Managing safety and health is an integral part of managing a business. Businesses need to do a risk assessment to find out about the hazards and risks in their workplace(s) and put measures in place to effectively control them to ensure these hazards and risks cannot cause harm to workers. The ILO has produced guidelines on the development of occupational safety and health management systems ILO-OSH 2001 These guidelines were designed as a practical tool for assisting organizations (a company, operation, firm, undertaking, establishment, enterprise, institution or association, or part of it, whether incorporated or not, public or private, that has its own functions and administration) and competent institutions as a means of achieving continual improvement in occupational safety and health (OSH) performance. The guidelines have been developed according to internationally agreed principles defined by the ILO’s tripartite constituents. The practical recommendations of these guidelines are intended for use by all those who have responsibility for OSH management. Occupational safety and health, including compliance with the OSH requirements pursuant to national laws and regulations, is the responsibility and duty of the employer. The employer should show strong leadership and commitment to OSH activities in the organization, and make appropriate arrangements for the establishment of an OSH management system. The system should contain the main elements of policy, organizing, planning and implementation, evaluation and action for improvement, as shown in figure 1.
Case study: An example of an OSH management system.
This section provides information on what employers need to consider when managing health and safety and assessing the risks in their workplace. It shows how they can follow the continual improvement approach as shown above. The employer, in consultation with workers and their representatives, should set out in writing an OSH policy to which they are committed and which is communicated to all workers. More information The policy should be:
More information Structures and processes should be established which:
More information Under the arrangements referred to in the first paragraph above, training programmes should:
More information The documentation may cover:
OSH records may include:
More information The initial review should be carried out by competent persons, in consultation with workers and/or their representatives, as appropriate. It should:
Arrangements should be made for adequate and appropriate OSH planning, based on the results of the initial review, subsequent reviews or other available data. These planning arrangements should contribute to the protection of safety and health at work, and should include:
Consistent with the OSH policy and based on the initial or subsequent reviews, measurable OSH objectives should be established, which are:
Hazards and risks to workers’ safety and health should be identified and assessed on an ongoing basis. Preventive and protective measures should be implemented in the following order of priority:
Hazard prevention and control procedures or arrangements should be established and should:
A hazard is something in an organization that has the inherent potential to cause injury or damage to people’s health, such as chemicals, electricity and working at height. Risk is when a hazard and person come together. Risk is the chance, high or low, that somebody could be harmed by the hazard, together with an indication of how serious the harm could be. The impact on OSH of internal changes (such as those in staffing or due to new processes, working procedures, organizational structures or acquisitions) and of external changes (for example, as a result of amendments of national laws and regulations, organizational mergers, and developments in OSH knowledge and technology) should be evaluated and appropriate preventive steps taken prior to the introduction of changes. More information A workplace hazard identification and risk assessment should be carried out before any modification or introduction of new work methods, materials, processes or machinery. Such assessment should be done in consultation with and involving workers and their representatives, and the safety and health committee, where appropriate. The implementation of a “decision to change” should ensure that all affected members of the organization are properly informed and trained. For further information of how organizations can reduce the risks through hazard identification and risk assessment see the section on controlling the risks. Emergency prevention, preparedness and response arrangements should be established and maintained. These arrangements should identify the potential for accidents and emergency situations, and address the prevention of OSH risks associated with them. Quick and effective action may help to ease the situation and reduce the consequences. However, in emergencies people are more likely to respond reliably if they:
More information The arrangements should:
Have employers considered the following matters with regards to emergency procedures?
More information Arrangements for contractors working on site should:
More information The selection of performance indicators should be according to the size and nature of activity of the organization and the OSH objectives. Both qualitative and quantitative measures appropriate to the needs of the organization should be considered. These should:
Performance monitoring and measurement should:
Monitoring should provide:
Active monitoring should contain the elements necessary to have a proactive system and should include:
Reactive monitoring should include the identification, reporting and investigation of:
More information The results of investigations, in addition to any recommendations from the safety and health committee, should be communicated to appropriate persons for corrective action, included in the management review and considered for continual improvement activities. The corrective action resulting from such investigations should be implemented in order to avoid repetition of work-related injuries, ill health, diseases and incidents. Reports produced by external investigative agencies, such as inspectorates and social insurance institutions, should be acted upon in the same manner as internal investigations, taking into account issues of confidentiality. For further information on this topic see the section on accidents and investigations. Arrangements to conduct periodic audits are to be established in order to determine whether the OSH management system and its elements are in place, adequate, and effective in protecting the safety and health of workers and preventing incidents. An audit policy and programme should be developed, which includes a designation of auditor competency, the audit scope, the frequency of audits, audit methodology and reporting.The audit includes an evaluation of the organization’s OSH management system elements or a subset of these, as appropriate. More information The audit should cover:
The audit conclusion should determine whether the implemented OSH management system elements or a subset of these:
Audits should be conducted by competent persons internal or external to the organization who are independent of the activity being audited. The audit results and audit conclusions should be communicated to those responsible for corrective action. Consultation on selection of the auditor and all stages of the workplace audit, including analysis of results, are subject to worker participation, as appropriate. Management review Management reviews should:
The management review should consider:
The findings of the management review should be recorded and formally communicated to:
Arrangements should be established and maintained for the continual improvement of the relevant elements of the OSH management system and the system as a whole. More information The arrangements should take into account:
Find out more As part of managing the safety and health of the organization, the employer must identify the hazards and control the risks in their workplace. To do this they need to think about what might cause harm to workers and others and decide whether they are doing enough to prevent that. This process is known as risk assessment. Risk assessment is about identifying and taking sensible and proportionate measures to control the risks in the workplace, not about creating huge amounts of paperwork. Organizations are probably already taking steps to protect their workers, but the risk assessment will help them decide whether they should be doing more. Employers should think about how accidents and ill health could happen and concentrate on real risks – those that are most likely and which will cause the most harm. For some risks, national legislation may require particular control measures. The organization’s assessment will help identify whether it needs to look at certain risks and these particular control measures in more detail. Mandated control measures should be assessed as part of the overall risk assessment. One of the most important aspects of the risk assessment is accurately identifying the potential hazards in the workplace. An unidentified hazard cannot be controlled. Employers in conjunction with their workers can start by walking around the workplace and thinking about any hazards. In other words, what is it about the activities, processes or substances used that could injure workers or harm their health?
When people work in a place every day it is easy to overlook some hazards, some tips to help employers and workers identify hazards include
More information Remember:
Risk is a part of everyday life and organizations are not expected to eliminate all risks. What they must do is make sure they know about the main risks and the things they need to do to manage them responsibly. Generally, they need to do everything ‘reasonably practicable’ to protect people from harm. More information The risk assessment should only include what could reasonably be expected to be known – organizations are not expected to anticipate unforeseeable risks. They should look at what they are already doing and the control measures already have in place ensuring that the OSH hierarchy of controls are followed namely;
Improving safety and health need not cost a lot. For instance, placing a mirror on a blind corner to help prevent vehicle accidents is a low-cost precaution considering the risks. Failure to take simple precautions can cost organizations a lot more if an accident does happen. Organizations must involve their workers, so they can be sure that what they propose to do will work in practice and won’t introduce any new hazards. If organizations control a number of similar workplaces containing similar activities, they could produce a ‘model’ risk assessment reflecting the common hazards and risks associated with these activities. In some cases ‘model’ assessments are developed by trade associations, employers’ bodies or other organizations concerned with a particular activity. Employers may decide to apply these ‘model’ assessments at each workplace, but should only do so if they:
The paperwork produced as part of the risk assessment is intended to assist organizations to communicate and manage the risks in their business. For most this does not need to be a complex exercise – just note the main points down about the significant risks and what was concluded. More information In many, but not all instances e.g. for complex processes, when writing down results it can be kept simple, for example ‘fume from welding – local exhaust ventilation used and regularly checked’. The risk assessment must be appropriate for the activity being assessed, i.e. it shows that the organization:
Organizations should identify long-term solutions for the risks with the biggest consequences, as well as those risks most likely to cause accidents or ill health. They should also establish whether there are improvements that can be implemented quickly, even temporarily, until more reliable controls can be put in place. Remember, the greater the hazard the more robust and reliable the control measures to control the risk of an injury occurring will need to be.
Find out more Investigations will help them to:
Find out more Where employers share workplaces (whether on a temporary or permanent basis), they need to co-operate with each other to comply with their respective health and safety obligations. Many national OSH systems have specific requirements to ensure worker safety on multi-employer worksites. Each employer needs to take all reasonable steps to co-ordinate the measures they adopt to fulfil those obligations. They also need to tell the other employers about any risks their work activities could present to their employees, both on- and off-site. These requirements apply to self-employed people where they share a workplace with other employers or where they share a workplace with other self-employed people. Employers should appoint someone competent to help them meet their safety and health duties. A competent person is someone with the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to manage safety and health. In many cases, employers will know the risks in their own business best. This will mean that they are the competent person and can carry out the risk assessments themselves.More information Employers could appoint one or a combination of:
Possible sources of advice include;
Some points organizations should consider if using external help
Collaboration with workers helps employers to manage safety and health in a practical way by:
This should include:
Employers must not forget contractors and self-employed people who may be working for them and make sure everyone has information on:
Workers also have responsibilities under international labour standards with regards to safety and health namely to:
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The minimum first-aid provision in any workplace is:
Find out more Employers must provide safety signs if there is a significant risk that can’t be avoided or controlled in any other way, such as through safe systems of work or engineering controls. There is no need for employers to provide safety signs if they don’t help reduce the risk or if the risk isn’t significant. This applies to all places and activities where people are employed. The installed safety signs must be relevant there is no benefit to installing safety signs detailing equipment that is not required as this tends to mean that workers ignore all the signs and requirements!Employers should, where necessary:
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