IGC 1

Element 1: Foundations in Health & Safety

Definitions:

1) Health: The protection of the bodies and minds of people from illness resulting from the
materials, processes or procedures used in the workplace.
2) Safety: The protection of people from physical injury.
3) Environment: The environment (air, water, land, flora, fauna etc.) provides the conditions for
developing and sustaining all forms of life
4) Hazard: A physical situation with a potential for human injury, damage to property, damage to
the environment or some combination of these. (Something that has the potential to cause
harm. Harm can be in the form of physical injury, property damage & environment harm).
5) Risk: A combination of the likelihood of an occurrence of a hazardous event and the severity of
injury or damage to the health of people caused by this event.
6) Acute Health Effects: Resulting from a single short term exposure producing an immediate
effect which is reversible
7) Chronic Health Effects: Resulting from prolonged or repeated exposure producing a gradual
effect that may be unrecognized for a number of years and may be irreversible

Reasons for Managing Health & Safety:

Organizations and individuals have to manage health & safety standards within the workplace for
various reasons. These reasons can be grouped under three main headings: Moral, Legal and Financial
reasons.

1) Moral Reasons: Organizations should regard their staff as their prime assets and they have a
moral obligation to prevent unnecessary sufferings and loss of life. It is the moral responsibility
of every employer to make sure that his employees are provided with a work environment that
is free of risks. Moral reasons are based on the concept of an employer owing a duty of care to
his employees (i.e. this moral responsibility can also be called by the name Duty of Care).
2) Legal Reasons: Law can be defined as a body of rules that aims to regulate the behavior of
society. Most of the countries have legal standards in place to meet the expectations of their
society. An employer is legally bound to provide a safe place of work, safe plant and equipment,
safe system of work, adequate training and supervision (IITS)to their employees

Safe Place of Work: Employer should create a place of work, which should be
reasonably safe and without risk to the health of the employees.

Safe Plant and Equipment: All the machinery, tools, plants and equipment’s used by
the employees at work should be reasonably safe and without health risk.
 Safe System of Work: There should be recognized formal procedures for the safe
conduct of all the work activities.

Training and Supervision: Employers have the duty to provide appropriate training so
that the workers are aware of the hazards and risks in their work, the safe system of
work and the emergency procedures.

Consequence of Non Compliance:

A breach of health and safety legislation is usually a criminal offence. Failure to meet legal
standards might lead to:
Formal Enforcement Actions
Prosecution of the organization in the criminal courts
Prosecution of individuals such as Directors, Managers and Workers

Financial Reasons:
When an accident occurs in an organization there are two types of losses that the organizations
are expected to face.

Direct Cost: The measurable cost arising directly from the accident
1) Lost time of injured worker and any continued payments to worker or family
2) Damage to the equipment, tools, property, plant or materials
3) Medical or first aid costs
4) Time and materials to clean up after the accidents
5) Insurance, indemnity or compensation payments
6) Courts costs
7) Fines

Indirect Cost: These are cost rises indirectly as a consequence of the event.
1) Business interruption
2) Loss of orders
3) Cost of time spent on investigations
4) Loss of corporate image
5) Damage to industrial relations, perhaps leading to industrial actions (Strikes)
6) Cost of recruiting and training temporary or replacement labour
7) Compliance with any enforcement notice served
8) Loss of staff morale

Many of the direct and the indirect cost associated with the workplace accidents are uninsured
 Insured Costs: Insured cost may include Damage to plant, equipment’s and buildings, Compensation
paid to the workers, Medical cost, and Legal cost.

Uninsured cost: Some of uninsured cost may include Cost for the production delays or down time,
Loss of raw materials due to the accidents, Accident investigation time, criminal fines and legal cost,
sick pay for the injured workers, Overtime to make up for the lost production, Hiring and training
new employees, Loss of business reputation

Sources of Information:

The sources of information’s can be divided into two main headings Internal and External

Internal Source of Information:

1) Inspection reports

2) Audit Reports

3) Risk assessments

4) Medical reports

5) Accident records

6) Health and Safety Committee

7) Plant Register

8) Health and Safety Practitioner

External Source of Information:

1. Government organisations

2. National safety organisations

3. Suppliers and manufacturers

4. International standards

5. Consultants and specialists

6. Insurance Companies

7. Internet
 Occupational Health & Safety Management Systems:

The management of workplace health and safety must be considered systematically within the
organization in the same way as any other forms of management. The main goals of an effective OHSMS
are: Protecting people from injury and occupational ill health –both employees and non –employees,
Complying with legal requirement and avoid prosecution, Managing health and safety in a cost effective
way to achieve the business objective.

Many Health and safety management systems are exists throughout the world, including:

1) HSG65 – Health Safety Guidelines

“Successful Health & Safety Management Systems”

2) OHSAS 18001: 2007 – Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series

“Occupational Health & Safety Management Systems – Specification”

3) ILO/OSH2001 – ILO
Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems

ILO – OSH 2001 Safety and Health Management System

Policy: A policy gives a clear statement to establish health and safety as a prime commitment of
management at all levels of the organization and express commitment for improving health &
safety performance. Policy should also commit the organization for continual improvement and
compliance with legislation.
Organization: Although employer has the overall responsibility for health & safety within an
organization, specific roles should be allocated to different levels of managements including
delegation of responsibilities, accountability & authority.
Planning & Implementation: Planning is needed for the effective identification of hazards, its
assessment and for the control of risks. This means that organization needs to develop
procedures to cover risks in all activities and also needs to identify any applicable law
Evaluation: Suitable monitoring methods must be planned and implemented to monitor and
review the effectiveness of the arrangements put in place by the management. Organization
needs procedures to ensure that it regularly measures and monitors health & safety
performance (proactive, reactive, quantitative & qualitative).

A management review should be performed to evaluate the overall occupational health and
safety management system and progress towards the organizations goal.

Action for Improvement: Any short comings identified by the monitoring or the review process
must be corrected as soon as possible by making whatever adjustments are necessary to the
policy, organization and arrangements for implementation.
 Audit: Audit can be considered as a thorough, critical and systemic examination of an
organizations systems and procedures to ensure that all parts are working acceptably well
(Audit is a type of evaluation technique, so it is not necessary to put it as a separate element in a
management system)
Continual Improvement: The main intention here is that the safety management system will not
remain static but will develop over time to become increasingly appropriate and useful for the
organization

Reference Questions:

1) Outline the reasons for maintaining good standards of health & safety in the workplace
2) Identify the main contents of health & safety management system
3) a) Identify the possible cost to an organization when a serious accident has occurred in the
workplace
b) List three different types of:
i. Insured Cost
ii. Un insured Cost