When did you last review your health and safety procedures?

All organisations should have a Health and Safety policy. For many this is no more than a document that is reviewed once per year and is rarely read or understood by employees.

The key to any Health and Safely issue is to consider how it is going to be put into practice in your organisation. 'Risk assessment' is an overused phrase and can therefore become a bit meaningless - but when did your organisation last conduct a walk around assessment, looking for obvious and common sense dangers?

Had the pallet company, Rettenmaier UK Manufacturing Limited done this, it is possible than a man's life may have been saved.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) brought proceedings against the company following the death of an employee in 2011. The case tells us nothing new but is startling when the facts are considered.

The industrial process at the company involved an industrial blender that mixed shredded paper with bitumen and oil to produce dried and bagged pellets. The guard had been removed from the machine and the blender itself did not have an isolator switch to ensure that the electricity supply was switched off when someone was inside it. Furthermore, the computer which controlled the machine was not on the same floor so there was no direct line of sight from the computer operator to the machine.

The HSE found a litany of health and safety failings and a lack of training and fined the company £200,000.

It is imperative that your organisation not only has a policy, but that it is properly understood by staff and implemented. To discuss how your policies can work for you and any other business related issue, contact us.

Link to case: HSE