware of their own responsibilities. You will be blamed less if one of them has failed to comply with provisions in which you have trained them.
Employee’s duties
The act also lays down certain duties for employees. According to the regulations, the duties of the employees include:
- Taking reasonable care for the health and safety of themselves and other persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions at work;
- To co-operate with all staff to ensure that all requirements ands procedures, whether related to health and safety or not, can be carried out.
The employer should keep an eye on any potential aspects that can cause injury etc, to your employee. Put a strong emphasis on duties of an employee both in his contract of employment and by notices and the occasional meeting.
As with much regulatory legislation, it is unlikely that you will fall foul of it unless there is some reason for investigation. In the case of H&S requirements, that is most likely to happen if either an employee complains to a tribunal or an accident occurs.
If by chance you find some error of law or fact in any Net Lawman information page, do please tell us. We should also welcome your suggestions for new subjects for information pages. These notes:
- Do not provide a complete or authoritative statement of the law;
- Do not constitute legal advice by Net Lawman;
- Do not create a contractual relationship;
- Do not form part of any other advice, whether paid or free.
