Vehicle Safety is a must

There are many factors that are essential for all businesses to consider when it comes to Health and Safety. Therefore, Empire HR would like to raise some topical issues and welcome you to leave your comments and provide us with feedback. In this post we discuss the importance of Vehicle Safety, the indecent of a company being prosecuted for a reversing lorry. We also discuss and offer advice on helping foreign staff improve their English.

VEHICLE SAFETY
There are numerous safety issues to consider and risk assess with the use of vehicles at work. Not only are the licenses, roadworthiness, tax, insurance and safety checks to be undertaken on company vehicles, there is a need to include employee’s own vehicles in the equation when these are used for work purposes. The safe movement of vehicles on work premises, safety of pedestrians, planning of road trips, loading operations of vehicles and weather conditions to name but a few all add up to present a potentially lethal cocktail if not planned and controlled, regularly monitored and reviewed by competent persons.

PROSECUTION FOR REVERSING LORRY ACCIDENT
An Essex based company has been fined £150,000 and ordered to pay £19,000 costs following an accident which resulted in an employee being seriously injured, having his skull crushed by a reversing lorry at the company’s depot.

An articulated 45ft HGV trailer was being reversed into an open loading bay as the warehouse porter waited to unload it. He had noticed a positioning error and put his head around the back of the trailer to shout instructions to the driver. At that moment the trailer reversed further, crushing his head against the brick wall. He received severe head injuries and long term effects but has returned to work.

The subsequent HSE investigation found the company had not assessed, controlled, or properly managed the risks arising from vehicle and equipment movements and had also failed to provide a safe system of work for its employees.

HSE stated “This firm could have put in place a physical separation between the porters, moving vehicles and the loading bays and a safe way for porters and drivers to communicate with each other. None of these measures were evident and so a worker was seriously hurt for no good reason.”

DO YOU HAVE ANY FOREIGN STAFF WHO NEED HELP WITH THEIR ENGLISH?
If you run an international company you will understand the importance of effective communication, dealing with customers on the telephone, writing reports and meeting clients. All these situations require non-native employees to speak and understand English clearly. Do you encounter any of the following problems in your workplace?

• Our employees do their day-to-day duties well but their ability to communicate is poor. We’re particularly worried about health & safety issues.

• My boss keeps asking me to do presentations in English and I’m finding it stressful!

• My English is good but clients don’t understand me over the phone. I need help with my pronunciation! I can speak English well but I find it difficult to write technical reports!

Whatever problems your staff may have with English language, International House Aberdeen can help.
International House Aberdeen, Grampian’s premier English language school can offer tailor-made one-to-one or group tuition for your employees.

Their flexible study programme allows us to offer courses at any time convenient to you or your staff, either at our premises on Union Street or on-site.

If you think the services of International House, Aberdeen would be of benefit to you or some of your staff, please contact IH Aberdeen on 01224 634006 or email directly on info@ihaberdeen.com and quote “EMPIRE HR”. 

If you have found this post interesting please use the "Share" buttons below to tell your online community about it, there's a good chance they will find it interesting too. Thank you.

You can also follow Empire HR on Facebook - please click here