Health and safety at work, a compliance check list for employers

First published in The New Zealand Herald, 15th March, 2004

By Paul Jarvie

Workplace safety has to be taken very seriously.  The cost to make sure your organization complies with the law in time and training are large as the following list attests, but the penalties in lost time and reputation, not to mention potential fines, are even larger.

Employers who cannot answer ‘yes’ to all the following questions are not complying with the requirements of the Health and Safety in Employment Act 2003.

You could become subject to prosecution, and fines up to $10,000 even if no accident occurs but a health and safety inspector considers your workplace unsafe. Managers carry personal liability.

Remember, health and safety systems must also be regularly audited and reviewed.

Hazard identification and management

• Have you properly identified existing hazards including work activities liable to lead to employee stress and/or fatigue?
• Do you have an effective system for identifying and assessing new hazards in the workplace?
• If practicable, have you eliminated significant hazards?
• If not practicable, have you isolated significant hazards or, if that is not practicable, taken steps to minimise them, for example, by providing effective safety clothing/equipment?

For smaller employers:

• Have employees been given the opportunity to be involved in the development of hazard identification and the development of hazard management procedures?
• If an employee has asked to have a health and safety representative elected, has this been done, either by the employees themselves, or by you as their employer, if this is requested?

For larger employers:

• Is there an existing employee participation system of which the employees approve and which provides for its review? If not, have you ensured elections have been held for employee health and safety representatives or for a health and safety committee? Have you been asked to hold the election?

After hazard identification

• Have you done everything which can be done (taken all practicable steps) to ensure the safety and health of employees at work?

Do you:

• Provide and maintain a safe and healthy working environment?
• Provide and maintain protective clothing and equipment?
• Ensure plant and equipment is safely designed, made, organised and maintained?
• Ensure employees are not exposed to hazards or are protected if these cannot be avoided?
• Have well understood emergency procedures, what the emergency procedures are in the event of an accident and how to put them into action?

Supervision

• Have all employees a proper understanding and experience of workplace hazards, plant equipment, and substances used?
• Do particular employees require supervision from someone with skills, knowledge and experience so that they are unlikely to harm either themselves or others?

If an accident occurs

• Are all accidents recorded in the accident register that you as an employer are required to keep?
• Are all accidents causing serious harm reported to the Labour Department’s Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Service?
• Do all employees know they must co-operate with OSH (health and safety) inspectors?
• After an accident has occurred, is an assessment taken to determine its cause so that future accidents can be prevented?

Visitors to premises

• Have all practicable steps been taken to ensure the safety of visitors to the workplace premises and of anyone who is nearby?

Principals and contractors

• Are all practicable steps taken to ensure contractors and sub contractors have relevant skills, experience and knowledge so that they are not likely to cause harm either to their own employees or to other people?
• Are contractors’ and subcontractors’ actions adequately supervised?

Code of practice

• Are you complying with any Code of Practice relevant to your industry?

Employee training and education

Have employees performing particular work:

• Been properly trained in the use of plant, equipment, material and safety procedures, understand when protective clothing must be worn, and wear it?
• Been informed of all known hazards to which they may be exposed or may create and what steps to take to minimise these?
• Have health and safety representatives had time off for health and safety training?
• Been informed what the emergency procedures are in the event of an accident and how to put these into place?

Paul Jarvie is the Employers & Manufacturers Association’s specialist adviser on occupational and workplace health and safety. Contact him at 0274 949 628 paul.jarvie@ema.co.nz