ACCIDENT AND INJURY STATISTICS

HSE figures identify that there were 171 fatal injuries in the year to March 2011, up from 147 in the previous 12 months.

Experts are worried that cutting back on training and maintenance during the recession could be partly responsible for the rise and the Institution of Occupational Health and Safety (IOSH) warning that ongoing “belt-tightening” could be causing the rise in deaths at work.


Construction and agricultural industries report the highest levels of work-related injuries, with disproportionately high numbers of incidents, however the figures show a continued fall in the number of people injured at work.

These were:

• Just over 90,000 injuries serious enough to keep people off work for four or more days - a rate of 363.1 injuries per 100,000 workers - down from the 96,427 the previous year.
• A rate of 99 major injuries per 100,000 workers, such as amputations, fractures and burns, also down slightly from the previous year.
• An estimated 1.2 million people said they were suffering from an illness caused or made worse by their work, down from 1.3 million in 2009/10.
• The total injuries and ill-health resulted in 26.4m working days being lost which equates to an average of 15 days per case, 22.1m of which were ill-health and 4.4m of which were injury related.

Experts are concerned that this could be a delayed knock-on effect of recession and belt-tightening resulting in the cutting back on training and maintenance.


Has or will your business be affected by these issues? Empire welcome all feedback and comments. Please visit our Facebook page where we regularly hold discussions relating to the topics covered in our blog posts.  

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BAN ON SMOKING IN CARS

The British Medical Association is calling for the ban on smoking in public places to be extended across the UK to protect people from second-hand smoke in cars after reviewing evidence of the dangers.

It has highlighted research results which demonstrate the toxins levels in a car can be up to 23 times higher than in a smoky bar.

Nowhere in the UK has implemented this extended ban although ministers in Northern Ireland are planning to launch a consultation on the issue and Wales has begun a public awareness campaign to highlight the dangers of smoking in cars with a plan to introduce a ban if the campaign does not succeed. Neither England or Scotland are currently considering introducing legislation at the moment.

Reclaiming health and safety
Lord Löfstedt’s report ‘Reclaiming health and safety for all - An independent review of health and safety legislation’, was published on 28 November. His review of the fitness of the 17 acts and 200 regulations as part of the Department for Work and Pensions document, Good Health and Safety, Good for Everyone concludes the UK’s health and safety law framework is broadly sound but he says the problem “lies less with the regulations themselves and more with the way they are interpreted and applied”.

A welcome recommendation is that that the HSE should provide more guidance for business on what constitutes reasonably practicable safety and the report makes further recommendations relating to four regulations relating to tower cranes and celluloid cinema.

As a result the HSE will begin work to amend the 53 Approved Codes of Practice (ACoPS) to reduce their complexity and will highlight the main changes necessary by June 2012.

The wider recommendation on consolidation of safety law is for the HSE to commission research by January 2012 to help decide if the core set of health and safety regulations could be consolidated in such a way that would provide clarity and savings for businesses. An agreed new ‘Challenge Panel’ will be set up for businesses wishing to challenge enforcement decisions they believe are not proportionate.

Work at Height Regulations
The review also recommends reviews of Work at Height Regulations in relation to the current inclusion of stepladders and permanent workplaces and seeks clarity in the requirement to organise portable appliance testing for electrical equipment in the workplace under the Electricity at Work Regulations. There are further proposals to remove the requirement for self-employed persons in low-risk occupations whose activities pose no risk to others to comply with health and safety legislation.

Judith Hackitt, HSE chair, has stated “Poor regulation - that which adds unnecessary bureaucracy with no real benefits - drives out confidence in good regulation. We welcome these reforms because they are good for workers and employers but also for the significant contribution they will make to restoring the rightful reputation of real health and safety.”

How do you think your business will be affected by these issues? Empire welcome all feedback and comments. Please visit our Facebook page where we regularly hold discussions relating to the topics covered in our blog posts.

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SPEAK UP STAY SAFE & EXPLOSIVE DISCIPLINARY ACTION

Speak up Stay Safe Campaign

"Every 40 minutes in the UK a young person is seriously injured in the workplace. We think this position is wholly unacceptable. By highlighting to young people that they need to be aware of their environment and speak up if they feel unsafe we hope to significantly reduce this number" states Julie Nerney, chief executive of the British Safety Council.

Young workers, those under the age of 18 years, are considered in law to be at risk due to lack of experience and maturity. Good role models, a positive safety culture, training and supervision are key issues in the successful mentoring and a young workers development so this ongoing campaign will be of interest to those employing or working with under 18’s.

The Speak Up Stay Safe campaign supports and encourages young people to feel confident talking to their work supervisor, parent, teacher or friends if they feel that they are in an unsafe situation. Tips and advice for young people, teachers, parents and employers is available on www.speakupstaysafe.co.uk, HSE website, Facebook and other mediums. Visit the website with a young worker as part of your risk assessment action plan.


Explosive disciplinary action?

An employee that made a ‘technical error’ is likely to be facing explosive disciplinary action this week after a firework display scheduled to take 20 minutes lasted just one minute. The technical error meant that rather than a series of colourful explosions, spectators were surprised by £6000 worth of fireworks within a minute! Spectators were disappointed with the short display but some described the show as “brilliant” and the sky ‘like daylight’!


Has or will your business be affected by these issues? Empire welcome all feedback and comments. Please visit our facebook page where we regularly hold discussions relating to the topics covered in our blog posts.

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GAS SAFETY - HAVE YOU ASSESSED YOUR CONTRACTORS?

A man claiming to be a registered gas engineer from Accrington has received a two year prison for endangering people’s lives at two properties in Lancashire. The Health and Safety Executive successfully prosecuted for six offences, after his work was classified as being ‘immediately dangerous’. It was reported that Burnley Crown Court heard the 35-year-old’s actions had put residents at risk of being killed or seriously injured in a gas explosion or from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Mr Jonathan had falsely claimed he was a registered gas engineer when he installed a new boiler at a community nurse’s home on Willows Lane in Accrington on 22 October 2010. Unbeknown to the occupiers the boiler was left operating dangerously. He then failed to return to fix continuing problems and it was then reported to the manufacturer as being faulty who sent an engineer to repair the boiler. The engineer classified the installation as being ‘immediately dangerous’, and disconnected it from the gas supply straight away and Mr Jonathon’s work was reported to Gas Safe Register, which holds the official list of legal and safe gas engineers. The HSE carried out an investigation and found other work he had carried out in the area to also be dangerous.

The defendant pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 24 months in prison at Burnley Crown Court. Paul Johnston, Chief Executive of Gas Safe Register stated “Gas fitters working unregistered like Stephen Jonathan are far more common than you think - we estimate they’re doing 250,000 illegal jobs each year, causing fires, explosions, gas leaks, carbon monoxide poisoning and leaving people out of pocket.

“All gas engineers have to be Gas Safe registered - it’s the law. Our message to everyone is clear - check the engineer’s Gas Safe Register ID card before letting them work on gas.”

Has or will your business be affected by these issues? Empire welcome all feedback and comments. Please visit our Facebook page where we regularly hold discussions relating to the topics covered in our blog posts.  

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NOTW FIASCO – WHAT CAN BUSINESSES LEARN ? PART TWO...

The shock closure of the News Of The World and the phone hacking scandal has left many of the British public shocked. 

Empire is encouraging businesses to learn from the NOTW situation, as it serves as a timely reminder that no business is immune from closure, and very large, successful businesses can be destroyed by the actions of a few employees.

In light of the closure Empire has compiled a list of potential learning points for other businesses to take into account. Over a series of blog posts we will highlight the issues that we feel are important to consider.
Last week we discussed issues concerning Whistle-blowing and Organisational Culture. This week we look at further pointers that should be learned from the NOTW shock closure.

ETHICS ARE IMPORTANT
In an increasingly transparent business community, it is more important than ever to ensure your business is ethical. At the most basic level, customers tend not to want to buy goods from a supplier with questionable ethics. Suppliers may not wish to associate with a business with a poor reputation for ethics, and this was clearly demonstrated when advertisers withdrew from the NOTW. Ethics can be the foundation of a positive organisational culture and the two are closely linked.

SEEK LEGAL ADVICE BEFORE ANNOUNCING REDUNDANCIES
The NOTW’s 200 employees were collectively advised of their impending redundancies during a staff meeting in the office on the week of the disaster. This potentially breaches several requirements of employment law, namely that they should have been collectively consulted prior to the final decision being made. The Secretary of State must also be notified when there is a proposal to make 20 or more employees redundant. A failure to consult may result in an award of 90 days’ pay to each employee as well as potential unfair dismissal claims.

TRANSFERS MAY INCUR TUPE LIABILITY
There is speculation that News International will simply start publishing The Sun on a Sunday to replace the NOTW. This could result in what is known as a TUPE transfer, whereby NOTW employees should have their employment protected and transferred. Further details on this are expected in the near future, but the NOTW would be well advised to seek legal advice on this immediately. Businesses must always ensure that advice is sought prior to mergers, buyouts and the sale of businesses in order to avoid unexpected liability for transferred employees.

HEALTH & SAFETY

THE DAMAGES (Scotland) ACT 2011
This new act has been introduced to end the long legal battles in pursuit of agreement over damages claims altering the way Scottish courts will now award damages following fatal accidents.

A fixed percentage of 75% of the net income will now be used as the basis for calculating the loss of support entitlement for dependants of the deceased, applicable in all cases except where a court considers that it would result in a ‘manifestly and materially unfair result’.

Furthermore, a spouse’s income will be disregarded when calculating the amount of damages to be paid.

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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”. 

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NOTW FIASCO – WHAT CAN BUSINESSES LEARN?

The shock closure of the News Of The World and the phone hacking scandal has left many of the British public shocked. 

Empire is encouraging businesses to learn from the NOTW situation, as it serves as a timely reminder that no business is immune from closure, and very large, successful businesses can be destroyed by the actions of a few employees. In light of the closure Empire has compiled a list of potential learning points for other businesses to take into account. Over a series of blog posts we will highlight the issues that we feel are important to consider.

The most popular English-language newspaper in the world was published for the last time in July, which has left politicians, News International, The Metropolitan Police, and the NOTW employees battling to find out who is to blame. Public speculation, police questioning, political debate, and media coverage is certain to go on for the foreseeable future but, in the meantime, there are lessons the business community can learn from the demise of the NOTW. 

Here are the first two points where lessons should be learned from NOTW:

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE MUST NOT BE NEGLECTED
Does the culture of your business encourage employees to push the wrong boundaries, go to extremes and turn a blind eye to bad practices?
A journalist deleting the voicemail messages of murder victim Millie Dowler is an extreme example of this, but can you be sure that your employees wouldn’t be tempted to break the law if pressurised?
In the case of the NOTW, serious questions need to be asked about why journalists felt the need to go to such extremes to get a story.
Could the HR department or line managers have prevented this incident by fostering a different organisational culture?

WHISTLEBLOWING CAN HELP BUSINESS
A good whistleblowing policy encourages employees to come forward if they become aware of malpractice or breaches of the law. This allows a manager or HR department to be made aware of the issue as early as possible, therefore preventing an escalation. It is likely that the NOTW did have a policy, but employees did not feel able to use it. The importance of encouraging an effective whistleblowing policy was also demonstrated by the recent care home scandal in Bristol, in which a senior nurse broke the silence of abuse of patients resulting in closure of the home. It is not enough to simply have a policy, it must be circulated and utilised appropriately.

It is important that businesses throughout the UK take on board the lessons learnt, and most importantly ensure steps are taken to prevent the same thing happening to them. We will be posting more pointers relating to the NOTW scandal in the following blog posts.

 
A REMINDER - NEW ARRANGEMENTS FOR REPORTING OF INJURIES AND INCIDENTS TAKE EFFECT FROM 12th SEPTEMBER

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) place a legal duty on employers, self-employed and people in control of premises to report work-related deaths, major injuries, over-three-day injuries, work related diseases and dangerous occurrences (near misses).

Businesses will no longer be able to report incidents by email, post or fax.

Fatal and major incidents and injuries will still be reportable by telephone however all other reportable work-related injuries and incidents under RIDDOR will move to a online system using interactive forms.

Seven forms will be available on the HSE’s website which is aimed at separating the incident type and making the statutory reporting process quick and easy for employers to use.

Further changes will take effect on the 30th September 2011 - the HSE’s Infoline telephone service, which currently provides a basic information service to callers, will end due to the increased use of their website.

We would really like to hear your views on the issues that have been highlighted in this post. Have you had any experience in people within an organisation turning a blind eye to bad practices? What are your thoughts on the whistleblowing culture? Do you think it can help businesses? What are your thoughts on the new arrangements for reporting injuries? Join our facebook page to enter our discussions amongst our online community

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Take part in the HSE 'Red Tape Challenge'

If you haven’t already done so…….take a look at the HSE website, www.hse.gov.uk

Your chance to have your say awaits, in an effort to unburden employers of ‘red tape’

The HSE is publishing all the regulations affecting one specific sector or industry, They are inviting you to tell them what’s working and what’s not, what they can simplify and what can be scrapped.

Here’s the best bit…based on your feedback, they will start getting rid of unnecessary red tape!

The challenge is taking on live themes and includes employment law issues so take a look and be a part of the process.  Take the HSE Red Tape Challenge here.

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