Compliance Management in your business, no matter how small or large, can become an administrative nightmare, you feel like a juggler trying to keep on top of everything you have to in order to comply with legislation
So you have: Staff training, Risk Assessments, recording checklists, operational checks, maintenance recording, COSHH, Fire Risk assessment, Health and Safety policy, Health and safety meetings – The list is long! and then some. And that is before you put your mind to making money and other aspects of your business.
Accident reporting
What if I could automate the majority of your processes so that once staff training, for instance, is set up you never have to remember when the next retraining is due when the next Lift maintenance or fire extinguisher test is due. When you take on a new member of staff you just enter the details and sit them down to complete the training, all the appropriate training modules are selected automatically.
The director of a waste management company has been ordered to carry out unpaid work after an employee was critically injured.
Poole Magistrates’ Court heard that on 18 April 2017 Justin Tinsley, then aged 33, had only been employed by Mike Toon Ltd for a few weeks when he was trapped between a telehandler and a gate post at the company yard on Dawkins Road in Poole. Mike Toon Ltd processed and recycled builders’ waste and soil at the yard.
Justin was struggling with a manoeuvre and the machine became stuck. With the engine running and the door blocked Justin climbed out through the window to allow Mr Toon to free the machine. However, the machine moved unexpectedly, and Justin was crushed between the machine and a gate post. Justin was unconscious in hospital for some weeks and has never fully recovered from his crush injuries.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found Justin was being trained to drive a telehandler by the company owner and director Michael Toon. The investigation found several serious long-term faults with the telehandler including some relating to braking.
Michael Toon of Poole Road, Bournemouth pleaded guilty breaching section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974; that being a director of Michael Toon Ltd he failed to discharge his duty under section 2(1), the offence being committed with his consent or connivance or being attributable to his neglect. He was given a 120 hours unpaid work community order and ordered to contribute to costs of £1500.
HSE inspector Ian Smart said: “Michael Toon was well aware of the unsafe condition of the telehandler yet allowed it to be used by an inexperienced employee.
“HSE promotes safe-stop procedures where drivers should apply the parking brake and turn off the ignition before exiting any mobile machinery. Justin could not do this as the telehandler was in such poor mechanical condition. The law requires mobile machinery to be in safe working order at all times. Maintenance is not optional. This accident could easily have been prevented.”
HSADD says: Shall we mention money saving again? Lack of maintenance, lack of training, corners cut! all lead to incidents like this.
Hafeez Ghafoor, formerly a director of the now-dissolved landscaping company R K United Ltd, has been sentenced for safety breaches after a worker suffered life changing injuries.
Leeds Crown Court heard that on 25 August 2016, an employee of R K United Ltd was using a lorry loader crane to deliver a load of soil to a new house on Otley Road, in Leeds. As he brought the crane arm down, his left arm was impaled on a spike which was protruding from the control system. The impact caused several bones in his arm to be shattered.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the crane had severe defects, including a disabled safety system, and part of the safety guard around the controls had been cut off, leaving the spike on which his arm was impaled. In addition, the worker had not received appropriate training to operate the lorry loader crane.
Hafeez Ghafoor of Park Road, Crosland Moor, Huddersfield pleaded guilty to breaching Section 37 of the Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974. Mr Ghafoor was given a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years and ordered to complete 200 hours of community service.
After the hearing, HSE inspector Yolande Burns-Sleightholme commented: “This injury was easily preventable, and the risk should have been identified.
“The lorry loader crane should have been properly maintained, regular inspections carried out, and a thorough examination taken place every twelve months. The disabled safety system would have been found during the examination, ensuring that this incident could not have occurred.”
HSADD says: These injuries are truly preventable, but as shown over and over and over – almost every industrial accident when it is investigated thoroughly they are caused by shortcuts, money-saving or just plain lack of concern for employees!
+When you arrange to have a staff member to do a task, say, for instance, cleaning the toilets and recording the results on a checklist, They fail to clean – you are responsible if they don’t clean and someone falls on say a wet floor.
If they clean up you rely on them filling in a checklist and they fail to do so then you have no evidence to support the defence that your toilets were nice and clean.
If you as a business owner fail to check that th recoprs are being kept up to date then you have failed your business and you lose the case.
If you have multip[le sites, checking a toilet checklist will be so low down on your daily or hourly tasks that you will most likely forget all about it and won’t even look for it until the case comes in from the Solicitors1
Isitchecked can set reminders, and give you real-time access to any site worldwide.
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