subject: Health & Safety In The Workplace [print this page] If you go back 30 years if you hurt yourself at work you got up and you carried on but now you need to take care in everything you do. If you do not follow health and safety regulations you risk people taking you to court for not fully looking after your employees.
In 1974 the government brought in the Healthy and Safety at work act which set strict guidelines of what you have to do to care for your employees. You have to make sure that your workplace is maintained so that everyone is able to work in a safe environment without the fear of injury. This includes fixing any problems that you might have like unstable tables or wobbly chairs. You have to do this so there are no risks to your employees health.
If there is asbestos in your workplace you must immediately get it removed by professionals. It is the greatest cause of work related deaths and it extremely dangerous as it effects breathing and lungs. As well as protecting your employees your workplace must be safe for the people that may visit your property. This generally means cleaning up any mess that there may be fixing any broken slabs etc so no one will trip or slip over.
This ties in with caring for your employees but it is useful to know that you have a duty of care over anyone that may enter your property.
When caring for people on your premises it includes making sure people do their job correctly. If someone misuses the equipment it is up to you to interfere and tell them what they are doing wrong. If you do not interfere and the employ injures themselves it is likely that you will be held responsible because as mention before they are under your duty of care. You should also make sure that nobody brings dangerous materials into your workplace as this can cause harm to others and once again you can be held responsible.
You should also provide training to your employees so they know what practices are safe and what are not.
This can be done during the induction training for your employees and you should show them a copy of the health and safety regulations in the workplace. It is possible to outsource the training where someone can provide professional training so that you can maintain a safe working environment.
These organisations can also offer the documentation that you need which can save you a lot of time. They can also monitor all of your employees temporarily to make sure that everyone does their job correctly and this is extremely important.
An inspector can come to check your property at any time without warning. If they do come and for some reason you prevent them from checking your property you will be breaking the law. This also includes not providing all of the information that you may have that the inspector may need. This includes previous records of injuries. If the documents you provide are edited or fake then like before you are breaking the law.
It is because of this that it is important to constantly follow health and safety regulations and to record anything that does go on. You can also be charged for pretending to be an inspector so it is not recommended that you go and check the place next door.
If an employee at your property does fall ill at work or injure themselves then you are under a duty to provide suitable first aid facilities for them. If this does happen you or a first aider will have to provide immediate attention to this person in order to maintain their health. If you do not do this you can be prosecuted for not providing first aid care and punishments for this can vary.
If someone who is a non-employee falls ill you do not legally have to provide first aid although it is highly recommended that you do as you could still be prosecuted so you should do it.
Health and safety is very important and at one point it could possibly help you safe somebodies life. Organisations can provide advice on how to make sure you follow these regulations and some will make sure your property is ready so this could save you time as well as the risk of not getting it done properly. This does not cost that much and the fines would be substantially more if you do not follow the regulations.
