Introduction
Health and safety at the workplace are essential at every kind of manufacturing, especially if it presupposes the work with hazardous equipment or materials.
The incident which took place at the Tin Metal Company should be considered in detail to understand the importance of health and safety at workplace, the necessity to meet the legal standards and assess the risks and hazards, and the needs for risk management. It is also important to check the range of powers and enforcement options available to EHPs and point to the most appropriate interventions which might be necessary for the company.
The Importance of Health and Safety at Workplace
Health and safety at workplace are important as they allow people make sure that they are not going to be injured because of careless attitude of the employers. When an employee comes to the manufacturing, he/she should make sure that his/her health and life are protected and nothing dangerous exists in the company. People work better when their rights are protected and employers can make sure that their workers are going to be healthy for a long time as human resources are really important for business success.
Hazards and Risks
In spite of the fact that there are a number of legal acts which state the norms of safety in the companies, there are many risks and hazards which cannot be eliminated, but which are still controlled.
Having considered the case under discussion, the following risks should be pointed to, work with dangerous material without protection equipment, noise, and work with big sheets of metal, which may be not too heavy, but rather inconvenient to handle with. It is stated by the law that an employer is responsible for training during induction period (HSE 2006). That is why Mr. Burr is charged as well.
Risk Management
According to Health and safety matters for special education needs: Legal issues including risk assessment (HSE 2006) employer is responsible for risk assessment and explaining employees about the possible hazards.
One of the main issues for the risk management is to predict the possible problems, inform the employees and make sure that the rules are followed. Risk management requirement is considered to be one of the issues in the legislative acts devoted to safety and health management at the workplace (Lewis & Sargeant 2004).
Legislation
There are six main legislative acts which regulate safety and health at the workplace: Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992, The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992, The Personal Protective Equipment Regulations 1992.
In the relation to the case under discussion, it can be stated that the following issues are regulated by the law, the age of the trainee (16 years old) and responsibility, high level of noise, the work with dangerous material (metal sheets), and the cases of careless attitude to work (the sheet was moved to make the quicker access of the staff to canteen) as such actions are not considered as necessary for manufacturing.
The legal issues in the relation to risk assessment point to the following actions: Mr. Burr must provide consultations on health and safety matters, inform about changes which may influence their health and safety, encourage to conduct personal risk assessments, provide health and safety trainings (HSE 2006).
EHPs’ Responsibilities
Environmental health practice is directed at minimizing the effect of the surrounding environment on human health. EHPs have a number of powers (formal and informal) and can interfere with the working process. Risk assessment, regulating the manufacturing process and making sure that the health of the employees is protected and the workplace is safe are the responsibilities of EHPs (Clay & Bassett 1999).
Appropriate Interventions in the Case
Using the case study as the example, it is possible to state that EHPs can assess the risks and hazards at the manufacturing (Mr. Burr should do it), apply the risk management practices (Mr. Blunt’s responsibility), point to the legislative acts which may be used to guide the manufacturing process (all the employees should try to interfere in this process), etc. EHPs’ can interfere in the case and demand for the compensation for the trainee as he was injured being under the supervision of Bob Slacker. It is not Bob Slacker’s fault that the trainee did not hear him.
Mr. Burr and Mr. Blunt should be responsible for this. Making specific steps, EHPs can implement some training days where employees can point to the main hazards and recommend how they can be solved. The notifications may be spread among the employees to make sure that the employees are informed. The creation of the specific box of complaint in the relation to the violation of the norms of health and safety can be a good decision.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that the there are many norms and regulations which deal with safety and health at the workplace in the Tin Metal Company. EHPs work to meet the same purpose, insure that the health of employees is protected.
Manufacturing may be connected with a number of cases when employees are convinced in careless attitude and are not paid necessary compensation. Legal acts and EHPs function with the purpose to protect such people and make sure that the employees get necessary compensation if the norms and rules of safety and health at workplace are not followed and employers get punishment.
Reference List
Clay, HH & Bassett, WH 1999, Clay’s handbook of environmental health, Taylor & Francis, New York.
Health and safety 1996, The Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996, no. 341. Web.
Health and safety 1999, The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, no. 3242. Web.
Lewis, D & Sargeant, M 2004, Essentials of Employment Law, CIPD. Publishing, London.
Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1997. Web.
HSE 2006, Health and safety matters for special education needs: Legal issues including risk assessment. Web.