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WHO'S LOOKING OUT FOR YOU? iagl
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And who should you be looking after? Health and Safety legislation is becoming an increasingly important aspect for business. So where do your responsibilities lie? Nicola Tomlins outlines the basic requirements.
The UN has a reputation for detailed and consolidated health and safety law, intended to protect employees as ‘% ell as other people who might be affected by a work activity within an employers' business. including the general public.
The Health 8: Safety at Work Act 1974 still forms the basis of all health and safety law in existence today. But in recent years the everincreasing influence of European legislation has resulted in the duties of an employer (and in some cases an employee) becoming significantly more detailed and onerous.
At the root of this are six regulations—the 'six pack'. These were introduced on 1 January 1993 to reflect the provisions of six similar European directives which are binding on all the member states of the European Union.
The often involved nature of the regulations, plus the increased burden they place upon employers. means that their arrival has been greeted with little enthusiasm. However. they are here to stay for the foreseeable future and the penalties for contravention can be severe. Consequently, prudent employers should familiarise themselves with them without delay.
The six-pack regulations can be summarised as follows.
1 Management of Health & Safety and I Safety at Work Regulations 1992. These are regarded as being the framework regulations. They create broad and general duties for employers (and for employees and selfemployed people) which provide the basis on which some of the more specific regula tions operate.
The most important change in the law affected by these regulations is the duty on an employer to make a "suitable and sufficient" risk assessment of the nature of work carried out at his work place. Those affected by a risk assessment will usually be the employees but the duties of an employer also extend to any lawful visitor in the work place.
The risk assessment should identify the hazards and/or risks to the health and safety of those who might be affected and should state how these can be minimised wherever possible. The employer should implement these recommendations as part of his health and safety policy and ensure that every employee knows of them.
Where more than five people are employed the assessment must be in writing. These regulations also impose general duties on the employer with regard to matters including health surveillance of his employees, dealing with serious imminent dangers and educating and retraining his employees 2Work Place (Health, Safety & Welfare) Regulations 1992 These repeal much of the Factories Act 1961 and the Offices, Shops & Railway Premises Act 1963, but replace them with broadly similar and often more detailed duties, They are intended to ensure that any work place (which is any place which a person has access to while at work—including a lobby or corridor which is used as an access to or exit from a work place) is as safe as possible and that any risk to health and safety is reduced.
3The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1992 A detailed definition of work equipment is contained in the regulations and includes items as diverse as a pair of scissors or a forklift truck. An employer is required to ensure that all work equipment is suitable for the work for which it is intended and for the person who is using it. Again, the regulations are detailed in their application. 4Personal Protective Equipment at 'Work Regulations 1992 These provide a unified code of duty for an employer and the standards of design and manufacture of personal protective equipment (PPE). PPE is equipment worn or held by a person at work which is designed to protect the operator against one or more risks to health and safety.
Many of the duties may already exist in other legislation dealing with specific areas of work. However, these regulations make the duties upon an employer wider because they relate to all work places rather than a specific type.
An employer has to make an assessment to establish which PPE may be required. The regulations also place new duties on an employee to use the equipment provided properly, as trained and also to take care of it, informing his employer, where appropriate, should it need to be repaired or renewed.
g Manual Handling Operations aRegulations 1992 These apply wherever there is any transporting or supporting of a load (including the lifting, putting down, pushing, pulling, carrying or moving) by hand or bodily force. Figures obtained from the Health & Safety Executive show that more than 30% of time, lost over an average of three days, is due to injuries caused as a result of incorrect manual handling.
Under the regulations an employer has to avoid, wherever possible, the need for employ. ees to manually handle loads where a risk of injury is involved. In haulage an employer cannot avoid an employee handling loads manually. He must then make an assessment of the risks involved and take steps to reduce the likelihood of any injury occurring to the lowest level reasonably practicable.
An employer is required to provide his employees, where practicable, with precise information of the weight of each load and the distribution of weight applicable. lie must train the employees how to handle loads correctly and must review any assessment made where it is no longer valid or where there has been a significant change.
Unfortunately, the regulations do not give any specific limits to weights and measures but detailed guidance notes accompany the regulations. These are extremely helpful and give recommendations about the maximum weight a person should be expected to lift, carry, push or pull and the recommended height at which certain weights should be moved.
Health and Safety (Display Screen UPEquipment) Regulations 1992 These regulations introduce a new area of health and safety law and are expected to have a significant impact on claims for problems such as repetitive strain injuries. They do not apply to display screen equipment fitted to control cabs of equipment or aboard any means of transport. They do, however, apply to people who habitually use display screen equipment as a significant part of their normal work.
An employer is required to carry out an assessment to determine whether or not an individual and the work station that he or she uses is affected by the regulations. The most onerous duties on an employer are contained in regulation three. They are detailed but easy to understand and should be read by every employer. Also an employer is required to plan the activities of work station users—`users' are usually employees and an employer has a far more onerous duty to them than he does to 'operators' who generally tend to be selfemployed people.
It is up to the employer to ensure that users take regular breaks and eyesight tests for employees must be provided free of charge where they are requested. He is also required to provide each employee with adequate health and safety training and to provide any information relating to the employer's obligations under the regulations.
Contravention of any of the six regulations mentioned renders and employer liable to prosecution. A person found guilty of breaching any of the regulations can be fined up to £5,000 and, in some cases, face the threat of imprisonment A breach of the regulations may be used as evidence of a breach by an employer of his duties under sections 26 of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974. In these cases a conviction renders an employer liable to a fine of up to £20,000 in a Magistrates Court or an unlimited amount in the Crown Court. For serious cases there is the threat of imprisonment for up to two years. Although the six regulations came into force on 1 January 1993, only the Management of Health 8.r Safety, the Personal Protective Equipment at Work and the Manual Handling Operations regulations came into force in their entirety from that date. There are transitional provisions for the others as follows.
Work Place Regulations apply from 1 January 1993 to a work place or part of a work place which came into existence as from 31 December 1992. Otherwise, an employer has until the 1 January 1996 to comply (the exception is regulation 17—concerning traffic routes within a work place—irrespective of when the work place first existed). The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations—regulations 6-10 apply from 1 January 1993.
The rest apply to the employer either from the same date, if the work equipment was provided for use after 1 January 1993, or from I January 1997 if provided for use before I January 1993.
Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations—an employer is bound by the regulations from 1 January 1993. However, where a work station came into existence before 1 January 1993 then an employer has until 31 December 1996 to comply with the detailed duties contained in regulation 3 (be warned—where a pre-1993 work station is moved within the work place, it is likely to be regarded as a 'new' work station).
Although the Health & Safety Commission is presently reviewing the current legislation with a view to rationalising it to a more comprehensive form, this is not likely to happen for a while. The 'six-pack regulations and those which have since been introduced will remain in their present form for some time. Employers will ignore them at their peril, particularly bearing in mind the escalation of fines being imposed for contravention of this legislation.
Copies of the regulations are available from HMSO Bookshops, price £5.
7 Nicola Tosnlins is a partner in the litigation department of solicitors Wedlake Saint, 14 John Street, London WC1N 2E11 She acts for and advises clients on employers' liability claims and has a particular interest in health and safety