IDIP UnitA Element6

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Element IA6 Organisational Factors.

Learning outcomes.

On completion of this element, candidates should be able to:

1. Explain the internal and external influences on health and safety in an organisation. 2. Outline the different types of organisation, their structure, function and the concept of the

organisation as a system. 3. Identify the various categories of third parties in a workplace, the relevant duties, responsibilities

and controls. 4. Explain the role, influences on and procedures, for formal and informal consultation with workers in

the workplace. 5. Outline the development of a health and safety management information system, the relevant duties

and the data it should contain. 6. Explain health and safety culture and climate. 7. Outline the factors which can both positively and negatively affect health and safety culture and

climate.

Relevant Standards

• International Labour Standards, Occupational Safety and Health Convention, C155, International Labour Organisation, Geneva, 1981

• International Labour Standards, Occupational Safety and Health Recommendation R164, International Labour Organisation, Geneva, 1981

Minimum hours of tuition: 12 hours. 1.0 Organisational Influences - Internal and External.

We shall begin this element with the examination of both the external and internal influences on a company.

External Influences on a Company. The External Environment.

Legislation . Of all the influences on a company, probably the most important is that of legislation. The laws passed by governments will have a direct effect on any company and may require records to be kept (e.g. COSHH) or,



1.0 Organisational Influences - Internal and External.

alternatively, a change in company procedures to accommodate legislative changes.

Any company or officers of a company ignore legislation at their peril. Changes in legislation are well publicised in relevant journals, and any safety adviser should ensure that he/she is aware of any pending changes and their effect on the company.

In 2006 new regulations were introduced - The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. This legislation abolished the need for fire certificates and pronounced the requirement for the responsible person to ensure a fire risk assessment has been completed. Anyone acting as a safety adviser should ensure that he/she is kept up to date with potential changes in legislation.

Enforcement Agencies. The enforcement agencies can affect the health and safety attitudes within companies by means of Prohibition Notices and Improvement Notices.

The HSE can cause change by publishing Approved Codes of Practice which recommend good practice. Whilst these do not have the force of law, companies must show that they have adopted a standard at least equal to that published in the Code. Enforcement agencies may also be affected in their action by public attitudes as shown by the following report extracted from the September 1997 "Safety and Health Practitioner": "A decision not to prosecute Neath Port Talbot Borough Council over the deaths of two men in South Wales was overturned following the presentation of a petition containing 20,000 names to Attorney General John Morris. Ryan Preece and Robert Simpson were overcome by toxic fumes inside the Crymlyn Burrows Sewage Pumping Station last October during maintenance work.

When Preece lost consciousness, his workmate Simpson went in to help him. He too was overcome by the fumes and two more colleagues, unable to reach the pair, called the emergency services. By the time they arrived, the men were already dead. The Crown Prosecution Service decided not to prosecute, and the friends and family of the two dead men organised a petition generating a huge response. Following the presentation of the petition and a joint investigation by the HSE, Police and Dwr Cymru/Welsh Water, Neath Port Talbot Borough Council is to be prosecuted under Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, with failing to ensure the safety of the two men."

Tribunals. Tribunals may have a direct effect through their decisions affecting any particular company and whether the action was deemed to be fair or not; however, although tribunal decisions are not precedent but merely persuasive, they can influence how companies behave.

Contracts/Contractors . The nature and relationship between contracts and contractors may have profound effects on the health and safety of a particular contract. In those circumstances, where a contractor feels that he is making a loss on a particular job, there is a strong temptation to cut corners and perhaps compromise health and safety.

Similarly, where a client takes a direct interest in the progress of a contract and in achieving good standards of health and safety, the standards on site are positively improved. There is a need for effective vetting of contractors' own company health and safety competence before engaging their services. This area, though, has been considerably improved by the introduction of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 and we shall discuss it further in a later study unit.

Trade Unions . Trade unions have been active nationally in promoting standards of health and safety in a variety of ways.



1.0 Organisational Influences - Internal and External.

These include:

• Supporting their members' legal actions and setting precedents and standards. • Lobbying and use of pressure groups, thus affecting legislation. • Carrying out and sponsoring research. • Publicising health and safety matters and court decisions. • Providing seminars on health and safety subjects.

Insurance Companies . Insurance companies directly influence other companies via the requirement for employers' liability insurance. Should a company suffer an unusually high accident rate, then the insurance company can either increase their insurance premiums or insist that the company adopt risk reduction measures. It is now more common for insurance companies to carry out their own inspections of workplace risks and thus set certain minimum standards. Insurance companies may also affect companies by means of their policy towards claims, i.e. because of the high cost of litigation, cases tend to be settled out of court, rather than pursued to the bitter end in court.

Public Opinion. Ultimately public opinion can have a powerful effect on legislators, which may result in legislation being passed or, as demonstrated above, prosecution taking place. Other actions may involve a particular company's products being deliberately boycotted by consumers because of the company's behaviour, or by other more direct forms of action by protesting consumer groups.

1.1 Organisational Influences - Internal and External (cont'd).

Internal Influences on the Company.

Organisations are not merely subjected to external pressures and influences. We said earlier in comparing the organisation to an "open system" that the central characteristic of the system was the conversion of inputs from the external environment. These were "organised and activated so as to convert human skills and raw materials into products".

The internal organisation consists therefore of the four Ps - People; Procedures; Premises; and Plant and substances.

1.2 Organisational Influences - External and Internal (cont'd).

If the organisation has eliminated or minimised risk in relation to premises, plant and procedures, it can concentrate its energies on the fourth element - people. They in turn are influenced by a number of internal pressures - finance, production targets, and trade unions.




Finance . Setting up and running a company requires considerable financial investment. Once established, the company needs to generate more income than it expends on running costs, i.e. cost of premises, plant, wages, insurance, etc. To do this, the company will set annual budgets specifying the amount of money available to each department to support its running costs, and setting production targets to be attained. When budgets are being pared down to make economies, very often some health and safety requirements will be "short circuited".

It is essential that the person responsible for health and safety is prepared to fight his corner when budgets are under discussion, to ensure that there are sufficient funds available to support health and safety requirements. Lack of sufficient funding will inevitably lead to a lessening of the resources required to administer health and safety effectively. To the uninitiated, health and safety costs might appear minimal and could be easily absorbed in departmental administration costs. To operate on this basis would be a recipe for financial disaster and could lead to costly prosecutions for non-compliance. The following headings give some idea of the possible range of expenditure.

Item Cost

Health and Safety Manager Full-time appointment. ?

Health and Safety Consultant Contract/Part-time. ?

H & S Assessments. ?

MHSW Regulations. ?

DSE Regulations. ?

MHOR Regulations. ?

PPE Regulations. ?

Noise. ?

Abestos. ?

Lead. ?

Health & Safety Training. ?

Employees - Induction/On-going. ?

Competent Persons. ?

First Aid. ?

Fire Marshall. ?

Health & Safety Equipment PPE. ?

Monitoring - air. ?




Lightning. ?

Temperature/Humidity. ?

First Aid Boxes. ?

Evacuation Chair/s. ?

First Aid/Fire Notices. ?

Library. ?

Subscribtions to H&S Journals. ?

Purchase of H & S Publications. ?

Purchase of H & S Videos. ?

Posters. ?

Administration. ?

Membership of H & S Associations. ?

Safety Committee Meetings. ?

Health Surveillance. ?

Printing - Policy. ?

H & S Manuals. ?

Accident Costs. ?

Prevention. ?

Investigation. ?

Administration. ?

It is worth examining accident costs as an example of how spiralling costs can result from a seemingly comparatively minor incident.


Costs of Accidents.

Most accidents are minor in nature but may stop production for some time and lead to the injured employee being away from work for a few days. This involves the cost of lost production, and sick pay, etc. A major accident, on the other hand, can lead to a prolonged absence from work for the employee involved, and the costs of an investigation during which equipment and machinery may be at a standstill.




Classifying Accidents.

An accident is an unplanned event - it may involve personal injury, damage to property, both or neither.

Accidents can be classified into four groups for co st purposes:

• Class A: Those causing no injury. • Class B: Those causing no injury but damaging property. • Class C: Those causing injury but no property damage. • Class D: Those causing injury and property damage.

Examples: NO PROPERTY DAMAGE/PROPERTY DAMAGE.

No injury.

• a) Steps on banana skin - does not slip. • b) Steps on banana skin - slips - drops cup which breaks.

Injury.

• c) Steps on banana skin - slips - sprains ankle. • d) Steps on banana skin - slips - sprains ankle - drops cup which breaks.

No Property Damage Property Damage

A B

No Injury

Steps on banana skin - does not slip

Steps on banana skin - slips - drops cup which breaks

C D

Injury Steps on banana skin - slips - sprains ankle

Steps on banana skin - slips sprains ankle - drops cup which breaks


Direct and Indirect Costs.

Costs of accidents may be split into two types:

1. Those relating directly to the incident. 2. Those relating indirectly to the incident.

Some examples are given below:

Class A Accident. Direct Costs - None Indirect Costs - Negligible. Possibly the cost of lost production during investigation of the "near-miss".

Class B Accident. Direct Costs: Cost of damaged property, cost of replacement property, cost of repair to property.




Indirect Costs: Waste of material and time spent on job to date, downtime awaiting repair & downtime awaiting replacement.

Class C Accidents. Direct Costs: Costs of medical treatment - first aid, ambulance, etc. Compensation payments & fines for breach of statutory duty.

Indirect Costs: Lost time due to: workers stopping to assist, sympathise or discuss the incident, machinery stoppage to free victim, supervisors assisting victim, persons investigating accident, rearrangement of schedules, preparation of reports, attendances at courts of law hospital visits, visits to relatives. Lost profit due to: loss of victim's production, cost of training replacement, reduced productivity, wages and overtime failure to meet production dates, cancellation of orders, loss of future orders. Lost overheads due to: higher insurance premiums, plant and staff idle, cost of plant hire. Incidental costs: difficulty recruiting good staff poor staff causing increase in waste poor workers having more accidents.

Class D Accidents. These are likely to include, at least, all the costs involved in Class B and C accidents.

Budgets. A budget based on company-wide requirements is much easier to administer and control. Training costs may sometimes be shared with other training budgets. If health and safety budgets are administered departmentally, there is a huge temptation either to ignore health and safety requirements or to divert health and safety monies to priorities perceived as being more urgent.

Production Targets. The attainment of production goals subjects operatives to intense pressures which can lead to stress and an increase in incidents and accidents in the workplace. Indeed, it is well-recognised that increased competition, longer hours, increased workloads, new technology and new work patterns are prominent in the list of occupational stressors. It is equally well-known in industrial psychology that in a "conveyor-type" operation, the speed of the belt should be geared to the capacity of the slowest operator.

The pressures on management to attain production ta rgets can be translated into action on the shop floor in a number of ways in order to increase production:

• Make existing workforce work longer hours. • Increase size of existing workforce. • Pay incentive bonuses to existing workforce to increase daily rate of production. • Reduce quality of actual goods by using inferior materials. • Apart from increasing the size of the workforce, the above measures can induce a "corner-cutting"

mentality in the workforce, e.g. longer hours bring fatigue and a lessening of attention to safety factors.

• Payment of bonuses for increased production can lead to disregard for safe systems of work which may slow down the speed at which the worker can operate.

• Increased production expectations may cause anxiety in the slower worker, especially if part of a team, and again short cuts are taken in an effort to keep pace with colleagues.

• Reducing quality may necessitate the introduction of new systems of work, leading to stress. • All of these can lead to unsafe acts which may have considerable effect on the company's health,

safety and accident record.

Trade Unions . Earlier, we noted that trade unions exerted an external influence on organisations but they also exert




considerable internal influences. Trade union safety representatives are involved as members of safety committees, and as such are actively involved in improving health and safety in the workplace. They have a dual role in that they can be involved in the formulation of policy (in the more enlightened companies), but they also have a policing role in as much as they can monitor management's performance.

They carry out the following functions:

• Investigating potential hazards and dangerous occurrences. • Examining the cause of accidents. • Investigating health and safety complaints from employees they represent. • Making representations to the employer on complaints, hazards and accidents. • Carrying out inspections of the workplace. • Consulting with HSE inspectors on behalf of the employees they represent. • Receiving certain information from the HSE inspector. • Employee representation has been widened to include employees who are not members of a trade

union. These employees will be represented by "elected representatives of safety". • Safety representatives are protected by legislation from victimisation by employers. We shall

discuss safety representatives in a later study unit.

2.0 Organisations.

In this study unit we shall analyse the organisation in a general way, considering the organisational concepts noted above as well as spending some time on the theory of the organisation as a system. We shall pay particular attention to the importance of the organisation in the implementation and management of health and safety, at the same time detailing the typical duties of safety practitioners.

We shall complete our studies of organisational theory by looking in some detail at the diverse external and internal influences which can have a significant impact on the effective functioning of the organisation as a whole.

TYPES OF ORGANISATION

General Perspective

The study of organisations has produced a huge body of sociological research with a number of conflicting interpretations. However, there has been a convergence of opinion amongst the more prominent sociologists about the nature of the organisation.

Here are a few definitions:

"Organisations are social units deliberately constructed and reconstructed to seek specific goals" (Talcott Parsons).

"Organisations are stable associations of persons engaged in concerted activities directed to the attainment of specific objectives" (Egon Bittner).

"Organisations are bodies persisting over time which are specially set up to achieve specific aims" (Amitai Etzioni).

In layman's terms an organisation is a group of persons who interact with each other in an effort to attain certain predetermined goals or objectives.

Take a look at the particular company for which you work. Does it fit within any of the above definitions?



2.0 Organisations.

At a very basic level, the shop-floor employee goes to work to earn money, so do his shop steward, foreman, manager and managing director. The earning of money, then, is a specific goal common to everyone in that particular enterprise. There will be many other shared goals and objectives. There will also be many goals which are not shared, which lead to conflict, and which, ultimately, may have a bearing on the success or failure of the organisation.

A work organisation, then, is an organisation which has been established for a specific purpose, and within which work is carried out on a regular basis by paid employees. Examples of such are businesses, hospitals, educational institutions, government departments, etc.

2.1 Formal and Informal Organisation.

All organisations have a formal and informal structure. You, as a student of management (and health and safety management) need to recognise this and understand how the formal and informal structures interact with each other.

Within each organisation, there is a formal allocation of work roles and the administrative procedures necessary to control and integrate work activities. This concept of control within an organisation is important. It can be exercised differently by different organisations. There is a power structure within which workers are controlled by the managers.

Etzioni described how power was used according to the type of organisation. He suggested that management power could be described as "coercive, remunerative, and normative" and that there was a corresponding reaction by the workers which could be termed "alienative, calculative and moral".

Organisation Power Reaction Result

Prison. Coercive. Alienative. Inefficient prison industries.

Factory. Remunerative. Calculative. Efficient commercial performance.

Religious. Normative. Moral. Larger congregations.

These classifications are not mutually exclusive, however, and can often exist side by side.

We have, so far, been discussing the "classical" theories of organisation and concentrating on the formal model. Traditionally, formal organisation was typified by the rules and specifications of management, and you can probably sketch a formal organagram of your own particular company based on the traditional, conventional management pyramid. Your company probably also has a formal system of written rules and procedures, contained perhaps in a company handbook, for the smooth and efficient operation and management of the company.

However, you will also be aware from your own work experience of an informal arrangement or power structure within your company, which is based on the behaviour of workers - how they behave towards each other and how they react to management instructions. The foreman or supervisor will have specific instructions from management aimed at achieving certain goals or production targets. In many cases, he often "adjusts" those instructions in accordance with his personal relationships with individual, or groups of, workers.

This takes us some way towards being able to make a distinction between formal and informal organisations. There is a blurring at the edges between the two - a cross-over point, where the distinction between the formal and informal at the actual point of action becomes obscured and is the subject of a great deal of sociological argument and discussion.



2.1 Formal and Informal Organisation.

For our purposes, it is sufficient to describe or explain them in the following way. 2.2 Formal Organisational Structure.

Most organisations describe their structure in the form of an organagram. This shows the reporting relationships from the chief executive of the company down to the staff carrying out the most basic tasks.

Figure 1.1 illustrates a typical formal structure f or a small company.

Figure 1.1 Formal Structure . In theory, every person within the structure has a well-defined role with clear lines of reporting and clear instructions as to standards of performance. These roles will be clearly understood by others in the organisation so that everyone acts in concert to achieve the organisational objectives. Informal Organisational Structure. An organisational chart cannot identify all the interactions which occur between staff. Invariably, it will be the quality of personal relationships which determines how communications flow within a company, and "how things get done". Within the prison system, for example, there are strict rules of behaviour enforced by the prison authorities by means of a rigid authoritarian structure. The prisoners themselves, however, have their own informal organisation which often dictates "how things get done" in prison. This refers back to Etzioni's "coercive - alienative" theory.

In the prison workshop, the objective is to produce x number of objects per week. The work is imposed on the unwilling prisoner (coercion). The prisoner's objective is not the same as that of the prison authorities - he is not interested in producing x number of objects. He resents being confined in prison and resents being made to work (alienation).

He does only as much work as will keep him out of t rouble:

• With the supervising prison officer, and. • With his fellow prisoners.

The end result is that the number of objects produced is considerably less than x.

In most organisations, the formal structure represents the model for interaction, but in reality the informal relationship is of considerable importance in understanding how organisations work.



2.2 Formal Organisational Structure.

The informal structure cannot replace the formal structure, but works within it. It can influence relationships and effectiveness in both positive and negative ways. An understanding of it is an invaluable aid to good management. Take another look at the formal structure (Figure 1.1) and then compare it with the informal one illustrated in Figure 1.2 Look at the superimposed informal structure shown by the dotted lines.

Figure 1.2 Informal Structure . An awareness of the informal relationships shown in Figure 1.2 would obviously influence how communications are made. The effective manager will use such knowledge to break down resistance to new measures (including health and safety).

A simple way of making a distinction between formal and informal organisation structure is:

• (a) Formal - represented by the company organisation chart, the distribution of legitimate authority, written management rules and procedures, job descriptions, etc.

• (b) Informal - represented by individual and group behaviour.

2.3 The Organisation as a System.

In recent years, an approach has developed towards organisations using an analogy of control systems theory.

This approach developed in the late 1960s, and it p robably originated at this time for two primary reasons:

• First, the fresh concern with science following World War II, and such spectacular progress as nuclear armaments and the computer and.

• Secondly out of the realisation of the inadequacy of existing theory against the background of new, more complex, organisations.

At its widest, the theory is married (or, at least, the attempt is made) to seemingly-unrelated spheres. The work organisation is compared with, at one extreme, systems in the human body, atoms, bacteria, and so forth, and, at the other, with the universe itself! This is general systems theory, seeking dynamic principles applicable to all kinds of systems - living, mechanical and natural.

When we use the term "system", we mean the whole entity made up of interrelated, functioning parts. The effective functioning of the whole depends, to a greater or lesser extent, on the performance of the parts. If we look at the human body, certain parts - such as the heart, lungs and liver - are crucial to the survival of



2.3 The Organisation as a System.

the body; others - such as hands, feet and gall bladder - function to assist survival, but the body could live without them. All the parts of the human body are linked through the nervous system so that change or malfunction in one part affects the other parts.

Likewise, the engine and its related parts are vital to the running of a car, whereas parts such as the windscreen wipers merely help it to be effective and safe in wet conditions.

We can parallel this approach in looking at organisations. They, too, have certain vital parts and, if these fail, the whole organisation ceases to function. For instance, if finance elements fail, the organisation will have no funds and will cease to exist. Just as with the body or the car, change or malfunction in one part of an organisation affects other parts - this is what we mean by saying that the parts of an organisational system are "functionally interrelated".

Definition of a System.

There are a number of definitions of a system.

A simple but useful one is:

"A system is a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a united whole." This is one of several definitions which can be applied to systems. At this point, it is sufficient for you to know what a system is. The systems approach to management is, basically, a way of thinking in which the organisation is viewed as an integrated complex of interdependent parts which are capable of sensitive and accurate interaction among themselves and within their environment. All systems display the characteristics of unity or wholeness, interdependence, interactivity, and a set of common goals.

The systems-management method is, therefore, an attempt to demonstrate the way in which the systems approach can be applied to those particular systems which involve human beings and their activities, i.e. human-activity systems.

2.4 Characteristics of Systems.

a. Every system is part of a still larger system and itself encompasses many subsystems ("circles within circles").

b. Every system: Whether biological, physical or social, has a specific purpose to which all its parts are designed to contribute. Without such a common purpose, the interrelationships would be meaningless.

c. A system is complex : Any change in one variable will effect change in others. (For example, a change in one area can create frustrations and reduce job satisfaction in another area because one variable in the system has been changed without regard to its effect elsewhere.)

d. Equilibrium: A system strives to maintain balance between the various pressures affecting it, internal and external. Of course, some systems experience more pressures to change than others, giving rise to stable and unstable systems.

Initial reaction to pressure is often what is called dynamic conservatism, the organisation fights like mad to stay just as it is! However, sooner or later homeostasis takes place "activities which serve to stabilise and vitalise the organisation as a whole in an evolving state of dynamic equilibrium".

Open and Closed Systems

One systems concept commonly used is the distinction between "open" and "closed" systems.

Closed Systems

A "closed" (or "impervious") system is one in which there is no interaction between any part of the system and the external environment. You will realise that, nowadays, in the organisational sense, such a situation




does not arise, the concept is used purely for debating reasons. Weber, perhaps, looked at his ideal bureaucracy as though a closed system were possible: socio-emotional factors did not intrude into the organisation.

However, Michel Crozier (b.1922) a sociologist who wrote on the French bureaucracy, among others, showed that the environment does affect both goals and the structuring of the organisation. A major criticism of the classical school must be its unawareness of the invalidity of the closed-system approach.

An example where a relatively closed system is possible is in general engineering, where the system monitors its own behaviour through a feedback loop, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Close system.

This type of system is incorporated into classic control systems for industrial processes.

Open Systems

The vast majority of organisations are open-loop, rather than closed-loop, systems. This is shown in Figure 2.

The inputs and outputs can be materials, knowledge and ideas, or even people (as in the education system).

The employees who carry out the processing within the systems are, themselves, drawn from outside, and so they are influenced at work by environmental factors.

The organisation must, therefore, deal with the demands and constraints imposed by the environment on raw materials, money and consumer preferences, and it must also deal with the expectations, values and norms of the people who must operate the work organisations.

Figure 2. Open system.

There are three major characteristics of open syste ms:

• They receive inputs of energy from their environment. • They convert these inputs into outputs. • They discharge their outputs into their environment.

The Organisation as an Open System

In relation to an organisation, the inputs include people, materials, information and finance. These inputs are organised and activated so as to convert human skills and raw materials into products, services and




other outputs which are discharged into the environment, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Characteristics of an open system.

The open system concept, in relation to the study of organisations, carries with it some optimism for the likelihood of change and the introduction of new ideas and behaviour into the organisation.

As well as having this important facility of importing new energy and ideas from its environment, the open system provides for adaptation to take place which, according to Talcott Parsons (1902 to 1979), is one of the crucial factors in the survival of any organisation.

2.5 Structure and Function of Organisations.

The structure of an organisation is determined by its general activities - its size, location, business interests, customer base, etc. It is also determined by the way in which its personnel are configured. The organisational pyramid mentioned earlier is probably the principal model for most organisations, with management at its apex and the workforce at its base.

The total management structure can be represented as a pyramid but within it, each separate department has its own pyramid with its own power structure and departmental goals. With its own head, senior, middle and junior members of staff, each departmental pyramid has to be climbed by the aspiring, career-minded employee. Career progression depends on the ability to climb the pyramids - first the departmental one and, with any luck, the company one.

If the organisation is very large, then considerable problems involving communication, efficiency, effectiveness, etc. will be encountered. With giant enterprises such as Microsoft or Ford Motors, organisational theory becomes more and more problematic. Is it realistic to expect their respective managing directors to share the same goals as their most junior employees? Yet we started out by saying that organisations were groups of persons interacting in order to achieve predetermined goals or objectives.

Perhaps the success of these companies indicates that they have solved the organisational problems of motivation and communication! Figures 1.6 and 1.7 are two typical pyramids.




Figure 1.6: Typical Company Pyramid.

Figure 1.7: Typical Departmental Pyramid .

By examining the pyramidal structures, it is easy to identify the formal levels of authority and responsibility within the organisation or department. Basically, authority or control runs from top to bottom or from apex to base. However, there are other important management/employee relationships such as line management, staff, and functional relationships. Line Management.

A typical line management function in a factory is represented by Figure 1.8.

Figure 1.8 .

From this, you can see a direct line of authority from the Works Director to the Shop-floor Operative. Staff Relationship.

The managing director's secretary reports to the MD and carries out his instructions by passing on his wishes to other directors and senior heads of department, but there is no "line" relationship between the




secretary and those departments. There is no instruction from the secretary as her/his authority stems from the MD. A health and safety consultant reporting directly to a MD is not in a position to "instruct" heads of departments to carry out health and safety policies or instructions. Again, his/her authority stems from the MD and, in practice, he would advise heads of department of any changes in policy agreed with, and authorised by, the MD. It would be most unlikely in such circumstances for a departmental head to refuse to cooperate.

Functional Relationship.

In many larger organisations, certain members of staff have a company-wide remit to carry out activities "across the board". Human resources departments often implement company appraisal plans which affect every department; internal auditors visit every department to carry out their work; and quality control inspectors and health and safety managers have a company-wide role in order to inspect and check procedures. In such circumstances, any defects discovered would normally be dealt with by reporting them to the departmental head rather than dealing directly with any individual members of the department.

The various hierarchies and line, staff and functional relationships can create huge problems for any organisation. Office "politics" and protocols often obstruct communication, which is one of the keys to efficient management.

2.6 Organisation for the Management of Health and S afety.

The management of health and safety is a function of management no less than the management of production, purchasing, sales, human resources, etc.

The biggest stumbling block to inculcating the importance of good health and safety management in many organisations is the attitude of management itself. "It is expensive"; "It does not produce added value"; "It is not my responsibility"; "It is boring"; are cries of woe often voiced during any discussion of the subject. So far we have looked at formal organisation, hierarchies and lines of authority. It should be a simple matter, then, to write health and safety instructions and implement those using the models so far discussed.

But is it? In the real world, health and safety is not, unfortunately, a high priority. Informal organisations as often as not "water down" or even ignore the formal organisation's instructions. How can this state of affairs be altered?

According to the HSE in "Successful Health and Safety Management" (HS(G)65) the key elements of successful health and safety management are the concepts of: policy; organising; planning and implementing; measuring performance; reviewing performance; and auditing (see Figure 1.9).




Figure 1.9 .

These concepts require some explanation, and the fo llowing definitions are taken from the above HSE guidance publication.

• Policy : Used to describe the general intentions, approach and objectives of an organisation and the criteria and principles on which actions and responses are based.

• Organising : Used to describe the process of designing and establishing responsibilities and relationships involving individuals within an organisation.

• Planning : Used to describe the process by which the objectives and methods of implementing policy are decided - the allocation of resources, the setting of standards and the control of risk.

• Measuring : Used to describe the collection of information about the implementation and effectiveness of plans and standards.

• Auditing : Used to describe the process of collecting independent information on the efficiency, effectiveness and reliability of the total (safety) management system.

• Reviewing : Used to describe the activities involving judgements about performance, and decisions about improving performance. Reviewing is based on information received from measuring and auditing activities.

Anyone familiar with management training will recognise these concepts as tried and true standards for the effective management of any activity, department or organisation and they apply in full measure to the management of health and safety.

The syllabus has placed special emphasis on "Organisation for the management of health and safety."

According to the HSE "organising for health and safety involves establishing responsibilities and relationships which promote a positive health and safety culture and secure the implementation and continued development of the health and safety policy". In order to achieve these ends, the organisation must concentrate on the Four Cs - Control, Cooperation, Communication, and Competence.

Control.

In order to achieve control, it is necessary to secure the commitment of all employees - managers and shop




floor alike - to clear and well-defined health and safety objectives.

These objectives will be set out in the policy and managers will be empowered to take responsibility for controlling the working environment with the cooperation of all employees. This serves to encourage the development of a safety culture which is based on enlightenment and self-awareness, with rules as a "fall back" measure in the event of slippage from accepted safety cultural norms.

If we take a typical manufacturing organisation as an example, we can see that good health and safety management can be divided into three stages where control needs to be exercised:

• (a) Input. • (b) Work processes. • (c) Output.

At each stage, it is necessary to have in place agreed and acceptable standards of performance for hazard identification; risk assessment; risk control; and implementation and maintenance of control measures.

Stage One - Control of Input. Standards of performance to be applied to:

• Design and selection of premises. • Design and selection of plant and substances. • Plant and substances used by others. • Acquisition and purchasing. • Human resources. • Information.

Stage Two - Control of Work Activities. Standards of performance to be applied to:

• Risk assessment. • Safe working methods. • Work instructions. • Personal protective equipment. • Accident prevention procedures.

Stage Three - Control of Outputs : Standards of performance to be applied to:

• Products and services. • By-products of work activities. • Information for external use.

Co-operation is achieved through:

• (a) Health and safety committees and other consultative arrangements. • (b) The preparation and circulation of safety committee minutes and action points. • (c) The holding of "problem solving" meetings.

Communication is achieved through:

• The collection of information from external sources.




• The involvement of senior management in consultative arrangements. • The involvement of senior management in accident, ill health and incident investigation. • The involvement of senior management in planning, monitoring, auditing and reviewing

performance. • Discussion of health and safety matters at management meetings. • Providing systems for the cascading of information. • Instituting "tool-box" talks. • Provision of documentation of policy statements, organisation statements, performance standards,

rules and procedures. • Use of posters, bulletins, in-house newspapers and other similar publications,and. • Preparation and dissemination of information to outside organisations and individuals.

Competence of employees is achieved through:

• Recruitment and placement procedures. • Provision of information, instruction and training. • Availability of competent cover for staff absences and. • General health promotion and surveillance.

Overview . To summarise, organisations should aim at achieving success in managing health and safety by maintaining a culture which motivates and involves all members of staff and effectively controls all risks. The main factors in this strategy are: Control by managers who lead by example. Clear allocation of responsibilities for:

• Policy formulation and development. • Planning and review of health and safety activities. • Implementation of plans and. • Reporting on performance.

Allocation of health and safety responsibilities to line managers with access to specialist advisers. Allocation of health and safety responsibilities to competent persons who are given time and resources to carry out those responsibilities. Ensuring accountability of people allocated health and safety responsibilities. Setting those persons realistic targets and providing positive reinforcement. Providing adequate supervision, instruction and guidance. Providing a payment and reward system which avoids conflict between production targets and health and safety requirements. Encouraging cooperation amongst employees and safet y representatives by involving them in: policy formulation and development;

• Planning, implementing, measuring, auditing and reviewing performance. • Arrangements at operational level in support of more formal participative measures.

Ensuring effective communication by means of: visible behaviour;

• Written material and. • Face-to-face discussion.

Ensuring competence by means of:




• Recruitment. • Selection. • Placement. • Transfer and training and. • Provision of adequate specialist advice.

2.7 Role of the Safety Professional.

The Safety Practitioner.

This person may have the title of Safety Director, Manager, Officer or Adviser. The safety practitioner's prime duty is to promote health and safety in the workplace. It is important to realise that the safety practitioner does not absorb any of the line management responsibilities for health and safety.

A common misunderstanding is that a safety adviser or officer is appointed to manage safety, leaving other managers to get on with their important responsibilities for finance, production, etc. Health and safety is not an optional extra for managers; it is part of their role, of equal importance to their other duties.

Duties of Safety Practitioners.

Typical duties of safety practitioners are advising management on:

• The identification of hazards and assessment of risk associated with injury to, or ill-health of, personnel, damage to plant, equipment, materials, fire and explosion.

• Improvement of existing working by the introduction of safe systems of work and performance standards.

• Legal requirements affecting safety, health and hygiene and welfare. • Provision and use of protective clothing and equipment. • Safety and suitability of new and hired plant and equipment; ensuring all appropriate test certificates

and technical instructions are obtained. • Potential hazards on new processes before work starts, and on the safety organisation required. • New methods of safe working arising from current technological development. • Changes in legislation. • Appropriate fire and rescue procedures. • Assisting with the prevention of accidents by raising the safety awareness of other employees. • Advising managers on the implementation and monitoring of safety programmes. • Regularly inspecting the workplace and work equipment to see that standards are being achieved,

and making recommendations for improvements. • Investigating all accidents, including dangerous occurrences and near-misses, filling out the

relevant forms and notifying appropriate authorities. • Assessing new and/or unusual processes for associated risks. • Keeping informed as to health and safety legislation, and informing the management of

recommendations to ensure compliance. • Assistance with the health and safety training of other employees. • Monitoring the effectiveness of the company safety policy in respect of the health and safety at work

of its employees, members of the public and those affected by the work, including its administration and organisation.

• The monitoring and assessment of the overall effect of the safety policy. • Improving the company's safety performance. • Enhancing the company's reputation in accident prevention. • Creating within the company a positive safety and health awareness and attitude at all levels of

employees, from directors to operatives. • Carrying out inspections (in association with the manager or foreman) to ensure that all regulations

are being observed; statutory notices have been posted; only safe systems of working are in operation; mess rooms, washing facilities and other welfare amenities have been provided and are




properly maintained. • Investigating the causes of any accidents or dangerous occurrences and recommending means of

preventing recurrence. • Supervising the recording and analysis of information on injuries, ill-health, damage and production

losses; assessing accident trends and reviewing overall safety performance. • Keeping contact with official and professional bodies, e.g. HSE, EMAS, fire authority, local

government authorities, Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, voluntary organisations. • Liaison with safety representatives and safety committees, and assisting in management/operative

consultations. • Fostering within the firm an understanding that injury prevention and damage control are integral

parts of business and operational efficiency. • Keeping up to date with recommended codes of practice and new safety literature; circulating the

relevant information to each level of employee. • Liaison with contractors at times of joint responsibilities; checking of safety policies; monitoring and

advising as necessary on safety matters related to their operations. • Liaison with employer's insurance company(s). • Assisting management in monitoring the implementation of policy.

Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999

Whilst the above in itself is an impressive list of duties of a health and safety adviser, the advent of these Regulations has given legal formality to these roles.

In Regulation 7 in summary, it states that:

1. (1) Every employer shall, subject to paragraphs (6) and (7), appoint one or more competent persons to assist him in undertaking the measures he needs to take to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed upon him by or under the relevant statutory provision.

2. (2) Where an employer appoints persons in accordance with paragraph (1), he shall make arrangements for ensuring adequate cooperation between them.

3. (3) The employer shall ensure that the number of persons appointed under paragraph (1) has the time available to them to fulfil their functions, and the means at their disposal are adequate having regard to the size of his undertaking, etc. etc. In the supporting guidance note in the associated Code of Practice, it goes on further to add that:

1. "46. Employers are solely responsible for ensuring that those they appoint to assist them with health and safety measures are competent to carry out whatever tasks they are assigned and given adequate information and support." and "47. Employers must have access to competent help in applying the provisions of health and safety law, including these regulations and in particular in devising and applying protective measures unless they are competent to undertake the measures without assistance. Appointment of competent persons for this purpose should be included among the arrangements recorded under Regulation 4(2)"

Thus it is now a legal requirement to the above Reg ulations that an employer should:

• Appoint someone to be responsible for health and safety. • Ensure the competence of the appointed person(s). • Ensure he/she has adequate resources to carry out the role properly. • Ensure that the details of the person so appointed are made known to all personnel in the

organisation.

In many cases, the person so appointed will be the safety adviser. For many companies with fewer than 500 employees it may not be cost-effective to appoint a full-time safety adviser and for them, this role may be combined with other duties. For even smaller companies, it may not be possible even to do this and they will have to have recourse to specialist external consultants. However, whatever arrangement the employer




makes, the above Regulations will apply. 3.0 Third Party Control.

Having discussed organisations and health and safety policies, we move on to the section of the syllabus which deals with controlling and overseeing the activities and interests of third parties. We have to look at this in relation to the use of effective management systems and the legal constraints that apply.

We shall therefore spend some time reviewing the concept of the duty of care before assessing the legal, economic and moral obligations to third parties.

3.1 Duty of Care.

We are going to concentrate on the legal or statutory obligations owed to third persons, but we will also consider the moral and economic obligations involved.

Who or what is a third person?

A simple legal definition is "one who is a stranger to a transaction or a proceeding".

Much of health and safety legislation is designed to protect the employee in the workplace from the dangers involved in manufacturing and construction processes.

As it is impossible to carry out most operations in isolation from the communities in which we live, it therefore becomes necessary to provide additional legal protection for the "stranger to the transaction", i.e. the visitor, the contractor, or the member of the public who might be injured, or put at risk of injury because of the nature of a particular undertaking. You learned in earlier study units about the common law duty of care and the duty owed to visitors. To refresh your memory, the duty to take reasonable care is owed to your "neighbour" at common law.

As everyone is our neighbour it then follows logically that we owe a duty of care to everyone at common law. In the UK, The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 gives statutory effect to this principle, and it is worth studying the wording of the sections of the Act which deal with it.

Sections 3, 4 and 5, HSWA:

1. It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risk to their health or safety.

2. It shall be the duty of every self-employed person to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that he and other persons (not being his employees) who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety.

3. In such cases as may be prescribed, it shall be the duty of every employer and every self-employed person, in the prescribed circumstances and in the prescribed manner, to give to persons (not being his employees) who may be affected by the way in which he conducts his undertaking, the prescribed information about such aspects of the way in which he conducts his undertaking as might affect their health and safety."

Section 4:

1. This section has effect for imposing on persons dut ies in relation to those who: o (a) Are not their employees; but. o (b) Use non-domestic premises made available to them as a place of work or as a place

where they may use plant or substances provided for their use there, and applies to premises so made available and other non-domestic premises used in connection with them.

2. It shall be the duty of each person who has, to any extent, control of premises to which this section applies or of the means of access thereto or egress there from or of any plant or substance in such



3.1 Duty of Care.

premises, to take such measures as it is reasonable for a person in his position to take to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the premises, all means of access therefore or egress there from available for use by persons using the premises, and any plant or substance in the premises or, as the case may be, provided for use there, is or are safe and without risks to health.

3. Where a person has, by virtue of any contract or te nancy, an obligation of any extent in: o (a) The maintenance or repair of any premises to which this section applies, or any means of

access thereto or egress there from; or o (b) The safety of or absence of risks to health arising from plant or substances in any such

premises; that person shall be treated, for the purposes of subsection (2) above, as being a person who has control of the matters to which his obligation extends.

4. Any reference in this section to a person having control of any premises or matter is a reference to a person having control of the premises or matter in connection with the carrying on by him of a trade, business or other undertaking (whether for profit or not)."

Section 5:

1. "It shall be the duty of the person having control of any premises of a class prescribed for the purposes of Section 1(1)(d) to use the best practicable means for preventing the emission into the atmosphere from the premises of noxious or offensive substances, and for rendering harmless and inoffensive such substances as may be so emitted.

2. The reference in subsection (1) above to the means to be used for the purposes there mentioned includes a reference to the manner in which the plant provided for those purposes, is used and to the supervision of any operation involving the emission of the substances to which that subsection applies.

3. Any substance or a substance of any description prescribed for the purposes of subsection (1) above as noxious or offensive shall be a noxious or, as the case may be, an offensive substance for those purposes whether or not it would be so apart from this subsection.

4. Any reference in this section to a person having control of any premises is a reference to a person having control of the premises in connection with the carrying on by him of a trade, business or other undertaking (whether for profit or not) and any duty imposed on any such person by this section shall extend only to matters within his control." When reading the sections it is important to recognise the qualified duties denoted by "so far as is reasonably practicable"; "reasonably practicable"; and "best practicable means". You should note that in environmental matters, "best practicable means" has now been replaced (as a result of the Environmental Protection Act 1990) by the phrase "best practicable environmental option".

ILO C155 Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981, Article 17 states that: 'whenever two or more undertakings engage in activities simultaneously at one workplace, they shall collaborate in applying the requirements of this convention'.

The Malaysian ACT 514 Occupational Safety and Healt h Act 1994 Part IV - General duties of employers and self-employed persons to persons other than their employees.

The Act states:

1. 17. It shall be the duty of every employer and every self-employed person to conduct his undertaking in such a manner as to ensure, so far as is practicable, that he and other persons, not being his employees, who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their safety or health.

2. It shall be the duty of every employer and every self-employed person, in the prescribed circumstances and in the prescribed manner, to give to persons, not being his employees, who may be affected by the manner in which he conducts his undertaking, the prescribed information on such aspects of the manner in which he conducts his undertaking as might affect their safety or health.



3.2 Third Parties.

The employer owes a duty of care to contractors, visitors, the general public and trespassers.

Definitions where available are:

Contractor.

• "one who is engaged to perform a certain task without direction from the person employing him".

According to the Construction (Design and Managemen t) Regulations (see later) a contractor is a person who:

• "carries out or manages construction work, or who arranges for persons under their control to carry out or manage construction work".

This is a narrow definition, and it is perhaps more useful to couple it with the definition of "self-employed" in Section 53, HSWA 1974 as:

• "an individual who works for gain or reward otherwise than under a contract of employment, whether or not he himself employs others".

Visitors and Trespassers. What is the difference, then, between a "contractor" and a "visitor", and between a "visitor" and the "general public"? From what we have learned, there is a contractual relationship between the employer or occupier of premises and a contractor.

A, the employer, has invited B, the contractor, into his premises or onto his site to carry out work on A's behalf. B, or his employees, may be affected by A's work activities. A must therefore give B such prescribed information about the manner in which he conducts his (A's) undertaking as might affect B's health and safety. Similarly, B as an employer or self-employed person must supply A with prescribed information as to the manner in which he conducts his (B's) undertaking - a reciprocal exchange of relevant health and safety information designed to protect the employees of both parties and anyone else who might be affected by the activities of both undertakings.

What about "visitor" and "general public"? The easiest way to make a distinction between the two is to make entry to the premises or site the demarcation point. Once a member of the general public enters the premises or site, he/she becomes a visitor.

Once inside the workplace, the standard of care or protection required for visitors is generally the same as that provided for employees. However, where very young or disabled persons are concerned, different criteria might apply in order to achieve the same standard.

Outside the workplace, the general public has a right to protection from risks to their health and safety arising from the manner in which the undertaking is conducted - risks from fire, explosion, collapse of building or scaffolding or release of harmful substances into the atmosphere.

The responsibility of employers and the self-employed to visitors, etc. will, under certain circumstances, apply to trespassers. The duty under the Act to conduct the undertaking so as not to expose people to risks to their health and safety implies taking precautions to deter people from unlawfully entering the premises. This can be done by providing warning notices, fences and barriers.

Construction sites and railway lines pose particular problems, especially where children are concerned.

You should note that under Sections 4 and 5 of the Act, persons who are in control of non-domestic



3.2 Third Parties.

premises owe similar duties of care to non-employees.

In Section 4, where a person has a degree of control over premises, he owes a duty to those who use the premises either as a place of work or for the use of machinery or substances. In such circumstances, the person in control must ensure that the premises and any machinery or substances in the premises are safe and without risks to health. "In control" applies to people such as owners and occupiers of premises or people who, by virtue of a contract or tenancy agreement, have specific obligations in respect of the repair or maintenance of premises, or to ensure that machinery or substances are safe and no risk to health.

Section 5 states that a person in control of prescribed premises has a general duty to use the best practical means (now the Best Practicable Environmental Option) to prevent the emission into the atmosphere of noxious or offensive substances or to render harmless and inoffensive any such substances which are emitted.

Even before the advent of the 1974 Act, anyone starting up in business would have identified the financial and physical risks involved in the enterprise.

The 1974 Act itself did not actually specify the risk assessment concept, but obviously the obligations on employers to provide safe places and systems of work, etc. under the Act implied that some kind of assessment of the risks to health and safety involved in the undertaking needed to be made by the employer.

In any case it would be virtually impossible to write a coherent safety policy (required under the Act) without recourse to some kind of risk assessment.

In 1992 (updated in 1999), the requirement for risk assessment was specified, in no uncertain terms, in the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations. In addition, the Regulations required that employers should define the preventative and protective measures to be taken in respect of any identified risks; supply such information to employees; provide competent assistance to facilitate health and safety; provide health surveillance where necessary, and train employees in safe working practices.

As far as the management and control of contractors is concerned, the significant Regulations are those concerned with risk assessment, health and safety arrangements, competent persons, arrangements for services and imminent danger, cooperation and coordination, persons working in host employers' undertakings, provision of information to employees including temporary workers; and consultations with safety representatives.

The management of contractors is specifically addressed under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (CDM Regulations) (see later) but in practical terms, the contractor should base his operations on the employer's obligations, first of all under the 1974 Act and then the requirements of the 1999 Management Regulations.

He is then in a position to deal effectively with the CDM Regulations. We need therefore to look at the relevant sections of the Regulations.

3.3 Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulat ions 1999.

These Regulations took effect on 1 January 1993. There are seventeen regulations plus a schedule which deals with consultation with safety representatives; the Regulations follow from what is known as the Framework Directive (Directive 83/391/EEC) and the following are the more important regulations:

• Assess the risk to the health and safety of employees and to anyone affected by work activity. • Make arrangements for putting into practice the preventative and protective measures that follow

from that risk assessment. • Carry out health surveillance of employees where appropriate. • Set up emergency procedures.




• Inform and train employees as necessary. • It is necessary to carry out a risk assessment and prepare a written programme to cover planning,

organisation, control, monitoring and review.

The Regulations also place duties on employees similar to those under the Health and Safety at Work Act. There is a requirement to form consultative mechanisms, e.g. Health and Safety Committees, irrespective of trade union involvement.

Selected Important Regulations.

Specifically, the following regulations are of significant importance:

Regulation 3: Risk Assessment.

Risk assessment covers the following points:

• All employers must assess the risk to their employees. • Employers with five or more employees must record the assessment.

The purpose is to identify the measures necessary to comply with relevant statutory provisions. • The assessment must be suitable and sufficient. • Employers should take account of HSE guidance, supplier instructions and trade press in order to

familiarise themselves with hazards and risk in their organisation. • Employers should prioritise the necessary measures. • The assessment must be relevant to the risk. • The assessment must be reviewed regularly.

There are no fixed rules for risk assessment. It can range from the very simple, based on straightforward ordinary common sense, to the highly technical, based on a professional qualified risk assessment. It may be a generic assessment or based on a variety of separate assessment exercises. Where an assessment has been carried out under other regulations, it need not be repeated so long as it remains valid. As stated, for five or more employees the assessment must be recorded. Ideally, it should be linked to the health and safety policy. It may be recorded electronically so long as it is readily retrievable.

The assessment should state the significant finding s:

• The significant hazards. • The control measures in place. • The population affected; and • The measures necessary for prevention and protection.

Regulation 4: Principles of prevention to be applie d.

Where an employer implements preventative and protection measures he shall do so on the basis of the principles specified in Schedule 1 to these Regulations.

Schedule 1 lays down the principles to be applied a s follows:

• a) Avoiding risks. • b) Evaluating those risks that cannot be avoided. • c) Combating the risks at source. • d) Adapting the work to the individual. • e) Adapting to technical progress. • f) Replacing the dangerous with the non or less dangerous. • g) Developing a coherent overall prevention policy. • h) Giving collective protective measures priority over individual measures.




• i) Giving appropriate instructions to employees.

Regulation 5: Health and Safety Arrangements.

• Planning - systematic setting of objectives and priorities. • Organisation - ensuring that objectives are met as planned. • Monitoring and review - supervision, management, quality control.

Regulation 6: Health Surveillance. Every employer should ensure that his employees are provided with such health surveillance as is appropriate, having regard to the risks to their health and safety which are identified by the assessment.

3.4 Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulat ions 1999 (cont'd).

Regulation 7: Health and Safety Assistance.

Every employer shall ..... appoint one or more competent persons to assist him in undertaking the measures he needs to take to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed upon him by or under the relevant statutory provisions.

(See later on "Competent Person".)

Regulation 8: Serious and Imminent Danger.

This deals with the employer's need to:

• Devise appropriate procedures to be followed in emergencies. • Nominate a sufficient number of competent persons to implement the procedures. • Restrict access to dangerous areas unless the employee has received appropriate training. • So far as is reasonably practicable, inform employees of the nature of any hazards and the

procedures to be adopted in order to avoid them. • Enable the employee to stop work immediately and go to a place of safety. • Prevent employees from resuming work until the danger has passed.

Regulation 9: Contacts with External Services.

Every employer shall ensure that any necessary contacts with external services are arranged, particularly as regards first-aid, emergency medical care and rescue work.

Regulation 10: Information for Employees.

Employers must provide employees with the following information:

• Risk to health and safety. • Preventive and protective measures. • The procedures for dealing with and reacting to emergencies as outlined in Regulation 7. • The identity of the competent person nominated in Regulation 7. • The nature of risks notified to him by any other employers sharing the workplace.

Regulation 11: Cooperation and Coordination.

Where two or more employers share a workplace, there is a duty to cooperate and coordinate measures relating to all statutory duties.

Where a main employer controls the work site, he should inform other employers of the site-wide




arrangements and invite a sharing (reciprocation) of health and safety procedures, hazards and risks for the benefit of all persons on the site. Where there is no controlling employer, the employers concerned should appoint a health and safety coordinator.

Regulation 12: Persons Working in Host Employers' U ndertakings.

This regulation applies where employees of employer A carry out work in the undertakings of employer B.

Employees of employer A could be working for employer B under a service contract for cleaning, repair, maintenance, etc., or employees in temporary employment business could be working under A's control. The important principle is the fact that persons who visit another employer's premises to carry out work must be provided with appropriate information and instructions regarding relevant risks to their health and safety.

Regulation 13: Capabilities and Training.

• On joining the company; special attention to the needs of young workers. • On being transferred or given new responsibilities. • Where new work equipment is introduced. • Where a new system of work is introduced.

All health and safety training shall be repeated periodically where appropriate, and shall be adapted to take account of any new or changed risks to health and safety. Training shall take place during working hours.


Regulation 14: Employees' Duties. Section 7 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 imposes the duty on employees to take reasonable care of their own health and safety and that of others who may be affected by their acts or omissions at work.

Section 8 of the 1974 Act imposes the duty on employees not to "interfere with or misuse anything provided by the employer in the interests of health and safety". Regulation 14 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 reinforces Sections 7 and 8 of the 1974 Act.

Regulation 15: Temporary Workers. This regulation supplements previous regulations requiring the provision of information to temporary workers (Regulations 7, 10 and 12).

Regulations 16,17 and 18: Provision for Pregnant Wo men. The MHSW Regulations 1999 introduced new risk assessment provisions for the employers of women of child-bearing age or new or expectant mothers who may be at risk because of a specific work process, working conditions, or a physical, chemical or biological agent.

A woman who feels she is at risk should produce written notification of her condition to her employer (a certificate signed by a medical practitioner or midwife).

The risk assessment must identify the specific risks posed to the health and safety of pregnant women and new mothers in the workplace.

According to advice from the HSE, the main risks ar e:

• Physical agents - shocks, vibration, manual handling, noise, non-ionising radiation, and extremes of heat and cold.

• Biological agents - listeri, rubella and chickenpox viruses, toxoplasma, cytomegalovirus, hepatitis




B, and HIV. • Chemical agents - mercury, antimitotic drugs, carbon monoxide, and chemicals listed under certain

Directives. • Working conditions - conditions such as mining work and display screen equipment. (It is widely

accepted that work with VDUs does not give rise to problems associated with radiation, but the pregnant worker may not accept this. Continuing to work with the equipment could therefore give rise to stress, and employers should treat this situation with sympathy).

Having identified the risks and/brought them to the attention of the employee, the employer must remove the hazard or reduce the risk to its minimum.

If there is a residual risk, the employer must take the following action:

• (a) Regulation 16(2) - temporarily adjust a pregnant employee's working conditions or hours; or offer suitable alternative work (Employment Rights Act 1996).

If neither of these alternatives is acceptable:

• (b) Regulation 16(3) - suspend the employee on full pay for as long as is necessary to protect her health and safety or that of her child.

You should note that the "maturity" provisions of the Regulations apply to all employees, regardless of length of service with an employer.

Regulation 19: Protection of Young Persons.

The Health and Safety (Young Persons) Regulations 1997 amended the Management Regulations to include specific risk assessments for the employment of children and young persons. A child is defined as a person who is not over compulsory school age, and a young person is one who has not attained the age of 18 years.

Under the regulations, an employer may not employ a young person unless he has carried out, in respect of that young person, an assessment.

The assessment must take account of:

• The inexperience, lack of awareness of risks and immaturity of the young person. • The fitting out and layout of the workplace and workstation.

The nature, degree and duration of exposure to physical, biological and chemical agents.

• The form, range and use of work equipment and the way in which it is handled. • The organisation of processes and activities.

The extent of the health and safety training provided to the young person.

• The risks from certain agents, processes and works.

In addition, every employer must ensure that a youn g person employed by him is not involved in work:

• Which is beyond his physical or psychological capacity. • Which exposes him to agents that are toxic, carcinogenic, cause heritable genetic damage or harm

to the unborn child or have any other chronic effect on human health.




• Which causes harmful exposure to radiation. • Where there is the risk of accidents which it may be reasonably assumed cannot be recognised or;

avoided by young persons owing to their insufficient attention to safety or lack of experience or training.

• in which there is a risk to health from: extreme cold or heat, noise, vibration.

There is provision in the Regulations for the emplo yment of a young person (not a child) in otherwise potentially hazardous situations where:

• The employment is necessary for training purposes. • The young person will be supervised by a competent person. • Any risk will be reduced to the lowest reasonably practicable level.

Where a child is to be employed, the employer must, prior to the employment, provide the parent of the child with comprehensible and relevant information concerning the risks identified in the assessment and the protective and preventative measures involved.

3.6 Definition of a Competent Person.

The term "competent person" occurred in the Factories Act 1961, the Mines and Quarries Act 1954, in associated legislation and more recently in offshore safety legislation to describe the qualifications of a person entitled to carry out periodic examinations on pressure vessels, lifting machinery and the like, or in some circumstances, to supervise safe working conditions.

However, there was no statutory definition, despite the importance of the term.

(a) Case Law. In Brazier v. Skipton Rock Co Ltd (1962) the meaning of the word "competent" was considered by Mr Justice Winn. His Lordship said that an academic training and qualifications were not the only criteria in assessing competence, since experience may be an equally valid tutor.

He considered that in relation to the examination of machinery or plant, the person should have such practical and theoretical knowledge and actual experience of the type of machinery or plant which he is to examine as will enable him to detect defects or weaknesses which it is the purpose of the examination to discover, and to assess their importance in relation to the strength and functions of the particular machinery or plant.

In Gibson v. Skibs A/S Marin (1966), Mr Justice Cantley considered the meaning of the expression "competent person" under the Docks Regulation 1934, and similarly stressed the importance of common sense and experience. He said:

"I think that a competent person for this task is a person who is a practical and reasonable man, who knows what to look for and knows how to recognise it when he sees it."

Regulation 7. The term has been given fresh currency in the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.Regulation 7 prescribes that:

1. "Every employer shall appoint one or more competent persons to assist him in undertaking the measures he needs to take to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed upon him by or under the relevant statutory provisions.

2. Where an employer appoints persons in accordance with paragraph (1), he shall make arrangements for ensuring adequate cooperation between them."

For the first time, the term is defined as follows under Regulation 7(5):



3.6 Definition of a Competent Person.

"A person shall be regarded as competent for the purposes of paragraph (1) where he has sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities to enable him properly to assist in undertaking the measures referred to in that paragraph."

Competence, in the sense it is used in these regulations, does not necessarily depend on the possession of particular skills or qualifications.

Simple situations may require only the following:

• An understanding of relevant current best practice. • Awareness of the limitations of one's own experience and knowledge; and • The willingness and ability to supplement existing experience and knowledge. This reflects the

previous judgements of Messrs Winn and Cantley mentioned above.

(c) Guidance Note. The guidance note accompanying the Regulations gives the following advice:

"External services employed will usually be appointed in an advisory capacity only. They will often be specialists or general consultants on health and safety matters."

The appointment of such health and safety assistants, departments or advisers does not absolve the employer from responsibilities for health and safety under the Health and Safety at Work Act and other relevant statutory provisions. It can do no more than give added assurance that these responsibilities will be discharged adequately.

Employers are solely responsible for ensuring that those they appoint to assist them with health and safety measures are competent to carry out whatever tasks they are assigned, and given adequate information and support.

In making their decisions, employers should take in to account the need for:

1. A knowledge and understanding of the work involved, the principles of risk assessment and prevention, and current health and safety applications.

2. The capacity to apply this to the task required by the employer, which might include identifying the health and safety problems, assessing the need for action, designing and developing strategy and plans, implementing these strategies and plans, evaluating their effectiveness and promoting and communicating health and safety and welfare advances and practices.

The provision of effective health and safety measures in more complex or highly technical situations will call for specific applied knowledge and skills which can be offered by "appropriately qualified specialists".

3.7 Overlapping Responsibilities.

Because of the wide-ranging general nature of the measures contained in the Management Regulations, there is an inevitable duplication or overlapping of many existing regulations. Where this occurs, compliance with the duty in the more specific regulations will suffice to comply with the corresponding duty in the Management Regulations.

COSHH, for example, requires an assessment to be made of risks arising from exposure to hazardous substances. There is no need to repeat this under the Management Regulations.

If the Management Regulations' duties exceed those of a specific regulation, additional measures may be required in order to comply fully with the Management Regulations.

Reciprocal Duties. We have discussed the reciprocal exchange of information under Section 3(3) of the HSWA (see above).




This reciprocity is reflected still further in Regulations 11 and 12 of the MHSW Regulations.

Regulation 11: Cooperation and Coordination.

1. "Where two or more employers share a workplace (whether on a temporary or a permanent basis), each such employer shall:

o (a) Cooperate with the other employers concerned so far as is necessary to enable them to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed upon them by or under the relevant statutory provisions.

o (b) (taking into account the nature of his activities) Take all reasonable steps to coordinate the measures he takes to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed upon him by or under the relevant statutory provisions with the measures the other employers concerned are taking to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed upon them by or under the relevant statutory provisions; and

o (c) Take all reasonable steps to inform the other employers concerned of the risks to their employees' health and safety arising out of or in connection with the conduct by him of his undertaking.

2. Paragraph (1) shall apply to employers sharing a workplace with self-employed persons, and to self-employed persons sharing a workplace with other self-employed persons as it applies to employers sharing a workplace with other employers; and the reference in that paragraph to employers and the reference in the said paragraph to their employees shall be construed accordingly."

Regulation 12: Persons Working in Host Employers' U ndertakings.

1. "Every employer and every self-employed person shall ensure that the employer of any employees from an outside undertaking who are working in his undertaking is provided with comprehensible information on:

o (a) The risks to those employees' health and safety arising out of or in connection with the conduct by that first-mentioned employer, or by that self-employed person of his undertaking; and

o (b) The measures taken by that first-mentioned employer or by that self-employed person in compliance with the requirements and prohibitions imposed upon him by or under the relevant statutory provisions, insofar as the said requirements and prohibitions relate to those employees.

2. Paragraph (1) shall apply to a self-employed person who is working in the undertaking of an employer or a self-employed person as it applies to employees from an outside undertaking who are working therein; and the reference in that paragraph to the employer of any employees from an outside undertaking who are working in the undertaking of an employer or a self-employed person, and the references in the said paragraph to employees from an outside undertaking who are working in the undertaking of an employer or a self -employed person shall be construed accordingly.

3. Every employer shall ensure that any person working in his undertaking who is not his employee and every self-employed person (not being an employer) shall ensure that any person working in his undertaking is provided with appropriate instructions and comprehensible information regarding any risks to that person's health and safety which arise out of the conduct by that employer or self-employed person of his undertaking.

4. (4) Every employer shall: o (a) Ensure that the employer of any employees from an outside undertaking who are working

in his undertaking is provided with sufficient information to enable that second-mentioned employer to identify any person nominated by that first-mentioned employer in accordance with Regulation 7(1)( h) to implement evacuation procedures as far as those employees are concerned; and

o (b) Take all reasonable steps to ensure that any employees from an outside undertaking who are working in his undertaking receive sufficient information to enable them to identify any person nominated by him in accordance with Regulation 7(1)(b) to implement evacuation procedures as far as they are concerned.




5. Paragraph (4) shall apply to a self-employed person who is working in an employer's undertaking as it applies to employees from an outside undertaking who are working therein; and the reference in that paragraph to the employer of any employees from an outside undertaking, who are working in an employer's undertaking and the references in the said paragraph to employees from an outside undertaking who are working in an employer's undertaking shall be construed accordingly."

Once you have deciphered the legal gobbledegook in which these two regulations are written, you will see that there is a certain amount of overlap between the two but clearly, all eventualities are covered.

In layman's language, persons who visit another employer's premises to carry out work must be provided with appropriate information and instructions regarding relevant risks to their health and safety.

The host employer's instructions should be concerned with the risks pertaining to his activities or the premises themselves, but equally the visitors may introduce risks to the resident workforce arising from their activities, equipment or substances they may bring with them. Their employers should inform the host employer of such risks.

You will note under the following Construction (Design and Management) Regulations that the mutual exchanges of information between principal contractor and other contractors (and amongst other contractors) continue this important principle. Why has it become necessary to implement such detailed legislation as the MHSW and CDM Regulations?

If employers (contractors) ignore safety measures (and reference to daily media bulletins indicates that they do), it is necessary to impose industry standards that are reasonable and capable of being enforced through the courts. Fatal accidents in the construction industry unfortunately continue to be amongst the highest for any sector of employment in the UK, although the figures from 2007-2008 show a fall from 79 to 72. It was 77 in 2006-2007, which shows that although the trend is downwards, aberrations such as this show the continued need for saftey measures.

It is quite clear that the construction industry is a long way from reducing the fatal accident figures to an acceptable level, but the current legislation, especially the CDM Regulations, is having an impact on the problem.

Prior to the Regulations, most reputable construction companies already operated well-tried and tested arrangements and techniques for managing directors.

The practical controls for the construction industr y are worth restating here:

• Appointment of site safety manager. • Risk assessment. • Method statements. • Permits to work. • Site safety inspections.

An examination of the CDM Regulations will show that reading between the lines of Regulations 8, 9, 15, 16, 18 and 19, the above practicalities of control must form the basis of their implementation. What has happened in effect is that the small "one man and his dog" operation must now be brought under the umbrella of health and safety by these new regulations. The large contractor, when inviting tenders from smaller contractors, puts his health and safety policy in the invitation to tender documentation, and will expect to see the details of the smaller contractor's policy included in his tender. This is now current practice. If the requisite health and safety information is not included at the tender stage, the smaller contractor is often out of the competition.

In some cases, where the smaller operator perhaps does not have the requisite health and safety resources (e.g. fewer than five employees, therefore no written policy and no evidence of health and safety




training) but has the necessary trade skills and expertise, the larger contractor may treat him as an "employee" for health and safety purposes. In such a case, the larger contractor would have to supply any training considered necessary.

The knock-on effect of the legislation has been to emphasise the need for greater attention to health and safety by the small contractor if he wants to continue in business. A précis of the CDM Regulations follows.

3.8 Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 20 07.

We will look at the UK (Europe) and then at equivalents communally named 'Designing for Safety' within Asia and USA.

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (CDM Regs) implement EC Council Directive 92/57/EEC, Temporary or Mobile Construction Sites Directive. The Regulations implement only those aspects of the Directive which relate to design and management and came into force on April 6th 2007.

The key principles on which the Regulations are bas ed are that:

• Safety must be considered in a systematic manner from the outset of a project. • All persons whose activities contribute to health and safety should be involved in a project. • Effective planning and coordination should take place throughout the duration of the project. • Competent persons must be involved with all stages of a project, and adequate resources must be

made available to them to undertake health and safety provisions; health and safety aspects of a project must be planned and managed.

• There must be effective exchange and communication of relevant information between those persons involved in a project.

• Formal health and safety records must be compiled and kept.

Effective management is to be considered in terms o f a prioritised hierarchy:

• First, Risk Avoidance. • Second, Risk Reduction. • Third, Risk Control.

Terminology. Agent in relation to any client means any person who acts as agent for a client in connection with the carrying on by the person of a trade, business or other undertaking (whether for profit or not). Cleaning work means the cleaning of any windows or any transparent or translucent wall, ceiling or roof in or on a structure, where such cleaning involves a risk of a person falling. Construction phase means the period of time starting when construction work in any project starts, and ending when construction work in that project is completed. Construction work, that is the carrying out of any building, civil engineering or engineering construction work, includes any of the following:

The construction, alteration, conversion, fitting out, commissioning, renovation, repair, upkeep, redecoration or other maintenance (including cleaning which involves the use of water or toxic substances for the purposes of Regulation 7 of the Chemicals (Hazard Information and Packaging for Supply) Regulations 2002), decommissioning, demolition or dismantling of a structure.

The preparation for an intended structure, including site clearance, exploration investigation (but not site survey) and excavation, and laying or installing the foundations of the structure.

The assembly of prefabricated elements to form a structure, or the disassembly of prefabricated elements which, immediately before such disassembly, formed a structure.

The removal of a structure, or part of a structure, or of any product or waste resulting from demolition or




dismantling of a structure, or from disassembly of prefabricated elements which, immediately before such disassembly, formed a structure, and the installation, commissioning, maintenance, repair or removal of mechanical, electrical, gas, compressed air, hydraulic telecommunications, computer or similar services which are normally fixed within or to a structure, but does not include the exploration for, or extraction of, mineral resources or activities preparatory thereto carried out at a place where such exploration or extraction is carried out.

Contractor means any person who carries on a trade, business or other undertaking (whether for profit or not) in connection with which he undertakes to, or does carry out or manage construction work and arranges for any person at work under his control (including, where he is an employer, any employee of his) to carry out or manage construction work.

Design, in relation to any structure includes drawing, design details, specification and bill of quantities (including specification of articles or substances) in relation to the structure. Designer means any person who carries on a trade, business or other undertaking in connection with which he prepares a design; or arranges for any person under his control including, where he is an employer, any employee of his to prepare a design, relating to a structure or part of a structure. Developer means a commercial developer who has sold domestic premises prior to completion of the project, and who arranges for the construction work to be carried out. Domestic client means a client for whom a project is carried out, not being a project carried out in connection with the carrying on by the client of a trade, business or other undertaking (whether for profit or not).

Health and Safety File: a record of information for the client which focuses on health and safety. It alerts those who are responsible for the structure and equipment in it to the significant health and safety risks which will have to be dealt with during subsequent use, construction, maintenance, repair and cleaning work.

Health and Safety Plan : documentation which serves two purposes. The pre-tender stage health and safety plan prepared before the tendering process brings together the health and safety information obtained from the client and designers, and aids selection of the principal contractor. The health and safety plan during the construction phase details how the construction works will be managed to ensure health and safety.

Monitoring: monitoring has two components. Active measures performance against plans and standards worked out and agreed at the start of the contract. It shows how much management is committed to achieving objectives and maintaining standards. Reactive involves the investigation of accidents and incidents and the analysis of data from specific investigations.

CDM Coordinator: a company, partnership, organisation or an individual who coordinates and manages the health and safety aspects of design. The CDM Coordinator also has to ensure that the pre-tender stage of the health and safety plan and the health and safety file are prepared.

Principal contractor : who is appointed by the client and has the overall responsibility for the management of site operations, including overall coordination of site health and safety management.

Project means an operation in which includes, or is intended to include, construction work.

Safety method statement : a written document laying out the work procedure and sequence of operation designed to ensure health and safety. It results from the risk assessment carried out for the task or operation, and the control measures identified. If the risk is low, an oral statement may suffice.

Structure means any:

• Building, steel or reinforced concrete structure (not being a building).




• Railway line or siding. • Tramway line. • Dock, harbour, inland navigation. • Tunnel, shaft. • Bridge, viaduct. • Waterworks, reservoir, pipe or pipeline (whatever, in either case, it contains or is intended to

contain), cable, aqueduct. • Sewer, sewage works. • Gasholder. • Road. • Airfield. • Sea defence works. • River works. • Drainage works. • Earthworks, lagoon, dam, wall, caisson. • Mast, tower, pylon. • Underground tank. • Earth retaining structure or structure designed to preserve or alter any natural feature, and. • Any other structure similar to the foregoing; or • Any framework, false work, scaffold or other structure designed or used to provide support or means

of access during construction work. • Or any fixed plant in respect of work which is installation, commissioning, decommissioning or

dismantling and where such work involves a risk of a person falling more than 2 metres.

3.9 Main Duty Holders.

The Regulations impose obligations on five categori es of individuals:

(a) Clients.

Clients must ensure that CDM Coordinators, principal contractors, designers and contractors appointed to each construction project are competent, and that adequate resources for health and safety in terms of finance and time have been allocated to each stage of the project.

(b) CDM Coordinators.

CDM Coodinators have responsibility for health and safety during the design and planning stage, and for starting the health and safety plan and file.

(c) Designers.

Designers must ensure that their designs avoid risks to health and safety or, if this is not possible, that any remaining risks are reduced. Sufficient and adequate information about the risks must be provided. Designers' duties apply not only to the actual construction of the project but also to its subsequent maintenance, and include both the initial specification and the drawings.

(d) Principal Contractors.

Principal contractors must carry forward the health and safety plan and are responsible for coordinating the working activities of all other contractors on site. This includes checks on the provision of all relevant information and that employees and self-employed workers are consulted and trained in relation to health and safety.

(e) Other Contractors and Self-employed Persons.



3.9 Main Duty Holders.

All other contractors and self-employed workers on site must cooperate with the principal contractor and provide him with all relevant information relating to health and safety and pertaining to the risks associated with their work, including any necessary control measures.

Apart from their individual roles, the identified categories should be considered as a planning team responsible for dealing with the various stages of a construction project.

Methodology.

The stages in a construction project are:

• Concept and feasibility. • Design and planning. • Tender/selection stage. • Construction phase. • Commissioning and handover.

In addition to the method statements, which many reputable construction companies have adopted, the following additional documents are now required by the Regulations:

• Notification of Project Form. • Health and Safety Plan. • Health and Safety File.

The CDM Regulations apply to all notifiable construction work, i.e. work with at least 30 days duration or involving more than 500 person days of work. They also apply to all non-notifiable work which involves five or more persons on site at any one time.

Design work and projects involving demolition are covered by the Regulations, regardless of the duration or number of workers involved.

Construction work carried out on domestic premises is excluded, provided the property is not used for business purposes. However, the designers' duties will continue to apply and the project must be notified to the HSE where necessary.

3.10 Designing for Safety.

The Regulations impose obligations on five categori es of individuals:

(a) Clients. Clients must ensure that CDM Coordinators, principal contractors, designers and contractors appointed to each construction project are competent, and that adequate resources for health and safety in terms of finance and time have been allocated to each stage of the project.

(b) CDM Coordinators. CDM Coodinators have responsibility for health and safety during the design and planning stage, and for starting the health and safety plan and file.

(c) Designers. Designers must ensure that their designs avoid risks to health and safety or, if this is not possible, that any remaining risks are reduced. Sufficient and adequate information about the risks must be provided. Designers' duties apply not only to the actual construction of the project but also to its subsequent maintenance, and include both the initial specification and the drawings.

(d) Principal Contractors. Principal contractors must carry forward the health and safety plan and are responsible for coordinating the



3.10 Designing for Safety.

working activities of all other contractors on site. This includes checks on the provision of all relevant information and that employees and self-employed workers are consulted and trained in relation to health and safety.

(e) Other Contractors and Self-employed Persons. All other contractors and self-employed workers on site must cooperate with the principal contractor and provide him with all relevant information relating to health and safety and pertaining to the risks associated with their work, including any necessary control measures.

Apart from their individual roles, the identified categories should be considered as a planning team responsible for dealing with the various stages of a construction project.

Methodology.

The stages in a construction project are:

• Concept and feasibility. • Design and planning. • Tender/selection stage. • Construction phase. • Commissioning and handover.

In addition to the method statements, which many re putable construction companies have adopted, the following additional documents are now required by the Regulations:

• Notification of Project Form. • Health and Safety Plan. • Health and Safety File.

The CDM Regulations apply to all notifiable construction work, i.e. work with at least 30 days duration or involving more than 500 person days of work. They also apply to all non-notifiable work which involves five or more persons on site at any one time.

Design work and projects involving demolition are covered by the Regulations, regardless of the duration or number of workers involved.

Construction work carried out on domestic premises is excluded, provided the property is not used for business purposes. However, the designers' duties will continue to apply and the project must be notified to the HSE where necessary.

3.11 The Role of Design Professionals in Influencin g Construction Site Safety.

The role of the design professional has traditionally been to design a building, facility, or structure such that it conforms with accepted engineering practices, local building codes and is safe for the public. The safety of construction workers is left up to the contractors. However, design professionals can influence construction safety by making better choices in the design and planning stages of a project. This would result in fewer site decisions that have to be made by contractors and workers that can lead to accidents (the root causes previously mentioned).

Research suggests that designers can in fact have a strong influence on construction safety. In 1985 the International Labour Office recommended that designers give consideration to the safety of workers who will be involved in erecting buildings. In 1991 the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions concluded that about 60% of fatal accidents in construction are the result of decisions made before the site work begins. In 1994, a study of the United Kingdom's construction industry found a causal link between design decisions and safe construction.



3.11 The Role of Design Professionals in Influencin g Construction Site Safety.

Time/Safety Influence Curve (From Behm) The ability to influence safety diminishes as schedule moves toward start-up.

3.12 Legal, Economic and Moral Obligations to Third Parties.

This study unit has examined the legal obligations owed to third persons under health and safety management systems, but what about moral obligations?

The legal obligation emanated from basic moral principles and especially the duty of care we owe to our "neighbours" recognised by common law and restated by Lord Atkin in Donoghue v. Stevenson (1932), which is also known as 'the one with the snail'.

In that case, the House of Lords ruled that a person might owe a duty of care to another person even if there was no contractual relationship between the parties. It was held that every person owes a duty of care to his neighbour, "to persons so closely and directly affected by my act that I ought reasonably to have them in contemplation as being so affected".

Since 1932, there has been further case law on the subject but the general principle remains unaffected.

It is considered that a duty of care exists where:

• There is a sufficient relationship of proximity or neighbourhood between the parties (defendant and claimant).

• The defendant should be reasonably able to foresee that carelessness on his part may damage the claimant.

• The law should allow that duty to result in liability.

It is quite clear that there is a moral imperative which "obliges" us to look after other people, but because of the complexities of modern society we now have legislation which provides standards by which we look after the physical well-being of our neighbours - the young, the elderly, the physically and mentally handicapped and the visitor who may enter our premises and workplaces, completely oblivious to the hazards which may lurk there.

It might be asked that if there is this moral obligation, is there a need for so much legislation? Unfortunately



3.12 Legal, Economic and Moral Obligations to Third Parties.

there is; the catalogue of disasters which have occurred during the last few years - the Bradford Football Stadium fire, with 56 fatalities; the Kings Cross fire, with 39 dead; the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise ferry at Zeebrugge with the loss of 188 lives and the collision on the Thames involving the Marchioness where 51 people were killed - to recognise that moral values by themselves are not enough to protect the vulnerable from the dangers of modern day living.

Apart from moral and legal obligations to third parties, there is another consideration, and that is the economic factor. What are the economic implications of neglect of health and safety in the workplace?

Looking at the wider picture, the costs nationally are enormous. According to a statement by the CBI, in 1996 187 million working days were lost due to sickness or 8.4 working days per employee. During the same year. according to TUC estimates, workplace injuries and ill-health cost every family £21 per week in extra taxes, high prices and loss of income to victims. Over a period of ten years in the construction industry alone according to HSE figures, 88 members of the public have been killed and a further 1,300 seriously injured. Economic considerations are two-fold. Accidents resulting from poor health and safety management result in huge financial losses to everyone concerned. Poor health and safety management is often itself caused by the serious lack of economic resources available for health and safety purposes both at national and workplace levels.

According to the Director General of the British Safety Council:

"The consequences of poor safety management are 33 million working days lost through work-related illness and accidents and an estimated £16 million a year lost to the economy" (Safety Management, October 1997).

It is not a difficult management exercise to compare the costs of preventing accidents with the costs arising from them (compensation, lost production, increased insurance premiums, overtime, legal fees, fines, etc.) but the simple logic appears to escape many boardrooms. Perhaps it is the fact that a cost is tangible and visible, whilst a saving is something hypothetical that cannot be quantified until it happens, often sometime into the future. Businesses tend to think in the here and now and it is not surprising that they tend to focus on the bottom line, to the exclusion of other, more meritorious matters.

Prevention of accidents and ill-health is a worthwhile investment which attracts enormous dividends both for the individual employer and the national economy as a whole.

4.0 Internal Consultation.

Here we deal with internal consultation and the provision of information. This area must be considered in terms of legal requirements, as well as effective health and safety management.

Whilst formal consultation on health and safety is necessary within the workplace, always remember the importance of informal communications in the organisation. The role of the health and safety professional and of safety representatives is also significant.

These are all topics that we shall discuss in this penultimate study unit, as well as the various relevant statutory provisions: ILO C155 Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981, ILO R164 Occupational Safety and Health Recommendation ,1981, the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and the Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996.

We shall look at the provision of information in the next study unit. 4.1 Communication and Consultation in the Workplace .

Although there had been vestiges of consultation in the mining industry since 1872, which were reinforced in the Mines and Quarries Act 1954, it was not until the 1960s that workers were voluntarily involved in joint



4.1 Communication and Consultation in the Workplace .

safety committees.

The Robens Committee, in compiling its Report, looked closely at the importance of communication and consultation between employer and employee in the workplace, and it is probably accurate to say that formal consultation in the modern era started in the 1970s.

Robens made the following observations:

The Involvement of Workers. "We have stressed that the promotion of safety and health at work is first and foremost a matter of efficient management. But it is not a management prerogative. In this context more than most, real progress is impossible without the full cooperation and commitment of all employees."

A Statutory Requirement to Consult. "It is generally accepted that there is no credible way of measuring the value of consultative and participatory arrangements in terms of their direct effect upon day-to-day safely performance.

''Nevertheless, most of the employers, inspectors, trade unionists and others with whom we discussed the subject are in no doubt about the importance of bringing workers more directly into the actual work of self-inspection and self-regulation by the individual firm.

''We recommend, therefore, that there should be a statutory duty on every employer to consult with his employees or their representatives at the workplace on measures for promoting safety and health at work and to provide arrangements for the participation of employees in the development of such measures."

Formal Consultation.

During the period of the Robens Committee deliberat ions, an "Industrial Relations Code of Practice" was published in 1971; the two main theme s which underlie the Code are:

• The vital role of collective bargaining carried out in a reasonable and constructive manner between employers and strong trade unions.

• The importance of good human relations, based on trust and confidence, between employers and employees in every establishment.

The Code suggests that:

"good industrial relations are a joint responsibility. They need the continuing cooperation of all concerned - management, employers' associations, trade unions and individual employees - and the discussion of day-to-day problems as they occur. The Code is designed to encourage and assist that cooperation."

It is worth looking at the communication and consultations sections of the Code as they form the basis of subsequent consultation principles embodied in legislation in 1974, 1977, 1992 and 1996.

Industrial Relations Code of Practice

Communication

In its day-to-day conduct of business, management needs both to give information to employees and to receive information from them. Effective arrangements should be made to facilitate this two-way flow. The most important method of communication is by word of mouth, through personal contact between each manager and his immediate work group or individual employees, and between managers and employee representatives.



4.1 Communication and Consultation in the Workplace .

Personal contact should be supplemented as necessar y by:

• Written information provided through, for example, notice boards, house journals or handbooks. • Training, particularly induction courses for new employees. • Meetings arranged for special purposes.

Subject to limitations on disclosure of information, management should regularly provide employees with information about, the performance and plans both of the establishment and, so far as they affect it, of the undertaking of organisational and management changes which affect employees.

Management should ensure that:

• Managers, including supervisors, regard it as one of their principal duties to explain management's policies and intentions to those responsible to them, and have the information ready to do so.

• Work instructions are conveyed clearly.

Management, in cooperation with employee representa tives, should:

• Provide opportunities for employees to discuss matters affecting their jobs with those to whom they are responsible.

• Ensure that managers are kept informed of the views of employees and of the problems which they may face in meeting management's objectives.

Consultation.

Where committees are set up, management and employe e representatives should agree on:

• The composition, objectives and functions of the committee and of the sectional and functional subcommittees.

• The arrangements for the election or nomination of representatives. • The rules of procedure. • Following up on Section 2 of the 1974 Act, the legislators gave statutory effect to safety

representatives and safety committees in the 1977 Regulations.

The range of subjects to be covered. 4.2 Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regula tions 1977.

Safety Representatives: Appointment, Powers and Dut ies. Under Section 2(4) of HSWA, safety representatives may be appointed, under regulations made by the Secretary of State, by recognised trade unions. These regulations are the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977. The Regulations are accompanied by an Approved Code of Practice and Guidance.

Notes. In addition, there is a separate Approved Code of Practice on Time Off for the Training of Safety Representatives. It is worth noting that the Offshore Installations (Safety Representatives and Safety Committees) Regulations 1989 allow for the appointment of non-union safety representatives on offshore installations, and EU influence is likely to exert pressure on the UK to relax the "recognised union" conditions.

The representatives are chosen from the employees. They are usually selected from persons who have at least two years' experience with their employer or in similar employment, but this is not mandatory. The employer must give the representative time off with pay for the purpose of carrying out his/her functions as a safety representative, and for training.



4.2 Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regula tions 1977.

A duty lies on the employer under Section 2(6) of HSWA to consult the representative(s):

"with a view to the making and maintenance of arrangements which will enable him and his employees to cooperate effectively in promoting and developing measures to ensure the health and safety at work of the employees, and in checking the effectiveness of such measures."

Note that this requirement is not optional; the duty is an absolute one.

(a) Main Functions. The main function of a safety representative is to represent the employees in consultations with the employer. Other functions include the right to carry out inspections of the workplace, to look at the causes of accidents, to receive information from the health and safety inspectors and to attend meetings of the safety committee.

Safety representatives also have the right to ask for, and receive from, the employer certain information (see later) which relates to the place of work. Such information would include records of accidents and information relating to hazards. However, certain information is not available to the representatives, e.g. concerning national security or personal/medical information relating to any recognisable individual without that individual's permission. The employer must also inform the safety representatives of the name(s) of the person(s) nominated to act in an emergency, provide any health and safety information on the planning and organisation of health and safety, any health and safety training and the health and safety consequences of new technology.

Representatives do not have powers to stop either work or machinery; they may only advise in such matters.

(b) Appointment by Recognised Independent Trade Uni on. A safety representative may be appointed only by a recognised, independent trade union if he is to receive the legal rights given under the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations (SR & SC Regs). To be an independent trade union, it must be on the list held by the Certification Officer and have applied for, and received, the Certificate of Independence from him.

To be recognised, the trade union must be acknowledged by the employer for negotiating purposes. However, there does not have to be a formal agreement concerning recognition as each case will be decided on the basis of the facts. The trade union must, though, notify the employer in writing of the appointment of a safety representative in order that that representative may receive his legal rights.

No legal stipulation exists as to the number of saf ety representatives that may be appointed, but the Guidance Notes accompanying the SR & SC Regs give t he following criteria which trade unions should follow:

• Look at the total number of employees. • Look at the various work activities. • Look at the size of the workplace and the variety of workplace locations. • Is a shift system in operation? • What is the type of work activity and the degree and character of any inherent danger?

The Regulations specify that a safety representativ e shall cease to be one in the following circumstances:

• When the trade union notifies the employer in writing that the appointment has ceased. • When he ceases to be employed at the workplace. • When he resigns.



4.2 Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regula tions 1977.

(c) Summary of Duties.

Among the functions of the safety representative, t he SR & SC Regs mention the following:

• To investigate potential hazards at the workplace. • To investigate complaints by an employee he represents. • To make representations to the employer. • To carry out inspections. • To consult with HSE inspectors. • To receive information from inspectors. • To attend safety committee meetings.

Safety representatives are entitled to inspect the workplace, or part of it, on three occasions:

• If they have not inspected it within the previous three months. • Where there has been substantial change in the conditions of work. • After a notifiable accident, dangerous occurrence or notifiable illness, as specified in the Reporting

of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR).

The safety representatives shall notify the employer of their intention to carry out an inspection, where it is reasonably practicable. The employer shall provide such facilities and assistance, including facilities for independent investigation and private discussion, as the safety representatives may reasonably require.

It is worth noting that, apart from the general duty placed on him as an employee, no safety representative is legally responsible for accepting the course of action taken by his employer, nor is the representative in any danger of criminal proceedings being taken against him should he omit to carry out any of his functions.

By the same token, it must be clearly understood that such protection will only be afforded to a representative whilst acting in his jurisdiction as such.

4.3 Entitlement to Information.

On reasonable notice being given, the employer must allow the safety representatives to inspect and take copies of any document relevant to the workplace or to the employees whom they represent and which the employer is required to keep by virtue of any relevant statutory provision. (Remember that relevant statutory provisions are listed in the Schedules to HSWA).

Safety representatives are entitled to receive information, under Regulation 7(2) of the SR & SC Regs, from employers. The employer must make available information, within his knowledge, which is necessary to enable the safety representative to perform his function.

However, the employer need not disclose information which:

• Is against the interests of national security. • Would contravene a prohibition imposed by, or under, an enactment. • Relates specifically to an individual, unless he consents to its disclosure. • Other than for its effects on health and safety, would cause substantial injury to the undertaking. • Has been obtained by the employer for the purposes of bringing, or defending, any legal

proceedings.

In Waugh v. British Railways Board (1980), it was held that, to be privileged, the document must have been prepared for the dominant purpose of possible use in litigation. Thus an accident report, prepared as routine practice, would not be privileged if it were later used in a legal proceeding.

Safety representatives are also entitled to receive information from inspectors under Section 28(8) of




HSWA. However, the inspector must not give information which he judges to be irrelevant to the health and safety of the employees. In addition, the inspector must give a copy to the employer of any information given to the safety representative.

The above is, of course, only a brief outline of the Regulations, but it is sufficient for examination purposes.

Enforcement of Rights.

A safety representative may complain to an industri al tribunal that:

• The employer has not permitted him time off for the purpose of carrying out his functions or receiving training.

• The employer has failed to pay him for his time off.

In general, the training will be provided by the TUC or the safety representative's own trade union and not by the employer, although the latter still has a duty to train the individual as an employee under Section 2 of HSWA. However, the requirement for trade union approved training is in the Approved Code of Practice and does not represent an absolute legal duty.

In White v. Pressed Steel Fisher Ltd (1980) the union wanted the safety representative to attend its own training course: the employers wanted to provide an in-house course and refused time off with pay. It was held that the employers were not acting unreasonably. Where the safety representative is to attend a union course, the management can request a copy of the syllabus.

The enforcement of other duties in the Act and Regulations is the responsibility of the appropriate enforcing authority.

However, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will not usually go into immediate enforcement of breaches of the SR & SC Regulations, but will try t he following methods first:

• Give relevant advice to the company. • Explore the services of the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS). • Explore the mechanism offered by the employment tribunals.

We may note in passing that, to date, very few cases have arisen under breaches of the SR & SC Regulations.

Safety Committees. A duty is placed on the employer, under the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations, when so requested in writing by at least two safety representatives, to establish a safety committee within three months following the request.

Again, consultation with those representatives who made the request shall be made by the employer. Representatives of trade unions will also have to be consulted.

The function of the safety committee is to keep under review the measures taken to ensure the health and safety at work of the employees, and such other functions as may be prescribed.

(a) Composition and Functions. The composition of the committee is a matter for the employer, although he must have at least one safety representative on it, and post a notice stating the composition of the committee.

Apart from Section 2(7) of HSWA, which requires the committee to review the measures taken to ensure the health and safety of employees, there are no other legal requirements concerning the committee's




function. However, the Guidance Notes contain useful information which can be referred to.

(b) Membership. Membership of the safety committee should be decided following consultations between representatives of the trade unions and the management. Safety representatives are not appointed by this committee.

It is essential that a proper balance be achieved in the structure of the safety committee. No firm lines are laid down in this respect, but obviously a committee of this nature should have as its members persons both from the management sector and from the shop floor. It may be useful to elect ex officio members, e.g. the medical officer or one of his staff, the works engineer, the production manager and the safety practitioner. The aim is to keep membership of the committee reasonably compact, and to ensure a mechanism exists for the consideration and implementation of recommendations by senior management. Although not having executive power, the committee has a strong advisory role to play in the management and resolution of an organisation's health and safety problems.

The committee should meet on a regular basis, circulate an agenda in advance, and keep proper minutes which record what action is to be taken and by whom.

In the original 1974 Act, there was a Section 2(5) which allowed for the appointment of safety representatives who were not members of recognised trade unions as prescribed by Section 2(4). This section was repealed, however, leaving the trade union safety representative as the only recognised representative provided under the legislation. Obviously this meant that companies who did not have a recognised trade union within the workforce were not legally obliged to allow any safety representations from amongst their employees, although many of the better companies did so as they recognised their value in the management process.

Although the 1974 Act appeared on the surface to open the way for democratic representation and consultation, the repeal of Section 2(5) and the limiting of representation to members of "recognised trade unions" did not help members of trade unions who were not recognised, or employees who had no trade union affiliation whatsoever. It took a further 19 years before statutory representation was extended to non-union members. Again, it was the influence of EC membership which brought about the change. It was affected because of the UK's difficulty in complying fully with the Framework Directive 89/391/EEC. This Directive was the basis for the "Six Pack" and encouraged the implementation of improved health and safety measures including the provision of information to, and consultation with, all employees on matters of health and safety.

In 1994, the UK government finally agreed that consultation with recognised trade union representatives only did not comply with the law, and as a result the 1996 Regulations were enacted.

4.4 Health & Safety Consultation with Employees.

ILO Occupational Safety and Health Convention (C155 ), Article 20 and ILO Occupational Safety and Health Recommendation (R164) have published information on consultation with employees.

R164 Occupational Safety and Health Recommendation, 1981 requires:

1. 12.(1) 'the measures taken to facilitate the co-operation referred to in Article 20 of the Convention should include, where appropriate and necessary, the appointment, in accordance with national practice, of workers' safety delegates, of workers' safety and health committees, and/or of joint safety and health committees; in joint safety and health committees workers should have at least equal representation with employers' representatives.'

2. 12.(2) Workers' safety delegates, workers' safety a nd health committees, and joint safety and health committees or, as appropriate, other workers ' representatives should:

o (a) Be given adequate information on safety and health matters, enabled to examine factors affecting safety and health, and encouraged to propose measures on the subject.

o (b) Be consulted when major new safety and health measures are envisaged and before




they are carried out, and seek to obtain the support of the workers for such measures. o (c) Be consulted in planning alterations of work processes, work content or organisation of

work, which may have safety or health implications for the workers. o (d) Be given protection from dismissal and other measures prejudicial to them while

exercising their functions in the field of occupational safety and health as workers' representatives or as members of safety and health committees.

o (e) Be able to contribute to the decision-making process at the level of the undertaking regarding matters of safety and health.

o (f) Have access to all parts of the workplace and be able to communicate with the workers on safety and health matters during working hours at the workplace.

o (g) Be free to contact labour inspectors. o (h) Be able to contribute to negotiations in the undertaking on occupational safety and health

matters. o (i) Have reasonable time during paid working hours to exercise their safety and health

functions and to receive training related to these functions. o (j) Have recourse to specialists to advise on particular safety and health problems.

We will now look at the UK's Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Reg ulations 1996 for a fuller outline of how this can be practised.

The Regulations became effective on 1 October 1996. They implemented provisions made by the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requiring employers to consult with safety representatives, in good time, on various matters.

You should note that these Regulations extend consultation to non-union representatives of employee safety.

In non-union workplaces, consultation must take pla ce on the following:

• Introduction of any measure affecting the health and safety of the employees concerned. • The appointment of persons nominated to provide health and safety assistance, and assist in

emergency procedures (as required by Regulations 6 and 7 of the 1992 Management Regulations). • Any health and safety training or information the employer is required to provide to the employees

or the safety representatives. • The health and safety consequences of the planning and introduction of new technologies in the

workplace. • Provision of any relevant information required on health and safety legislation.

Consultation. Employers may consult employees directly through employee representatives elected by a group of employees. Where consultation is through such employee representatives, the employer must inform the employees of the names of those representatives, and the group of employees they represent. Employees must also be told when the employer discontinues consultation with those employee representatives.

Discontinuation may occur when:

• (a) The employee represntatives have informed the employer that they no longer intend to represent their group of employees in health and safety consultations.

• (b) The employee representatives no longer work in the group of employees they represent. • (c) The period of election elapsed without the employee representatives being re-elected. • (d) Employee representatives have become incapacitated from performing the duties required under

these Regulations.

Employees and their representatives must be informed by the employer if he decides to change from




consulting with the employee representatives to consulting with the employees directly.

Provision of Information. Where consultation is direct, employers must provide all information the employees will require in order to participate fully in the consultations. The same applies to employee representatives, who must be given all necessary information to enable them to perform their functions and participate in consultation.

In addition, these employee representatives must also be provided with information associated with the records to be kept under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR), where the information relates to the workplace of the employees they represent (but not to individual employees).

The employer is not obliged to disclose information that:

• Does not relate to health and safety. • Is against the interests of national security. • Would contravene any prohibition imposed under any legislation. • Relates specifically to an individual (unless that individual has given his or her consent). • Would damage the employer's undertaking, or the undertaking of another person where that other

person supplied the information, or that has been obtained by the employer for the purpose of any legal proceedings.

Functions of Representatives of Employee Safety.

Employee representatives may make representations to the employer on any hazards, dangerous occurrences and general health and safety matters, particularly in relation to the matters on which employers are obliged to consult, which may affect the health and safety of the employees they represent. They may also represent their group of employees in consultations with enforcing authority inspectors.

Training, Time Off and Provision of Facilities.

Employers must provide employee representatives with appropriate training and other relevant facilities so as to enable the representatives to carry out their duties efficiently. Employers must also meet all reasonable costs associated with the training, including travel and subsistence. In addition, the employee representatives must be given paid time off to perform their safety duties, and to attend relevant training courses. Paid time off must also be provided for candidates standing for election as employee representatives to allow them to perform their duties as candidates.

If employers refuse to allow employee representatives time off with pay to fulfil their duties, the representatives may complain to an employment tribunal.

Miscellaneous Provisions. The Employment Rights Act 1996 has been amended to protect employees who participate in consultation with employers, from suffering any detriment or unfair dismissal in health and safety cases. The Regulations may not be used in civil proceedings for a breach of duty under these Regulations.

4.5 Other Forms of Consultation/Communication.

Informal Consultation. From a study of the preceding formal processes of consultation, you might take the view that there is no need for informal consultation. Yet, when we where looking at formal and informal organisations (earlier), in many ways the informal route was often more effective in getting things done. Bear in mind that the 1996 Regulations permit employers to consult employees "directly" without the need to go through union or employee representative channels but give little indication as to how this should be done.



4.5 Other Forms of Consultation/Communication.

Direct consultation would involve a certain amount of bureaucratic procedure to ensure communication and feed-back with every member of staff and would still therefore be considered a formal arrangement.

How, then, does informal consultation take place? If you look back at the Industrial Relations Code of Practice, you will see that "the most important method of communication is by word of mouth, through personal contact between each manager and his immediate work group or individual employees, and between managers and employee representatives".

These opportunities for personal contact occur almost daily in the various meetings which take place between management and employee - workplace inspections, tool-box talks, induction training, safety audits, even staff appraisals. Individuals will often express genuine personal feelings in a one-to-one situation when free from peer group pressure in a more open manner than in a group.

Peer Groups. We are all members of groups, unless we are peculiarly reclusive. The golf, tennis, darts, bowls clubs, etc. are all groups to which we belong and consciously or unconsciously, we adapt to their norms. What we are actually doing is responding to peer group pressure.

A peer group is a group of individuals of a similar age or background, or who have some similar social characteristics in common, with whom a person mixes in a social context. The workplace is just such a group and we behave, again knowingly or unknowingly, in accordance with the collective, accepted behaviour of the group. Within the group, individuals can be guided into patterns of behaviour by processes of which they are largely unaware. Thus the peer group is a socialising force where the process is carried out by the equals of the individual rather than by his supervisors or managers.

It has long been recognised that the peer group is a powerful force for conformity and represents a system of rewards and punishments often manifested in approval or disapproval. Individuals accept the norms and values of friends or colleagues (peers). If these norms are oriented in favour of encouraging good health and safety practices in the workplace, an individual entering that group will normally react or respond by accepting those same values.

Safety Circles. Safety circles are small groups of employees - not safety representatives or members of safety committees - who meet informally to discuss safety problems in their immediate working environment. The idea is based on the "quality circles" concept, and allows the sharing of ideas and the suggestion of solutions. Any insurmountable problem would be referred to the safety representative or safety committee.

Works and Office Committees. These committees are composed of shop floor representatives, supervisory and management staff who meet once a week (normally) to discuss general matters affecting the conduct of the undertaking. Matters for discussion would typically include shift patterns, maintenance and breakdown procedures, and production targets. It is difficult to discuss any of these without impinging on health and safety requirements and although not an objective of such meetings, health and safety policies and arrangements would come under examination. Again, any health and safety problems identified would probably be referred to senior management through the safety representative or safety committee.

4.6 The Role of the Safety Professional in the Cons ultative Process.

The Safety Professional.

We examined the role of the Safety Professional previously. In the HSE publication "Successful Health and Safety Management", the role and functions of the health and safety adviser are described as follows.

Role and Functions of Health and Safety Advisers. Organisations that successfully manage health and safety give health and safety advisers the status and




ensure they have the competence to advise management and workers with authority and independence.

Subjects on which they advise include:

• Health and safety policy formulations and development. • Structuring and operating all parts of the organisation (including the supporting systems) in order to

promote a positive health and safety culture, and to secure the effective implementation of policy. • Planning for health and safety, including the setting of realistic short and long-term objectives,

deciding priorities and establishing adequate performance standards. • Day-to-day implementation and monitoring of policy and plans, including accident and incident

investigation, reporting and analysis. • Reviewing performance and auditing the whole safety management system.

To fulfil their functions they have to:

• (a) Maintain adequate information systems on relevant law (civil and criminal) and on guidance and developments in general and safety management practice.

• (b) Be able to interpret the law and understand how it applies to the organisation. • (c) Establish and keep up-to-date organisational and risk control standards relating to both

"hardware" (such as the place of work and the plans, substances and equipment in use) and "software" (such as procedures, systems and people) - this task is likely to involve contributions from specialists, e.g. architects, engineers, doctors, and occupational hygienists.

• (d) Establish and maintain procedures for the reporting, investigating and recording and analysis of accidents and incidents.

• (e) Establish and maintain adequate and appropriate monitoring and auditing systems. • (f) Present themselves and their advice in an independent and effective manner, safeguarding the

confidentiality of personal information such as medical records.

Relationships of the Adviser.

Within the Organisation. The position of health and safety advisers in the organisation is such that they support the provision of authoritative and independent advice. The post-holder has a direct reporting line to directors on matters of policy, and authority to stop work which is being carried out in contravention of agreed standards and which puts people at risk of injury. Health and safety advisers have responsibility for professional standards and systems, and on a large site or in a group of companies may also have line management responsibility for junior health and safety professionals.

Outside the Organisation. Health and safety advisers are involved in liaison with a wide range of outside bodies and individuals including: local authority environmental health officers and licensing officials; architects and consultants, etc; the fire service; contractors; insurance companies: clients and customers; the Health and Safety Executive; the public; equipment suppliers; HM Coroner or Procurator-Fiscal; the media; the police; general practitioners; hospital staff.

You can see that this is a very wide brief and indicates that the safety professional requires a broad and extensive knowledge of health and safety matters in order to fulfil his duties. He is the organisation's first port of call when health and safety problems are encountered, and will give advice on short-term safety solutions to problems, and follow this through with perhaps a recommendation for a change in policy or the introduction of new technology or new/revised safe systems of work.

He will also recommend the services of outside expert consultancy where the problem requires scientific, medical or technical advice which is outside his area of expertise.

He may also be involved in safety committees, either in a chairing role or simply in an advisory capacity




during committee deliberations. It is interesting to note that in October 1997, a discussion document was circulated within health and safety circles concerning the role of the safety professional in the workplace. The term "safety professional" covers such diverse staff as safety advisers, occupational hygienists, doctors, nurses, safety managers, personnel officers, training officers, facilities managers, ergonomists, engineers and radiation protection advisers. The qualifications range from the highly-qualified doctor to the personnel manager who has completed perhaps a non-examination, three-day, basic health and safety awareness course.

The "professional" safety adviser needs to be a person with a wide range of abilities and a recognised safety qualification at degree level if possible, or at least an IOSH or BSc diploma in occupational safety and health. Another problem lies in the reporting arrangements for the health and safety adviser. Does he/should he report to a main board director? Should he have any direct influence on line managers? The sensible answer to both questions is "yes" but the outcome of the discussion is awaited with interest.

4.7 Behavioural Aspects of Consultation.

In any social group, conflict may arise between two or more people, interest groups, genders, ethnic or racial groups, etc. Obviously, where there are assemblies of people in the workplace, there may be conflict within and between groups. The safety committee member "A" serves on the committee to represent his department or perhaps a particular group of workers with common skills. Similarly, committee member "B" represents his department members.

A and B, although sharing a common membership of the safety committee, may well be pursuing different objectives. They may both be seeking improved health and safety arrangements for their members but may be in competition for the allocation of limited resources to their particular project. The safety representative serving on a safety committee may see his role as one in which he feels the need to question and destructively criticise, as a matter of course, any suggestion advanced from a management representative on the committee. Remember, however, that the safety representative is a worker's representative and not part of the management team. Neither is he necessarily "a competent person". His perception of health and safety problems will be different from that of management and not constrained by budgeting considerations. His role is primarily a policing one in which he monitors the safety performance of management and, because of peer group pressure, he may see himself in a conflicting rather than cooperative role.

The safety representative can sometimes acquire delusions of grandeur and perceive himself as an expert on health and safety matters. Conflict may arise between the safety representative and the first line supervisor where the safety representative may have advised (wrongly) his members not to carry out a particular management instruction. Indeed, in the printing industry in the years prior to the Wapping newspaper dispute (National Newspapers), management instructions to the shopfloor had to be channelled through the Father of the Chapel (union representative) who was invariably accompanied by the safety representative. This is not to say that conflict always arises as a result of worker attitude towards management. The converse is equally true with management taking the view that their opinions are correct simply because they are management and know better.

Consultation about problems where the views of all the participants are considered should lead to a lessening of conflict and arrival at effective decisions.

4.8 Positive Consultation.

We have been discussing consultation at some length , but what does it mean? Dictionary definitions include the following:

Consult:

• To seek advice or information. • To consider in company. • to take counsel. • To give or receive professional advice.



4.8 Positive Consultation.

• To confer with two or more in counsel.

We all have one or more of those definitions in mind whenever we see the word "consultation", but what about "positive consultation"?

Some management believe that informing the workforce after they have decided to introduce some new technology or downsize the company by means of a redundancy programme is "consultation".

This it is certainly not. Consultation means to discuss (with others) a given agenda, and to give or receive information or advice about that agenda prior to taking any action or arriving at decisions about possible courses of action.

Positive consultation is based on willingness on both sides - employer and employee - to consider problems together, to make use of each other's knowledge and expertise and to apply that collective wisdom to the problem in hand.

As long ago as 1972, the CBI and TUC, in a joint st atement about health and safety, stated:

"There must be a genuine desire on the part of management to tap the knowledge and experience of its employees, to the advantage of the company and all concerned, and an equally genuine desire on the part of the employees to improve the safety performance and health conditions in their own and the company's interest".

The emphasis in positive consultation must be on prior or before the event consultation, followed by effective decision-making based on the collective expertise and knowledge drawn from both sides.

It is worth noting that the legislators have concentrated on the concept of prior consultation in enacting the 1996 legislation when they state that the employer is obliged to consult "in good time" with the safety representative or elected representative of employee safety on the following matters:

• The introduction of any new measure at a workplace which may substantially affect health and safety.

• Arrangements for appointing competent persons to assist the employer with health and safety and for implementing procedures relating to serious and imminent danger.

• Any health and safety information that the employer is required to provide he planning and organisation of health and safety training and health and safety implications of the introduction, or planned introduction, of any new technology.

We have said that consultation, to be positive, has to be a "joint" and "prior to the event" enterprise.

The above points outline management's role in the consultative process, but the representatives themselves must be proactive in promoting and encouraging a health and safety culture amongst their colleagues.

To do this, they must keep themselves informed of developments in health and safety, encourage cooperation between employees and the employer in the promotion of any measures designed to improve health and safety in the workplace and above all lead by example.

4.9 Contribution of the Safety Representatives and Safety Committee Members.

We outlined the duties of the safety representative and safety committee member earlier in the study unit, but how can you quantify their contribution to the management of health and safety in their organisation? Each of them is concerned with similar problems in the workplace:

• Health. • Safety.



4.9 Contribution of the Safety Representatives and Safety Committee Members.

• Welfare.

The working environment. Each safety representative and committee member must have some knowledge of current legislation on health, safety and welfare, and be aware of the relevant standards relating to such matters as noise, machine guarding, display screen equipment, manual handling, lighting, cleanliness and maintenance, heating, canteen and toilet facilities, etc.

The safety representative is probably better informed on these matters than the average safety committee member, and has a proactive role in representing the day-to-day interests of his members.

The safety committee member has more of a reactive role in that he/she responds to incidents, accidents, and reported problems usually some time after the event. The safety committee member probably attends meetings of the committee on a monthly or even quarterly basis, during which he/she will examine incident and accident reports, hazard reports arising from safety inspections and the results of investigations into accidents and dangerous occurrences. Other issues, such as results of tests for noise, toxicity, etc, may also be examined and discussed.

Very often, the company safety policy arrangements will include instructions to be followed by employees who wish to complain about some aspect of health and safety. Bear in mind that the safety committee is a forum for discussion and for the resolution of problems on which the safety representative has failed to reach agreement with line management.

The normal chain of events would be as follows:

• (a) Employee complains to line management - problem remains unresolved. • (b) Safety representative complains to line management on employee's behalf - problem remains

unresolved. • (c) Matter is referred to the safety committee:

o Matter resolved - no further action. o Matter unresolved - referred to senior management by resolution of committee.

The safety policy will also advise that urgent health and safety matters must not be delayed until the next meeting of the safety committee but referred immediately to senior management by the safety representative.

It is clear from these arrangements that the safety representative and safety committee member have complementary roles which, if followed correctly, play a very effective part in the good health and safety management of any organisation.

5.0 Provision of Information & Development of Infor mation Systems.

INTRODUCTION.

In this section, we will examine some of the requirements and obligations for the provision of information by employers and manufacturers to employees and users.

Most ILO Member Nations have legislation which places general duties on designers, manufacturers, importers or suppliers of articles and substances used at work. This duty includes the need to provide information about the need to take such steps as necessary to ensure that those who are supplied with the article or substances are provided with adequate information about the use for which the article is designed or has been tested.

R164 Occupational Safety and Health Recommendation, 1981 places a requirement on member Nations:



5.0 Provision of Information & Development of Infor mation Systems.

15.(2) Employers should be required to keep such records relevant to occupational safety and health and the working environment as are considered necessary by the competent authority or authorities; these might include records of all notifiable occupational accidents and injuries to health which arise in the course of or in connection with work, records of authorisation and exemptions under laws or regulations to supervision of the health of workers in the undertaking, and data concerning exposure to specified substances and agents.

ORIGIN OF THE INFORMATION PRINCIPLE/

We touched briefly on this important subject earlier when we looked at Section 2 of the HSWA 1974. It is the origin of the information principle from which all subsequent statutory information requirements stem, and is worth repeating here:

Section 2:

1. It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.

2. Without prejudice to the generality of an employer's duty under the preceding subsection, the matters to which that duty extends include in particular: the provision of such information, instructions, training and supervision as is necessary to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of his employees.

3. It shall be the duty of every employer to prepare, a written statement of his general policy, and to bring the statement and any revisions of it to the notice of all of his employees."

You will see, as we progress through this study unit, that the obligation to provide information is almost multi-directional. Employers must obviously provide it to employees, but what about contractors, visitors, customers, temporary workers, etc? What form should such "information" take? The language in which it is printed assumes great importance in a multi-ethnic workforce.

Advice in the Code of Practice accompanying the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 emphasises the need for comprehensible information capable of being understood by the employees to whom it is addressed.

It almost goes without saying that there is little point in having a safe system of work, safe machinery and safe management policies unless management or the employer provides the workforce, contractors and visitors with the necessary information to continue to operate safely in the working environment.

There are therefore a considerable number of statutory obligations concerned with the provision of safety information. Not all the obligations are concerned with the employer's duties. The provision of information is a complex problem, and as it has featured in examinations,it is worth looking at in some detail. It is best for us to look at it in terms of specific legislation: who must provide it, for what purpose, and to whom it is to be conveyed.

5.1 Tabulation of Statutory Regulations.

In order to examine the information requirements, w e have tabulated the relevant statutory regulations here for ease of reference.

Regulation Duty placed upon: To supply information to:

Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974

Employers Employees: Adequate, so far as is reasonably practicable, to ensure their health and safety at work.

Employees: Absolute duty, if 5 or more employed, to



5.1 Tabulation of Statutory Regulations.

Employers prepare written safety policy and to bring it, and any revision of it, to the notice of employees.

Employers

Safety representatives: To consult with safety representatives concerning arrangements allowing effective cooperation over measures ensuring health and safety at the workplace.

Employers and the self-employed

Non-employees: To provide information to non-employees in cases which have yet to be prescribed.

Persons in control of premises

Non-employees: To supply information to non-employees concerning safe access to and egress from premises.

HSE inspector

Employees: Must disclose information to employees or their appointed representatives if necessary to keep them informed about matters affecting their health and safety at work. The inspector must not disclose information otherwise, except to take out legal proceedings arising from an accident.

Employment medical advisory service (EMAS)

Employers, employees and their representatives and those seeking training or employment, advice on matters concerning safeguarding and improving the health of employed persons and those seeking employment and training.

As amended by Consumer Protection Act

Designers, manufacturers, suppliers and importers.

Users: To provide information to users concerning the safe use of articles and substances at work.

Any person

A local authority inspector, regarding any information relevant to any examination or investigation.

Any person

A local authority inspector, on the understanding that the information supplied will be inadmissible evidence against the person supplying.

Any person

HSE or any enforcing authority, when HSE request with the consent of the Secretary of State for Education and Employment.

Amendments made by the Consumer Protection Act 1987 to HSWA 1974: 5.2 Tabulation of Statutory Regulations (cont'd).

"(1) It shall be the duty of any person who designs , manufactures, imports or supplies any article



5.2 Tabulation of Statutory Regulations (cont'd).

for use at work or any article of fairground equipm ent:

(c) to take such steps as are necessary to secure that persons supplied by that person with the article are provided with adequate information about the use for which the article is designed or has been tested, and about any conditions necessary to ensure that it will be safe and without risks to health at all such times as are mentioned in paragraph (a) above and when it is being dismantled or disposed of, and (d) to take such steps as are necessary to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons so supplied are provided with all such revisions of information provided to them by virtue of the preceding paragraph as are necessary by reason of its becoming known that anything gives rise to a serious risk to health or safety.

(IA) It shall he the duty of any person who designs , manufactures, imports or supplies any article of fairground equipment:

(c) to take such steps as are necessary to secure that persons supplied by that person with the article are provided with adequate information about the use for which the article is designed or has been tested, and about any conditions necessary to ensure that it will be safe and without risks to health at all times when it is being used for or in connection with the entertainment of members of the public; and (d) to take such steps as are necessary to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons so supplied are provided with all such revisions of information provided to them and by virtue of the preceding paragraph as are necessary by reason of its becoming known that anything gives rise to a serious risk to health or safety.

(4) (c) To take such steps as are necessary to secure that persons supplied by that person with the substance are provided with adequate information about any risks to health and safety to which the inherent properties of the substance may give rise, about the results of any relevant tests which have been carried out on or in connection with the substance and about any conditions necessary to ensure that the substance will be safe and without risks to health at all times as are mentioned in paragraph (a) above and when the substance is being disposed of; and#

(d) To take such steps as are necessary to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons so supplied are provided with all such revisions of information provided to them by virtue of the preceding paragraph as are necessary by reason of its becoming known that anything gives rise to a serious risk to health or safety."


In order to examine the information requirements, we have tabulated the relevant statutory regulations here for ease of reference.

Regulation Duty placed upon:

To supply infomration to:

Safety Reps. and Safety Comms. Regulations 1977.

Representatives: To allow the representative to inspect and take copies of any document kept by statutory provision except where it relates to the health record of an identifiable individual. Also, information necessary for representatives to carry out their functions, except where:

• Disclosure is against interests of national security.

• Disclosure contravenes prohibition imposed by an enactment.

• Information relates to an individual, unless he consents.




• Disclosure, except for its effect on health and safety, would cause "substantial" injury to the undertaking.

• The information is to prosecute or defend a legal proceeding.

Employer

Employees who may be exposed to lead, concerning the risks involved.

Control of Lead at Work Regulations 1998.

Employer Employees involved in assessment, cleaning, use or maintenance of control measures and air monitoring concerning the risks involved.

Employer

Keep information concerning health hazards. General and specific control measures. Use of measures. Significance of air and biological monitoring. Medical surveillance. Use of Personal Protective Equipment. Cleanliness and personal hygiene. Medical examinations and testing. Requirement to report defect in control measures.

Employer

New employees by way of leaflet "Lead & You".

Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981.

Employer

Employees: On the arrangements that have been made in connection with the provision of first aid including the names of personnel and locations of facilities and equipment.

Hazardous Installations: Notification of Installs. Handling Haz. Subs.Regulations 1982.

Site Operator

To notify the HSE (3 months' notice) in writing of intention to carry on activities involving a notifiable quantity of a hazardous substance.

Installation Operator

As above in the case of pipelines carrying a notifiable quantity of a hazardous substance. Tables of notifiable quantities are contained in the Regulations. Examples: Sites: Liquefied Petroleum Gas at a pressure greater than 1.4 bar 25 tonnes. At a pressure less than 1.4 50 tonnes Hydrogen 2 tonnes Ammonia 100 tonnes Pipelines: Gas flammable in air 15 tonnes




Liquefied gas flammable in air 50 tonnes

Manufacturer

To provide those working on the site with information, training and equipment and, if necessary, to document these.

Manufacturer

To provide the local authority with information relating to the industrial activity including nature, extent and likely effects off-site of a possible major accident.

Local authority

To provide the manufacturer with certain information from the off-site emergency plan.

Manufacturer

• (a) To provide persons outside the site who are likely to be affected by a major accident with information on how the effect of such accident may he limited.

• (b) To make such information publicly available.

Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2012.

Employer

Employees:

• (a) Those at risk so that they are aware of risks and necessary precautions.

• (b) Those who carry out work in connection with employer's duties.

Dangerous Substances in Harbour Areas Regulations 1987.

Employer

Employees: To ensure their health and safety and enable them to perform any operations in which they are involved with due regard to the health and safety of others.

Employer/Self-employed

To ensure that they have information concerning their health and safety and that of others.

Operator

Other employers/self-employed persons/others with the necessary information to ensure their health and safety and that of others whilst present on the berth.

Health and Safety Information for Employees Regulations 1989 (as Amended).

Employer

To provide em ployees with either:

• (a) The approved poster, or • (b) The approved leaflet (individually).

Employer

To provide employees by means of poster or leaflet with details of:

• (a) The name and address of the




enforcing authority for the premises; and

• (b) The address of the employment medical adviser for the area in which premises are situated.

Noise at Work Regulations 1989 (as Amended) ( The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005).

Employer

To provide any employee likely to be exposed to first or peak action levels with adequate information on:

• (a) Risk of damage to hearing. • (b) Steps to be taken to minimise risk. • (c) How to obtain personal ear

protection. • (d) The employer's obligation under the

Regulations.

Employees' obligations are:

• To use ear protection equipment. • Report any defects to the employer.

Designers, suppliers, manufacturers, importers

To provide information to users on the level of noise likely to be produced and measures to be taken to minimise exposure where noise levels are likely to exceed prescribed limits.

Amendments made by the Consumer Protection Act 1987 to HSWA 1974: 5.4 Tabulation of Statutory Regulations (cont'd).

The Noise at Work Regulations 2005 require a noise assessment to be carried out where exposure to noise is likely to exceed the first action level of 80 dB(A).

Where exposure is likely to be at or exceed the second action level (85 dB(A)), an employer must ensure that exposure is reduced to the lowest reasonably practicable level other than by provision of PPE.

Regulation 12 extends a duty to designers, manufacturers, suppliers and importers, requiring them to provide adequate information about the noise likely to be produced and measures necessary to minimise exposure wherever articles supplied are likely to exceed the prescribed limits. The Approved Code of Practice, which accompanies the Regulations, suggests that safety representatives should receive information and/or training about records, surveys and the relative importance of information and records. It recommends that exposure records are kept in a form intelligible to those likely to be exposed.

The Approved Code of Practice also lists the type o f information which should be disclosed, e.g. information relating to:

• The hazard. • The reason for the nature of the general control measures. • The specific control measures necessary in relation to each employee's job. • The arrangements necessary for reporting defects. • The legal duty to wear ear protection. • How to use such protectors, and their care and maintenance and.




• Employees' duties.

The Noise at Work Regulations 2005 will be covered in greater detail within unit B7.


To supply information to:

Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000.

Employer/Self- employed

Other employers/self-employed/others concerning modification or repair immediately after modification or repair is carried out.

Designer/Supplier

User concerning design, construction, examination, operation and maintenance of the design or of the pressure system/article.

Packaging of Explosives for Carriage Regulations 1991.

Employer/Self- employed

Employers/self-employed/others regarding the marking of all packages of explosives of nett mass not exceeding 400kg with the UN mark allocated for that design type of packaging by the competent authority.

Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992.

Employer

Employees who are "users" information on:

• (a) All aspects of health and safety relating to their workstation;

• (b) Measures taken to comply with Regulations 2 (risk assessment), 3 (workstations), 4 (breaks), 5 (eyes and eyesight) and 6 (training).

Employer

Users employed by other employers and operators at work in his undertaking information on:

• (a) All aspects of health and safety relating to their workstation;

• (b) Measures taken to comply with Regulations 2 and 3 for "users" only; Regulations 4 and 6(2) (training when workstation modified).

Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.

Employer

Employees: Adequate health and safety information including, where appropriate, written instructions pertaining to use, including:

• (a) Conditions and methods of use. • (b) Abnormal situations • (c) Conclusions drawn from

exp.erience if necessary to help prevent access to dangerous parts of




machinery.


Other workers: Adequate information including written instructions re use including:

• (a) Conditions and methods of use • (b) Abnormal situations • (c) Conclusions drawn from experience

if necessary to help prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery

Manual Handling Operations 1992.

Employer

Employees involved in manual handling operations with general indications and, if possible, precise information on the weight of a load and heaviest side where centre of gravity is not centrally positioned.

Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.


Employees:

• (a) Risks identified by the assessment. • (b) Preventive and protective

measures:

Procedures in event of serious and imminent danger. Competent persons for evacuation. Risks notified by other employers. Other workers:

• (a) Risks to health and safety arising from undertaking.

• (b) To enable them to identify competent persons for evacuation.

• (c) Any special skills required for safe working.

• (d) Any requirement for health surveillance.

Other employers/self -employed/others:

• (a) Risks to health and safety arising from the undertaking.

• (b) Compliance measures. • (c) To enable them to identify

competent persons for evacuation.(d) Any special skills required for safe working.

• (e) Specific features of jobs in relation to health and safety.




Personal Protective Equipment Regulations 2002.

Employer

Employees: Such information as is adequate and appropriate on:

• (a) Risks PPE will avoid or limit. • (b) Purpose and manner of use. • (c) Action to be taken by employee.

Chemicals (Hazard Info. & Packaging for Supply) Regulations 2002 (as Amended).


Employees with information provided by the supplier of dangerous chemicals to the employer/self-employed.

Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (as Amended).

Employer To keep a record of any monitoring carried out for 30 years after it was made. Again this information must be disclosed.

Employer

Health and surveillance records must be kept for 50 years and employees must be allowed access to records which relate to them directly.

Employer

Must provide information, instruction and training where work may expose employees to substances harmful to health.

This must be adequate for the employees to know:

• (a) The nature of the substance and its risk to health;

• (b) The precautions to be taken.

In particular, where the HSE has a "control limit" for the substance, information must be given if monitoring shows it to have been exceeded. Information on the collective results of health surveillance must also be disclosed.


Again COSHH, in Regulation 6.1, stresses the role of an assessment wherever the risk of hazardous exposure may be present, and requires that the person carrying out the assessment receives adequate information, instruction and training - the whole emphasis being upon an informed judgement reached before control measures are determined. The result of the assessment should be available to employees or their representatives.

The accompanying Approved Code of Practice suggests that information relating to control measures and air monitoring be readily retrievable in an easily understandable form, and kept, where possible, at the workplace available for inspection by employees and their representatives.

It also outlines the type of information which should be disclosed under Regulation 12.




This includes:

• The identity of substances hazardous to health. • The hazards to health arising from exposure. • The control measures and the reasons for them. • The reasons for personal protective equipment. • Monitoring procedures and access to their results. • Notification if "control limits" are exceeded. • Role of health surveillance; access to records.

Guidance Note EH40 (published annually) contains a list of Workplace Exposure Limits (WELs) in Schedule I and reflects the work of the Advisory Committee on Toxic Substances (ACTS).

COSHH is further covered in most of the first five B units.


To supply information to:

The Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations 2004.

Employer.

Operator: (a) To comply with his duties under the Regulations. (b) To be aware of the hazards to health and safety created by the substance - identity, quantity and nature of substance.

Consignor.

Operator: To enable him to comply with his duties under the Regulations. To enable him to he aware of the hazards to health and safety created by the substance. (c) To provide him with adequate information about identity, quantity and nature of the hazards created by the substance. Information to be provided prior to the journey and kept by the operator for at least three months after completion of journey.

Employer/Self-employed.

Other employers/self-employed/others prior to the start of the journey: (a) Classified explosives - the division and compatibility group of each type of explosive carried. (b) The nett mass of each type of explosive carried.




(c) In the case of compatibility groups c, d or g, whether the explosives carried are explosive substances or explosive articles. (d) The names and addresses of consignor, operator and consignee. (e) Enable the driver and attendant to know the nature of the danger and the relevant emergency action to be taken.

Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996.

Employer. (a) Employees directly; (b) Representatives of employee safety.

5.6 Further Developments.

We have discussed additional information requirements elsewhere in this unit, in the Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996, and in the CDM Regulations, where there is a continuous cross-fertilisation of information between the various parties involved in a construction project.

In any questions about provision of information, you should remember that wherever there is an obligation to carry out a risk assessment, there is a corresponding obligation to provide copies of assessment to the employees involved.

The earlier table shows how the legislators have continued the information principle since 1974, and how the requirement has become more specific. Section 2 of the 1974 Act simply states that the employer must provide his employees with such information as is necessary "to ensure their health and safety". Regulation 10 of the 1999 Management Regulations is much more precise:

"Every employer shall provide his employees with co mprehensive and relevant information on:

• (a) The risk to their health and safety identified by the assessment. • (b) The preventive and protective measures. • (c) Te procedures referred to in Regulation 8(1)(a) (Evacuation). • (d) The identity of those persons nominated by him in accordance with Regulation 8(1)(b) (Persons

nominated as competent to implement emergency procedures); and • (e) The risks notified to him in accordance with Regulation 11(1)(c) (Cooperation and coordination)."

The accompanying Code of Practice underlines the need, in a multi-ethnic society, for comprehensible information, "capable of being understood by the employees to whom it is addressed".

The information should take account of the employees' language difficulties or disabilities which may impede their understanding, e.g. those with little or no English comprehension or reading skills will need special consideration and arrangements, such as written and spoken translations.

The Management Regulations also state that an employer, under Regulation 10, will provide "to the employer of an outside undertaking" who is working on his premises, comprehensible information concerning risks to health and safety of his employees arising out of or in connection with the first-mentioned employer's operation.

Again, the Code of Practice explains this obligation to "visiting" contractors or specialists brought in to the premises to carry out work. Obviously, in such cases there should be a mutual exchange of health and safety information based on risk assessments. Young persons in employment are entitled, as are all



5.6 Further Developments.

employees, to comprehensible and relevant information regarding their health and safety at work. The Management of Health and Safety Regulations 1999 require a separate risk assessment for children and young persons at work because of their inexperience, immaturity and lack of awareness of risk to health and safety.

The risk assessment must specifically consider whether the work is beyond the young person's physical or psychological capacity, and whether he/she will he exposed to toxic or carcinogenic substances or substances causing harm to unborn children or causing a chronic health effect, exposure to noise, vibration or extremes of temperature.

Young persons can only be employed under those conditions when they are under training, supervised by a competent person and the risk is reduced to the lowest reasonably practical level. As well as informing the young person of the detailed risk assessment, in the case of a child his/her parents (or guardians) must be provided with comprehensible and relevant information about risks to the child's health and safety and of the measures taken to prevent or control them.

It is as well to note that in general terms, where duties of employees go beyond the specific, additional measures are needed to comply fully with MHSWR.

The information requirement was also specifically included in the following two Regulations:

Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992: These Regulations require employers to provide information under Regulation 7 as follows. Every employer shall ensure that operators and users at work in the undertaking are provided with adequate information about:

• All aspects of health and safety relating to their workstations. • Such measures taken by him in compliance with his duties under regulations relating to risk

assessment and compliance of workstations with statutory requirements. • Such measures by him in compliance with his duties relating to daily work routines and

modifications to workstations. • Such measures taken by him in compliance with his duties relating to eye-tests and provision of

training.

The Guidance Note states that the information should include reminders about furniture, lighting and training.

Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1 992:

These Regulations require employers to provide information under Regulation 9 as follows:

Where an employer is required to ensure that personal protective equipment is provided to an employee, the employer shall also ensure that the employee is provided with such information, instructions and training as is adequate and appropriate to enable the employee to know:

• The risk or risks which the personal protective equipment will avoid or limit. • The purpose for which and the manner in which personal protective equipment is to be used. • Any action to be taken by the employee to ensure that the personal protective equipment remains in

an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair.

The information and instruction provided shall not be adequate and appropriate unless it is comprehensible to the persons to whom it is provided.

There is no doubt that successive Directives and Regulations will continue to restate the requirement for the provision of information.



5.7 Management Information Systems in the Workplace.

One of the early criticisms of safety management at the time of the Robens enquiry was that employers complied with information requirements by exhibiting in the workplace closely-printed copies of, or extracts from, factory legislation which, even if legible, were almost completely incomprehensible to the employee.

The Management Regulations, as we now know, specifically addressed the point by emphasising that information must be relevant and capable of being understood even to the extent of providing the information, if necessary ,in a number of languages.

As you saw from the tables earlier in this study unit, an enormous amount of information is generated from a number of sources and has to be disseminated to a variety of end-users. It also has to be made available for reference purposes by management, and for inspection purposes by HSE inspectors, safety representatives, and other interested parties.

There is an obvious need, therefore, for a management information system in the workplace. Later in this unit we will look at Communication as one of the four elements in establishing a positive health and safety culture and identify a number of standards. Four of these standards form the basis of sound information management: The collection of information from external sources . The documentation of policy, organisation statements, performance standards, rules and procedures (this would include risk assessments, audit, inspection, test results, and accident statistics, etc.)

• Provision of systems for cascading information. • Use of posters, bulletins, newspapers, etc.

The starting point in the development of the system, ideally, is to appoint someone with the professional competence to manage it. In many organisations this might be an existing manager, or it may be a dedicated safety professional. Whoever he/she is, the safety manager must keep abreast of developments in legislation and current practice through membership of a professional association(s) and arrange for the collection and systematic documentation of relevant developments in health and safety. He/she will most certainly subscribe to a number of professional publications and attend courses and seminars to maintain "continuing professional development" status. He/she will also be responsible for the collection and documentation of internal health and safety information, the safety policy, risk assessments, test results, accident reports and statistics, and health surveillance. He/she must be able to interpret legislation, manufacturers' instructions and a variety of other technical or semi-legal documents and translate them into "relevant and comprehensible" information as required by the Management Regulations. The information collected, both externally and internally, must then be used, like any other intelligence, as a management tool for the efficient running of the organisation. By reference to Figure 4.1 and Table 4.1 below, it is possible to see how external and internal health and safety materials are combined, processed and turned into user-friendly information for use by company employees and contractors, visitors, customers, etc.



5.7 Management Information Systems in the Workplace.

Figure 4.1 . Health and safety information thus derived can be assimilated into the organisation and held centrally. The relevant portions can then be redistributed throughout the organisation, or to those departments which have a specific requirement.

Information can be filed manually or stored electronically for ease of retrieval and copying.

EXTERNAL INFORMATION SOURCES INTERNAL INFORMATION SOURCES

• ILO. • OSHA. • EU Directives. • UK Legislation. • ACOPS. • HSE Guidance Notes. • Case law. • British Standards. • Manufacturers. • HSE, IOSH,BSC.

• H & S Policy. • H & S Arrangements. • H & S Manual. • Risk assessments. • Test results:. • Noise. • Dust. • Lighting. • Atmospheric, etc. • Job descriptions. • Job safety analyses. • Accident reports. • Accident statistics.

Health and safety information thus derived can be assimilated into the organisation and held centrally. The relevant portions can then be redistributed throughout the organisation, or to those departments which have a specific requirement.

Information can be filed manually or stored electronically for ease of retrieval and copying. 5.8 Management Information Systems in the Workplace (cont'd).



5.8 Management Information Systems in the Workplace (cont'd).

Buildings/Plant Fixtures/Fittings/Equipment Risk Assessments

• Fabric. • Ventilation. • Air conditioning. • Heating/temperature. • Boilers. • Electrical installations. • Lighting. • Emergency lighting. • Fire/security alarms. • Lifts. • Water services. • Washing/sanitary

facilities. • Rest rooms. • Canteen/restaurant. • Access/egress.

• Computers/copiers. • Telephones/fax

machines. • Portable electrical

appliances. • Fire extinguishers. • Photocopiers. • Shredders. • Vending machines. • Franking machines. • Chairs. • Desks. • Filing cabinets. • Carpets.

• MHOR. • PPE. • DSE. • Noise. • COSHH. • Asbestos. • Audit/inspection

results. • Compliance

requirements.

H&S Records H&S Training Occupatioanl Health

• H & S Policy. • DSE Policy. • Accident policy. • Investigation. • Prevention. • Reporting. • Statistics. • Ratios. • Competent persons. • Fire marshals. • Evacuation personnel. • First aid. • Safety representatives. • Safety committee

members. • Safety committee

minutes. • Cost data. • Injury lost time. • First aid. • Property damage. • Lost production. • Consequential losses.

• Induction. • Risk assessments. • PPE. • Manual handling. • Supervisors. • Tool-box talks. • Competent persons. • Fire marshals. • Evacuation personnel. • First aid.

• Pre-employment medicals.

• DSE eye testing. • Health surveillance. • RIDDOR. • Ill-health records.


The information contained in the health and safety records enables management to evaluate the organisation's performance both internally and externally.

Internally, departmental accident records can illustrate where perhaps safe systems of work are needed or, if present, are not working efficiently - highlighting either lack of training or lack of supervision. The organisation's entire accident record can be broken down into weekly, monthly and annual statistics to determine if time of year or location (departmentally) has any hearing on accident causation. The organisation's annual statistics can be compared with those published annually by the HSE to give some




indication of performance within a particular industry or against the national accident figure.

As we noted earlier, information is a management tool which, when used correctly, enables the organisation to manage its affairs efficiently. Its availability has several constraints placed upon it and you must relate it to what you have learnt throughout this course.

How much of it is confidential? Think of the amount and type of information obtained about employees - medical information, health assessments, pre-employment medical screenings, appraisal reports, sickness absences, both short and long term - how much of this is confidential, how much of it may be disclosed, and to whom?

The safety practitioner has a responsibility to the employee and the employer -on the one hand to preserve confidentiality of personal information, and on the other to look after the best interests of the employing organisation. This can be a source of conflict.

Health records, of course, are confidential between patient and practitioner and this should be the basis for managing any information of a personal or medical nature. The safety practitioner may, however, use information and statistics to carry out the effective management of health and safety, provided the use of such information does not identify particular individuals. Where, for example, the practitioner has a need to impart confidential information about an employee to the employer, he/she should obtain the employee's consent in writing and there should be strict rules concerning to whom exactly the information is to be disclosed.

How much of it is the HSE inspector entitled to acc ess? If you look back at previous information, you will see that the inspector has wide-ranging powers to obtain information from employers and employees, but note the constraints regarding confidentiality imposed by Section 28 of the 1974 Act.

Can the safety representative inspect accident repo rts? You will remember from previous information that under Regulation 7 of the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977, the employer must make certain information available to the safety representative to enable him/her to carry out his/her role efficiently. This could include access to information contained in accident reports.

Can the safety representative look at medical recor ds? This, as mentioned above, is subject to there being no breach of confidentiality between employee and medical practitioner. In practice, the safety representative would have very limited access to medical records, and would be restricted to looking at medical statistics and trends only.

How long must records be kept? Medical records associated with exposure to dangerous substances must be kept for at least 40 years in the case of asbestos and 50 years in the case of ionising radiation.

5.10 Summary.

You have now reached the end of Organisational factors. It contains a considerable amount of information which at first glance appears impossible to assimilate. A positive approach to the assignments, intelligent use of feed-back from the tutors, and a programme of structured revision should see you through.

6.0 Health & Safety Culture & Climate.

The aim of this study unit is to provide you with k nowledge and understanding of health and safety culture.

• What is it? • Can it be measured?



6.0 Health & Safety Culture & Climate.

• Can it be improved?

If it exists within an organisation, how can it be preserved and prevented from deteriorating and How important is it in managing the organisation's health and safety performance? Organisational culture has been described as the objective characteristics of an organisation - the structure of an organisation, the roles and rules, the degree of delegation of authority or the degree of specialisation that can be observed or inferred by an outside observer. Objectives . When you have completed this study unit, you should be able to:

• Define the concept of 'culture'. • Understand the significance of a health and safety culture in health and safety management. • Identify ways that tangible indicators of the health and safety culture of an organisation can be

measured. • Odentify factors that help promote a positive and negative health and safety culture.

WHAT IS CULTURE? Health and Safety Culture.

• A system of ideals, values, beliefs, knowledge and customs transmitted from generation to generation within a social group, community or society.

• The way of life of a society, including codes of conduct, dress, language, rituals, norms of behaviour and systems of belief.

• A system of shared values and beliefs.

'Culture', then, is not a difficult concept in itself. In your studies, you will have looked at organisations and discovered that they have a 'formal' and an 'informal' element to them, and that a knowledge of the informal rules is just as important as the formal in order to make the operation run effectively. In the same way, a new employee has to assimilate the culture of his new company in order to function effectively.

How we recognise and acquire a new culture depends on individual perception. The process of 'enculturation' is the formal and informal acquisition of cultural norms and practices, a socialisation process usually engendered by membership of a particular group or organisation.

Having acquired a working definition of culture in its broadest sense, we need to move on to the concept of safety culture. If you look back at our three definitions, you will see that they mention 'system of ideals', 'systems of belief', and 'way of life'. If those ideals, beliefs and the way of life can be stretched to include values related to health and safety, we have the basis of a health and safety culture.

6.1 Health and Safety Culture.

Definition.

"A system of shared values and beliefs about the importance of health and safety in the workplace."

This is a good working definition which can be worked into any discussion about health and safety culture. There is no mystique about it. It is simply a positive attitude to safety which pervades the whole organisation from top to bottom, and has become a norm of behaviour for every member of staff from the board of directors down to the newest junior.

Health and safety culture can be identified, measured, improved, and if neglected, allowed to deteriorate. It



6.1 Health and Safety Culture.

is of paramount importance in the prevention of accidents in any organisation. Our voluminous health and safety legislation and rulebooks are of comparatively little value in a workplace where there is a poor safety culture. The safety practitioner must be able to look at an organisation and put his finger on the pulse of its safety culture. If the pulse is strong, he simply needs to sustain and maintain it; if it is thready or weak, he needs to nurture it.

Cultural Indicators and Safety Performance.

We have already referred to these in the introduction to this study unit. If organisational culture is the "objective characteristics of an organisation", then safety culture is the objective safety characteristics of an organisation.

You should have downloaded the HSE's leaflet "Advice to Employers" - http://www.hse.gov.uk/opsunit/perfmeas.pdf. This contains a checklist to be used in writing or reviewing safety policies. If you refer to it now, you will see that it is actually a useful test of safety culture (but by no means the only one). Affirmative answers to the questions posed would indicate the existence of a sound, positive safety culture. Blank or negative responses would indicate the opposite.

Checklists apart, there are many other objective safety characteristics in any organisation - accident figures, good or bad staff relationships, the wearing of PPE, the presence of warning notices throughout the premises or site, the registration of visitors - the list is considerable. For example, statements made by employees are often good indicators of the prevailing culture:

Negative:

• That's not my responsibility. • That's the way we've always done it here.

Positive:

• We pride ourselves on maintaining a good safety record. • We put safety before productivity. • We have never had a major accident.

It is quite easy to identify a correlation between cultural indicators and safety performance. When an experienced safety practitioner carries out a safety audit or inspection of a company, he can often gauge the standard of safety performance on a fairly superficial walk-round and the first impressions he has gained. When he has completed his detailed audit/inspection, it will - in most cases - confirm his initial reaction.

6.2 Case Study.

Read the following articles carefully - one is taken from "Energy World" and the other is a newspaper article.

The oil and gas industry ("Energy World" - 19 Decem ber 1996)

The offshore oil and gas industry has been shaken by a new book on offshore safety and industrial relations in the wake of the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster in the North Sea, and the leaking of a confidential report on platform conditions, Bob Gibb reports.

Since the Piper Alpha Disaster, oil companies claim to have spent some £5bn on safety improvements. This raises the question - just what sort of condition were these platforms in that this kind of money had to be spent?

"Furthermore, with the squeeze once again being put on contracting companies, to what sort of condition



6.2 Case Study.

will platforms be allowed to deteriorate to in the future?" These are the words of Piper Alpha survivor Bob Ballantyne in his foreword to 'Paying for Piper - Capital and Labour in Britain's Offshore Industry' by Charles Woolfson of the University of Glasgow.

This new book, as well as the leaked report which probed safety standards on the Shell UK Exploration and Production Brent Charlie platform, has alarmed the UK offshore oil and gas industry.

The UK Offshore Operators Association (UKOOA) said it was disappointed at the attempts being made at this juncture to denigrate Lord Cullen's approach and the positive steps taken by the HSE and the industry to improve offshore safety.

Dr Woolfson and his colleagues maintain that the industry is going too far in its interpretation of the recommendations on offshore safety. He said: "Lord Cullen presented the industry with a challenge. The basis for the new regime was to be self-regulation. The problem is that within the current political and economic context of cost reduction, it is very easy to slide from self-regulation to outright deregulation. That is where I believe the industry is heading today."

The authors commend the work of the HSE's Offshore Safety Division, saying it is trying to establish a regime of regulation that will protect the health and safety of the workforce. But they regret that a constellation of political forces is undermining the regulators' role.

The book also takes issue with what it describes as the oil and gas industry's determination to exclude trade unions from any say in the safety culture.

It says: "In the battle to establish managerial control, safety was no less important. Managements quickly realised the collective penalties of failure - and the opportunities to be gained by seizing the initiative. Safety had to become basic to the industry's culture. And it had to be management, and no-one else, that took prime responsibility for changing the safety environment." The authors point out that Lord Cullen was aware that an integrated safety culture was not a simple matter of exhortation or management mission statements.

But they add that the problem with the type of safety culture espoused by the oil companies is that the limits were very carefully defined in both theory and practice. "It excluded the real-life inconsistencies and contradictions that arose between management and shop floor."

The academics discuss the innovative concept of the offshore safety culture, with the stress on involvement, explanation and understanding.

They examined research undertaken by British Petroleum, and note how key offshore contractors are propounding a coherent programme of organisational culture to secure workforce involvement, accompanied by intensive management re-education and detailed psychometric employee selection procedures.

And they claim: "There can be no doubt about the formal success of this initiative. It profoundly modified management practice and at the same time as marginalising trade union interventions on safety, it has placed management securely in command of the safety agenda".

Despite the efforts of the industry, the authors caution that "in terms of any long-term effectiveness in reducing accidents, very considerable doubts remain".

They maintain that this is because the definition of (safety) culture is manifestly artificial - real life communication is considerably more complex than what is presumed.

The safety climate on the Brent Charlie platform is the report of a study carried out by researchers from the Robert Gordon University, which appears to show that the drive for cost reduction and increased efficiency



6.2 Case Study.

and productivity by offshore managers is seen by the workforce on Shell Expros Brent Charlie platform to be compromising safety.

Two researchers found that there was a lack of belief in management's commitment to safety. Among the workers' complaints were:

• changes had been made to safety rules during the construction. • safety improvements were only made after incidents occurred. • the permit to work system was not operating as it should. • accident statistics were being massaged. • "low visibility" of the offshore installation manager. • double standards in the application of safety regulations by safety advisers and management.

Workers questioned during the study were questioned at random. The researchers also reported that workforce morale was very low, and this could affect their safety motivation.

In their summary, the researchers concluded: "The overriding issue concerning the participants appeared to be management being overly focused on productivity and not realising the effect that this pressure has on lower levels of management and the workforce in general".

Health and Safety Culture

The researchers also questioned supervisors and engineers and both groups expressed concern about the morale of the workforce.

The report said that: "The factors they thought were reducing morale were late flights on and off the platform for the night shift, the lack of job security, not enough praise for a job well done and a poor relationship between senior management and the workforce".

Supervisors questioned accepted that they had an important role to play in ensuring safety but also felt that they were not solely responsible and that senior management should also contribute. Supervisors also suggested that the large amount of administrative duties prevented them from getting to their work sites frequently enough.

The report also raises the possibility of onshore managers putting pressure on workers to compromise safety without being aware, because they are far removed from the real time activities of doing a job and are setting ambitious productivity targets.

It also suggests that due to pressures which supervisors feel, they could be hoping that workers will find short cuts to help them achieve their productivity targets.

Shell Expro has confirmed the report was carried out at its behest, following an unexplained increase in incident figures on Brent Charlie, compared with other platforms.

The Meat Industry (The Observer)

Over capacity brings fierce price competition between abattoirs, and very low profit margins. Barker estimates the average net profit for the industry of just 0.3% of turnover. To maintain profits, abattoirs must maintain a high volume. This means that processing lines have to move at high speed. Abattoir workers are semi-skilled and poorly paid, earning on average £217.00 per week compared with the average for the economy as a whole of £351.00.

Many specialist small abattoirs are well-run family businesses. Some of the larger ones that supply supermarkets, such as Tesco, which has a long-term relationship with just six abattoirs, are well-run. But in the middle are scores on the verge of financial collapse. Jean Shauul of Manchester University's



6.2 Case Study.

accounting department, who has studied the meat industry's finances, said: "Many of these abattoirs resemble the sweatshop in the rag trade".

Martin Palmer, Head of Strategy at the Meat and Livestock Commission, acknowledges that fierce competition means that abattoirs reap little reward for attention to quality: "Abattoirs operate in a commodity market. It is difficult to get a price premium for higher quality or safety, because as soon as a scheme is set up, it is undercut by lower-priced competition".

Slaughtermen share a closed culture that is suspicious of outsiders and resistant to change. A former meat inspector said: "In many of the larger plants, the view on the line is that it is the inspector's job to check on the quality of the meat, it's not the operator. If the inspector picks up a problem, it will be addressed, but if he fails to spot something wrong then no one will point it out."

It is in the inspection system that the greatest failings have been exposed. Between 1988 and April last year, meat inspection was the responsibility of more than 300 local authorities. It is difficult to get an accurate picture of how rigorous the inspections were but clearly standards varied widely. In April last year (1995), the Government set up the Meat Hygiene Service to create a national system of inspection. According to Peter Soul, the service's head of operations, local authority inspectors were often doing other jobs and might spend only an hour or so a day or, in some cases, an hour a week inspecting meat.

Serious shortcomings were shown up by spot checks carried out by the State Veterinary Service in September 1995. The results, tucked away in some Ministry of Agriculture documents, show that 48% of abattoirs were failing in some respect.

Since March, when the regulations were tightened up after the Government announced evidence of a possible link between BSE and CJD in humans, 70 meat inspectors have been disciplined and four dismissed for failing to adhere to the regulations - almost 10% of the red meat inspection workforce.

6.3 Measuring the Indicators.

Attitude Surveys.

We have already noted that the indicators of safety culture are many and various, and while it is possible to gauge a sense of culture from first impressions and hearsay, it is equally possible, and perhaps more accurate, to measure attitudes and values by more positive means.

Attitude measurement methods used by sociologists and market researchers are invariably based on Likert or Guttman scales. These are survey questionnaires containing a battery of statements requiring responses which indicate agreement or disagreement. Respondents are asked to indicate to what extent or degree they agree or disagree with each statement, generally using a 5-point scale which can then be coded to provide a score. High scores represent agreement and low scores disagreement.

Likert and Guttman methods of measurement are fairly sophisticated, and require some training in their interpretation to be of value to the layman.

On the other hand, it is fairly easy to devise a straightforward questionnaire containing questions about general health and safety, the responses to which would give some idea of the safety culture within an organisation. To do this effectively, the questionnaire must be carefully designed to avoid bias, and to obtain truthful answers, confidentiality is necessary. However, when carried out properly, the results can reveal underlying anxieties and problems which are difficult to identify by other means.

Care should be taken when carrying out these surveys to ensure that the very act of conducting the survey does not in itself create suspicion in the minds of employees or additional unnecessary anxiety. Carried out on a regular basis, attitude surveys can identify trends and it is then possible to quantify how attitudes are changing.



6.3 Measuring the Indicators.

Prompt Lists

Prompt lists are similar to attitude surveys, except that lists are used with predetermined answers and the interviewee is asked to select in some way from these answers.

Again, this is a technique often used in market research, when consumers are asked to decide preferences between various products. In this way, the questionnaire can be made more specific and it is generally easier to come to clear conclusions and to process the answers.

However, in carrying out this type of survey, it is important to ensure that the design of questions reflects real differences rather than an existing bias.

As with attitude surveys, if prompt lists are carried out over a period of time, trends can be identified and the effects of changes measured.

Findings of Incident Investigations

The primary purpose of an incident investigation is to determine the cause and to ensure that action is taken to prevent the incident recurring. If, during the investigation of an accident, it is found that the underlying cause is lack of care, this may perhaps be an indicator of individual carelessness. On the other hand, if carelessness is found to be a widespread cause of accidents, this may be an indicator of poor safety culture.

Where the same underlying causes keep recurring, the safety manager has to embark on a process of education, or re-education, of the workforce in order to effect a change of attitude.

The findings and the lessons learned from incident investigation are invaluable in preventing similar occurrences, setting policy, formulating safe systems of work, writing training materials and, after publication to the workforce, demonstrating company commitment to the principles of good safety management.

6.4 Effective Communication.

According to John E Koontz, an American computer scientist, communication is the transfer of information from one person to another, with the information being understood by both the sender and the receiver.

In other words, communication is the process through which information, attitudes, ideas and opinions are sent or received, thereby providing a basis for understanding.

The process requires a sender, a receiver and feedback.

Feedback is essential, as without it there is no real communication, only the act of transmission. Successful communication is measured by feedback. This enables the sender to test whether, and how well, the communicated message has been understood.

Communication is important to organisations for a number of reasons:

• To bring about change - information passed from one level to another can effect change in the actions of the receivers, e.g. sales figures - increased orders can influence production levels.

• To sustain stability - information from management to shop floor to maintain performance at existing levels by not changing procedures -"If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

• To achieve a common purpose - uniting people to achieve common objectives is one of the most important functions of communication.

• To integrate management activities - by linking the levels of the organisation; by linking the sections and departments to each other; and by ensuring that the various strands and levels of management are directed to achieving organisational goals.



6.4 Effective Communication.

• To establish links between an organisation and its environment - by creating a two-way flow of information between the organisation and all sections of its environment - customers, suppliers, government and community.

Communication methods are written, oral, visual or a combination of all three and theorists argue that there is no single best method - rather, communication depends on, and should be appropriate to, the circumstances. Account needs to be taken of the objectives of the communication, the nature of the information to be communicated, the sophistication of the audience or receivers and, of course, the structure and culture of the organisation.

To be really effective in any organisation, communication has to be multi-directional. Communication from management to shop floor, although a legal requirement, is only half effective as it lacks the necessary element of feedback. In any culture, the transfer of values and norms will only be perpetuated if they are transmitted to, and accepted by, the incoming cohort. To affect this, the values must be clearly understood and accepted by all personnel within the organisation.

Communication surveys are a means of judging the actuality or effectiveness of any transfer of information (including cultural values) to new members of staff. A sample number of comparatively new employees can be interviewed to identify, for example, how well they have assimilated the company's safety culture, or how much they have retained from company health and safety training, or perhaps a safety campaign. This can be done informally or formally. Safety practitioners will often use an informal communication survey to find out how many people within the organisation are aware of basic safety matters, such as the company health and safety policy, risk assessments or attitudes towards smoking.

We can summarise effective communications as follows:

• Include everyone who should be included. • Address the problem of quantity of information, or load, by either re-designing the organisation to

reduce load at heavily-committed points or introducing a queuing system to deal with the messages in sequence, giving priority to the more urgent.

• Be brief, direct and keep it simple. • Be accurate and precise. • Be fast, but not at the expense of accuracy. • Be selective; send only what is necessary. • Encourage feedback to ensure the message has been received and understood. • Use as few links in the communication chain as possible to avoid distortion.

6.5 Evidence of Individual Commitment.

Commitment has been defined as "a declared attachment to a doctrine or a cause". There is an old joke which asks the difference between being "interested" and being "committed" about a subject, and uses the illustration of the difference in attitudes between a chicken and a pig towards a bacon and egg breakfast - the chicken is interested in breakfast but the pig is committed!

To expect every employee of any company to have a declared attachment to the doctrines of health and safety is probably unrealistic, but if you look back at the extract concerning safety on oil rigs, you can see how a major disaster has focused attention on the need to promote better safety arrangements in a very dangerous working environment.

The promotion of individual commitment towards health and safety is the goal of every safety practitioner, and the starting point has to be at management board level. There will only be a belief in the commitment of management towards safety if it is generally believed that management are prepared to make sacrifices in terms of productivity or time to ensure the safety of the workforce, i.e. management will not condone short cuts that compromise safety.



6.5 Evidence of Individual Commitment.

Again, looking back at the "oil rig" extract, workers complained about management's lack of commitment to safety. One leading factor in demonstrating management's commitment is management visibility. If management are never seen on site, then there will be an assumption that management is not interested in the job and, by implication, health and safety. Lack of management visibility is perceived as lack of management commitment, and the bad example then percolates down through the company and becomes part of the culture.

Individual managers must be educated to believe that their commitment to health and safety is of the utmost importance in setting the tone for the company's attitude to safety, which will be assimilated by employees as part of their culture. This visible commitment can be demonstrated by management:

• being seen and involved with the work, taking an interest and correcting deficiencies. • providing sufficient resources to carry out jobs safely. • ensuring that there are enough people, time and money to carry out the job safely. • providing appropriate personal protective equipment. • ensuring that all personnel are competent to carry out their work. • providing training and supervision. • enforcing the company safety rules and demonstrating their own observance of them. • introducing safe systems of work and insisting on their observance. • matching their actions to their words. • correcting defects as soon as is reasonably practicable, and. • avoiding of double standards.

Lack of individual commitment is only one of a number of negative factors which militates against the formation of a sound health and safety culture. We shall now look at some of the other major negative factors.

6.6 Factors Promoting a Positive & Negative Health & Sa fety Culture & Climate.

Company Reorganisations. Company reorganisations may originate from a variety of sources - relocations, mergers, redundancies, downsizing, etc, and where these occur, the management of the organisation needs to treat its staff with sensitivity. There is legislation covering major redundancies, and compensation arrangements are provided for by statute. Many companies also offer financial packages which are in excess of the statutory limits.

However, difficulties arise when the retained members of staff have to operate with reduced resources and manpower, and perhaps in the shadow of further impending redundancies which may affect them personally.

If companies effect economies by shedding staff, paying the minimum statutory redundancy amounts and at the same time paying increased dividends to their shareholders and awarding better financial packages to their directors, it is hardly surprising that the loyalties of remaining staff are going to be severely tested.

Changes occurring as a result of external pressures over which the organisation has little or no control - which may include a major change in industry procedures (e.g. the effect of BSE on the meat industry) - may not be as damaging as changes brought about by the need to improve profitability.

Frequent company reorganisations, unless handled well, can lead to growing dissatisfaction in the workforce. In many cases those employees who have the most saleable skills will leave, creating operational difficulties in an already difficult situation. First-level management may then have additional burdens placed upon them when they are already concerned about their own future. This, in turn, may adversely affect the organisation's normal controls and practices, leading to a greater number of incidents and accidents. This is often accompanied by an increased level of sickness and absences from undetermined causes.

Lack of Confidence in Organisation's Objectives and Methods .




Most companies will have objectives in terms of safety and productivity, including a company safety policy outlining the organisation's commitment to health and safety. However, if in fact productivity is seen to be pre-eminent over safety, then worker perception will inevitably be that the company is unethical and untrustworthy in its operations, thus leading to a lack of trust and a deterioration of the safety culture.

Typical of complaints made by off-shore gas and oil workers were:

• Changes had been made to safety rules during the construction. • Safety improvements were only made after incidents occurred. • The permit to work system was not operating as it should. • Accident statistics were being massaged. • "Low visibility" of the offshore installation manager. • Double standards in the application of safety regulations by safety advisers and management.

If management and first-line supervisors perceive that the company has an overwhelming drive to achieve productivity at the expense of safety, they may well adopt the same attitude to demonstrate their commitment to company objectives. This can have a disastrous effect on the shop floor employees, affecting safety, morale and motivation. Uncertainty .

Human beings by nature seek security and stability. Creating an uncertain environment generates feelings of insecurity. As seen in unit A1, Maslow's hierarchy of needs states that security forms one of the foundations of the structure. If security is not fully satisfied the rest of the structure is affected (see Figure 1.1).

Need: Satisfied by:

Physiological Food, shelter

Safety Security, freedom from attack

Love and belonging Social needs, to belong, to be accepted

Self-esteem To be noticed, to receive acclaim

Self-actualisation The achievement of one's full potential

Self-actualisation is the goal - the highest need - but is unimportant unless the lower, more basic needs have been satisfied. They are often represented and best remembered as in Figure 1.1




Figure 1.1: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Lack of job security or uncertainty about the future leads to dissatisfaction, lack of interest in the job and generally poor attitudes towards the company and working colleagues.

Uncertainty is often caused by management behaviour, which sends mixed signals to the workforce. If managers are seen to say one thing and then do something completely different, this will be perceived by the workforce as an example of management's cynicism and will undermine their authority and credibility.

If a manager claims to be in favour of health and safety but is then seen acting in an unsafe manner, e.g. by drinking on the job, neglecting to wear PPE, or condoning other unsafe acts, there will be at best only token acceptance of his spoken views.

Communications specialists claim that non-verbal actions, i.e. gestures or body language, constitute 70% of communication and that words only make up perhaps less than 30% of the messages that we give. Translated into health and safety terms, it is likely that where there is conflict between what management say and what they do in practice, their actions will dominate the communication process and it will be those actions which set the tone for the organisation and become the cultural norm.

We are all familiar with those old clichés -"Don't do as I do, do as I say" and "Actions speak louder than words" - and the key to good communication lies somewhere between the two.

To be effective, management's verbal communications and their observable behaviour and actions should be consistent, as it is more likely that the workforce will judge management by their actions rather than their words.

7.0 Questionable Management Decisions.

Decisions are perceived or interpreted in different ways by individuals, dependent upon their own experience and expectations. Inconsistency in decision-making about salaries, bonuses, incentives,



7.0 Questionable Management Decisions.

promotions, transfers, etc. can be the trigger which sets off a good deal of unrest and distrust in an organisation.

From your own working experience, you can probably cite some management decisions which beggared belief at first glance, but which perhaps were not unreasonable when the full facts surrounding the decision became public. Management therefore have to be aware that good communication is part and parcel of effective decision-making.

The following circumstances give rise to distrust and doubt about management commitment generally, but apply equally to decisions about safety.

Where there are no rules or no precedents, decisions may appear to be arbitrary and inconsistent.

• Refusal to delegate decision-making leads to demotivation and diminution of a sense of responsibility in subordinates.

• Constant rescinding by senior management of decisions made at lower levels of management. • Delays in making decisions. • Decisions affected by conflicting goals between management and workers. • Decisions affected by conflicting goals between different departments. • Lack of consultation prior to decision-making.

Management decisions which are aimed at achieving individual rather than organisational objectives, or decisions generated according to some hidden agenda are also disruptive. It is this placing of self-interest in terms of career progression before service to the organisation which can often disrupt relationships and affect the efficiency of the company.

Many modern management thinkers urge that "ownership" or "stewardship" by workers of the organisation's goals is the ideal basis for good management in any company.

7.1 Effecting Change.

Change is accepted as a universal feature of modern organisational life, but few people (including managers and employees) feel comfortable when change affects them personally. Change can induce stress and tensions rooted in fear and innate conservatism. Some psychologists argue that people see rapid change as an assault on their personal selves, thus triggering feelings of self-preservation.

Both managers and employees develop set patterns of thought and behaviour, and these can be difficult to overcome when change occurs. This phenomenon is known as perceptual set, which is the way in which observed information is processed by the individual to fit his/her internal experience, attitude, expectations, sensitivity and culture.

It is this perceptual set which makes us more responsive to certain stimuli than others.

We cannot cope equally with all the information we are simultaneously receiving from our environment. A common example of this is termed the "cocktail effect". Whilst engaged in conversation within a group, say at a party, someone in another group nearby mentions your name. Although listening to your group's conversation you pick up your name, although you have not heard the rest of the other group's conversation.

Because we have different perceptual sets, we have slightly different perceptions. Several people looking at a large, classical painting in an art gallery will all see the same painting, but each individual will focus on, and remember, different aspects of it simply because of his/her individual perceptions.

Psychologists researching attitudes to change have discovered that frequently, older people are more resistant to change than younger ones. This supports the view that it is difficult to "teach old dogs new tricks". In addition, it was noted that staff with heavy commitments, such as large mortgages, tended to



7.1 Effecting Change.

seek security and feared change. 7.9 Conflict in Change.

Coping With the Psychological Problems of Change

Wherever possible, management should plan for change. Sometimes this cannot be done, as there are occasions when a sudden wave of change hits an organisation from an outside source over which management has no control, e.g. the financial collapse of an important customer, the outbreak of a war, or a sudden change in government legislation. The Credit Crunch of 2008 and the consequent banking crisis is a case in point, taking many so-called 'experts' by surprise. The essence of planning for change can be pinpointed by management asking itself the following questions:

• What do we intend to do? • When is it to be done? • Who will do it? • How will it be done? • Where will it be done?

Let's look at these points in greater detail:

(a) Planning for change should start at the top but should encourage participation at all levels from those who have expert opinions on, and experience of, the areas involved in the changes. There should be clear objectives as to what is to be achieved by the proposed change, e.g. a cost/benefit analysis of the changes suggested.

(b) The timing of change is crucial: hurried and ill-thought-out change can cause havoc in a workforce. However, remember that changes which do not keep to the set timetable and are frequently postponed also cause frustration and confusion among those concerned.

(c) Plans for change should clearly designate exactly who is responsible for initiating and implementing specified changes.

(d) The change plan should set out clearly just how each stage of the change process will be conducted. Effective communication between all those implementing change is crucial.

(e) Change frequently involves the physical movement of staff and resources, e.g. the centralising of an administrative unit or the opening of a new department on a different site. All such movements require careful planning.

Gaining Acceptance of Change.

Although planning is an important first stage as it provides the framework for change, a number of other steps need to be taken to help smooth the way for the implementation of change in organisations. Important among these are:

Communications

Early publicity of pending change may avoid rumours circulating and misunderstandings developing which unsettle and worry staff. However, the mere knowledge that change is about to happen without an understanding of how individuals and groups will be affected can cause alarm. The first thought in people's minds is: "How will this affect me?"

Wherever possible, direct briefings, meetings or interviews should keep managers and staff aware of



7.9 Conflict in Change.

proposed changes and the progress being made as changes get under way.

Participation

Wherever possible, those affected by the change should be encouraged to participate in its implementation. The human relations approach stresses that communication should be supplemented by encouraging individuals and work groups to contribute their views as change progresses. Senior management can profit from the feedback they receive from all parts of the organisation. Research has revealed that participation in solving the problems connected with change assists its acceptance by the staff concerned.

Work Groups and Teams

Wherever possible, effective work groups or teams should be transferred as a whole into new work situations or practices. The group gives confidence to its individual members, who feel that they are "all in the same boat". If the goodwill of informal networks can be won over, change should proceed more smoothly.

Transfers and Redundancies

Where transfers or redundancies are inevitable they should be handled sensitively and fairly and, where appropriate, trade unions should be informed and involved from as early a stage as possible.

Transfers can enhance personal development, broaden experience and provide an opportunity to bring fresh and perhaps creative thought to a routine task.

Redundancy is not so easy to manage. Every effort should be made to find alternative placements for those involved. Redundancies also affect those who remain. The empty desks are a reminder of the climate of instability, and may encourage those who remain to seek alternative positions.

Opportunities and Rewards

Changes should be presented as the natural order of things for a modern organisation. Change is more likely to be welcomed if, at the end of it, people's jobs are made more interesting, more productive, better paid, etc.

Training in new skills and the development of existing skills should be offered and encouraged when they are required; this has psychological as well as operational advantages. When staff feel that they have mastered new skills to cope with change, they derive job satisfaction, which gives a powerful boost to morale.

Linking the social needs of the individual to the need for change in the organisation can assist the smooth running of modern socio-technical systems.

7.3 Changing Organisational Cultures.

If change is to be successful, it has to take place in an organisational or corporate culture which is conducive to it. The best organisations are characterised by a coherent culture that is sufficiently flexible to facilitate change.

Definitions

There are two important concepts involved here:

(a) Organisation culture refers to objective characteristics of an organisation that can be observed or inferred by an outside observer. For example, the structure of an organisation, the roles and rules, the




degree of delegation of authority or the degree of specialisation can be observed. The deep-seated values of the organisation, e.g. a respect for tradition or service to customers or community, can be inferred by an outsider.

(b) Organisational climate is a more subjective concept. It is the way people in the organisation perceive its structure, roles, rules, authority, etc. For example, do people feel that they have control over their work situation? Do they feel that they are just cogs in a machine or valued human beings? Whereas organisational culture is shared by all levels in the organisation, organisational climate may be seen differently from various positions in the organisation. Organisational climate is the insider's view and can only be discovered by in-depth research.

Some management experts have likened the climate of an organisation to the personality of an individual. A person may appear quite different to various other individuals, depending on their standpoint and values, e.g. the same person may be seen as generous by some and a spendthrift by others.

In order to achieve effective change, it may be necessary to alter organisational culture and climate.

Role Cultures

Another important way of analysing change in organisations was put forward by Charles Handy, the management writer. He developed the concept of role cultures to describe the ways in which individuals behave in organisations; this behaviour is shaped by the organisational culture and climate of the organisation, e.g. if the culture is bureaucratic and the employee sees it as bureaucratic (climate), then his/her behaviour is likely to be bureaucratic. The same would apply if we substituted entrepreneurial for bureaucratic.

Handy argues that the significant change in modern organisations is away from bureaucratic role cultures towards flexible federal role cultures. Let's see what he means by this.

Bureaucratic Role Culture

In a bureaucratic culture, the power of the individual derives from the office or position he holds within the organisation. This power is set by the rules which managers and their subordinates must follow. This following of set procedures gives rise to a predictable and secure culture. The organisation is a very solid structure; each role is clearly defined, each department is a pillar of stability with clearly marked boundaries.

This role culture can work well in times or areas of relative stability, but has great problems in coping with periods of rapid change. These problems of bureaucracy are apparent in our modern changing society and turbulent environments, so we may well find the bureaucratic role culture inappropriate for many present-day organisations.

Flexible Federal Role Culture

Modern needs are calling forth a new federal role culture which sheds much of the culture of bureaucracy. Handy sees a crucial role for management in developing new role cultures.

Leadership should go beyond giving orders and instructions; the leader should have a vision of what the organisation should be and share it with fellow employees. This vision should illuminate what is going on in the organisation so that people see the point of what they are doing at work.

A fundamental point in the new flexible culture is that organisations should be run by persuasion and consent. Many organisations are reducing their use of the term "manager", which can sound remote and authoritarian. Flexible cultures try to avoid the "them and us" image which arises from the idea of managers and workers, so they prefer to use the concepts of team leader or staff coordinator. Another tactic to reduce




bureaucracy is to have flatter authority structures, with as few as four layers.

The flexible federal culture draws together many of the strands of contingency theory and the human relations approach. It follows contingency theory in that it accepts the bureaucratic culture as appropriate to stable conditions, while arguing for the federal culture to cope with rapid changes. You can see human relations influences in the ideas of persuasion and consent; there is emphasis on the idea of the willing, enthusiastic employee.

Flexible federal culture facilitates change and is the goal towards which many modern organisations are moving.

Having identified the factors which lead to a negative attitude towards health and safety, the safety practitioner, if he is to be effective, has to attack the problem of change.

There is much more to introducing change than simply re-designing the management organogram or flowchart. It involves changing the nature and culture of the organisation and this in turn means changing peoples' behaviour and attitudes. This is by no means easy and the safety practitioner has to be aware of the individual and organisational in-built resistance to changes in attitudes and culture generally.

In order to overcome these problems, he has to plan and it is worth considering briefly how organisations carry out the planning function.

7.4 Planning Methods.

Planning is the process of setting objectives which are to be achieved through the implementation of policies and the use of strategies and tactics.

The words 'plan', 'policy', 'strategy' and 'tactic' are often confused and taken to be synonymous. In fact, they have different, distinct meanings:

• Plan: the overall arrangements by which objectives are to be achieved. • Policy: a long-term guide to assist in achieving objectives. • Strategy: a general programme of action aimed at achieving planned objectives in the mid-term. • Tactics: short-term devices used to implement strategic decisions which may be changed in the face

of changing circumstances.

Before it is possible to implement any form of change, the processes by which that change are to be implemented should be planned. In general, this can be best done by using a structured plan with appropriate guidelines, clear objectives and tasks, and realistic time-scales given to specified individuals.

The following elements should always be incorporated within the plan:

Management Approval.

Unless management have approved and are committed (see above) to the plan, then it is doomed to failure. Management agreement should be obtained for the following:

• The plan in principle. • Time expended. • Costs. • The methods to be used. • The personnel affected.

Consultation.

All persons who may be affected by the plan should be consulted and their agreement sought; this may



7.4 Planning Methods.

include some or all of the following:

• Trade unions. • Works committees. • Employee organisations.

Training.

Any change, unless extremely minor, will involve training. Provisions should be made for this at the outset.

Monitoring/Feedback.

Any form of change should be monitored regularly by management to ensure its effectiveness. These checks should be built in to the programme. By this means, if the programme is not achieving its objectives, correction can be applied before it becomes catastrophic.

Communication.

There should be some mechanism incorporated into the programme by which the changes are communicated to employees by management rather than via the 'grapevine'. Often, this can be best achieved via an in-house journal which already has some credibility.

7.5 Implementing Change - Direct Methods.

Three useful techniques for managing change in organisations are:

• organisation analysis, • organisational development and. • management development.

We shall deal briefly with each of them.

Organisation Analysis (OA)

Organisation analysis begins by studying the symptoms which suggest that organisational change is required. These symptoms will include:

• lack of innovation. • poor communication. • decision-making problems. • failures in departmental areas.

Analysis consists of four stages:

(1) Assignment of responsibility for the analysis, e.g. senior manager, management team.

(2) Collection of data.

(3) Planning of alternative organisations, e.g. ideal organisational models incorporating improvements.

(4) Installing and implementing the most effective organisation structure.



7.5 Implementing Change - Direct Methods.

The organisation analyst uses four main tools:

• Questionnaires. • Job descriptions. • Organisation charts. • Organisation manuals.

The advantages of formal OA are:

• Senior executives focus on organisational problems. • The organisation's existing structure and functions are examined and can be corrected. • An authoritative source establishes authority, accountability and functional relationships. • The analysis provides trainees with a point of orientation.

The disadvantages are:

• Rigidity and inflexibility can occur thereafter in the organisation's structure and functions. • The organisation may become precedent-bound. • Informal organisation may be ignored - particularly in relation to interpersonal and communication

factors.

Overall, however, OA forces management to focus on the key areas of an organisation that must receive attention if successful change is to be achieved.

7.6 Organisational Development (OD).

Organisational development aims to improve the way an organisation functions by accepting change as a fact of life. It is an on-going process which constantly seeks to improve the framework into which employees are going to fit.

It works on a set of assumptions about people in organisations.

• Each person is a complex mixture of needs (refer to Maslow above). • An important need is the need to grow psychologically - to improve at what we are good at. • The recognition of the above two points implies that the organisation should provide the individual

with the opportunity to act as a human being in the work situation, rather than as a "cog in the wheel".

• Most workers are willing and able to make a greater contribution to the organisation's objectives if given the chance.

• It is part of the organisational task to provide an environment in which the worker may find work which is challenging, meaningful and enjoyable.

• The formal leader of a group cannot alone perform all the "maintenance" functions necessary to keep the group in a cohesive state.

• Opportunities should be provided for workers to influence the relationship between themselves, their work, and their working environment.

• The relationship between the worker and the informal organisation (peer group) is crucial. Improvement cannot come from simply adjusting the formal structure.

• Authority and status systems which encourage workers to hide their feelings and emotions are dysfunctional.

• An effective organisation functions through the medium of groups rather than individuals. • An effective organisation is free from discrimination of all kinds.

The application of OD to a problem area falls into four steps, known collectively as action research. These steps are:




• diagnosis. • data collection. • feedback; and • intervention.

They are not individual and separate activities but rather stages in a continuous process. In a full-scale OD application the cycle will be repeated as objectives are reached and replaced by higher ones. Feedback itself is a powerful intervention and will be treated as such in the following discussion.

Diagnosis.

Action research is, in fact, the application of a systematic approach to problem-solving; indeed, it is closely parallel to the conventional problem-solving process.

The first stage is the realisation by a key member of the organisation that there are some organisational problems which might possibly be tackled by the intervention of behavioural science.

A behavioural consultant (change agent) would, in the first instance, be called in from outside and, in discussion with key members of the organisation, the problem would be identified and commitment made to doing something about it.

Data Collection.

Information forms the basis of any learning about, or intervention in, the organisation and, as such, its collection is of primary importance to the OD role. The task at this stage is to describe the system with its relationships, and to identify the major problem areas and issues.

A general guide to what information to collect is given by Beckhard (in "Organisation Development: Strategies and Models"):

"The development of a strategy for systematic improvement of an organisation demands an examination of the present state of things. Such an analysis usually looks at two broad areas. One is a diagnosis of the various subsystems that make up the total organisation. These subsystems may be natural 'teams' such as top management, the finance department, the production department or a research group; or they may be levels, such as top management, middle management, or the workforce.

The second area of diagnosis is the organisation processes that are occurring. These include decision-making processes, communications patterns and styles, relationships between interfacing groups, the management of conflict, the setting of goals and planning methods."

It is impossible to state categorically what information should be collected; it will vary from situation to situation. In one sense it is concerned with any measure of organisational performance, i.e. performance against any of the objectives of the enterprise, implicit or explicit, not simply the task-oriented or functional ones. Anything, in fact, which tends to make for a good organisation, rather than a poor one, is grist to OD's informational mill.

Apart from the conventional performance indices, then, you might expect to see assessments of such factors as:

• The way members perceive their own organisation and its operation. • The way members see their roles in relation to other roles. • The way authority and power are shared and used. • The values and beliefs (the culture) of members. • Employee attitudes.




• The content and pattern of communication systems.

The data collected are useful in two ways. Firstly, even if no further action is taken, the fact that members can know and understand their organisation better is a benefit in itself. It is of such benefit, indeed, that the systems of data collection set up at this stage are normally left in existence so that data capture becomes part of the organisation's way of life. Secondly, the data form the basis for any decision as to action designed to create change.

All the conventional fact-collection techniques may be used - questionnaires, interviewing, attitude surveys, systems analysis, etc. but some newer approaches are appearing. The consultant or change agent must help the group to decide which technique is the appropriate one. Margulies and Raia("Organisation Development: Values, Process and Technology") suggest that the key variables which govern the choice of data collection technique are:

(a) Time: Which technique will provide the timeliest data? How much time can we afford to spend gathering the data? Which technique is likely to provide the best data for the time we can currently allocate?

(b) Cost: What are the costs associated with collecting the data? Can we do it more efficiently?

(c) Needs: Which method or technique best matches the current needs of the organisation or group? Is a more direct or less direct approach more appropriate?

(d) Nature of the organisation: What are the culture and values of the organisation? Are people likely to be candid? Which methods and techniques appear to be most appropriate to the organisation?

(e) Feedback: Information fed back serves two functions. It is a basis for future decisions as to future action in the organisation, but it is also, and perhaps more importantly, a powerful change force in its own right. As such, we treat it as an intervention here.

Two fundamental beliefs of the OD approach are, firstly, that development work must take place in a participative manner and, secondly, that any programme of development must be clearly related to an explicit objective against which success may ultimately be assessed.

Furthermore, any programme will have within it two facts - action and learning. It is important that the members of the organisation learn about its functioning so that the action may have some meaning and, of course, so that they may relate to it and to each other in a more effective fashion.

These factors combine to make feedback of collected data to the whole group concerned in the study an essential part of the OD process.

An attempt is being made to try to reach a position where every member has a fuller understanding and knowledge of the organisation. It is thus a much deeper, more exhaustive treatment than the conventional problem-solving process would offer.

Intervention.

With the knowledge gained of the fabric of the organisation, the collected information is examined by all concerned to define areas where further action might improve effectiveness.

Clearly anyone who does anything within an organisation is intervening in it, and the mere act of collecting information and discussing it affects what is being studied and is itself an intervention.

Asking questions about any chosen aspect of the organisation will of itself alter the way in which that aspect is regarded. But even more, OD introduces deliberate and planned interventions emanating from the




diagnosis and aimed at overcoming defined problems or building on discovered strengths.

Planned intervention involves taking people as teams and in some way getting them to adjust their behaviour to improve organisational effectiveness. The general aim is that problems should be solved or that group members should learn about themselves and about the effects they have on other group members.

Problem-solving or gaining knowledge are not, however, ends in themselves. Members must also learn "how to learn". Intervention is concerned with developing the permanent capacity to adapt.

According to the management experts French and Bell, OD embodies the following crucial points:

• It is a way of changing organisational structures. • It is a long-range technique which takes time to become effective. • The core of OD is to enable the organisation to learn how to solve its problems. • OD sets out to encourage a participative culture and places great emphasis on group problem-

solving. • OD is concerned with change in the whole organisation.

7.7 Management Development and Approaches to Change .

Management development is associated with staff development and training.

It can be defined as: a systematic process of growth based on training and experience, by which individuals acquire ability and skills to manage effectively and are prepared to cope with change. MD is a technique used to assist organisations to cope with change.

It consists of the following steps: Management Review. The main stages of a management review are as follo ws:

• (a) To determine the number of management posts required at present and to forecast the future requirement. Too many chiefs and too few Indians is a common criticism, but bear in mind that organisations can suffer from being under managed.

• (b) To examine the numbers in each grade of management - top, middle and first-line managers - -and estimate future needs.

• (c) To examine the make-up of management in various departments. • (d) To look at the effects of expansion or contraction on the organisation's management structure. • (e) To evaluate existing managers and assess their suitability for coping with change.

Management Appraisal.

This step of the management development process involves the assessment of managers' current performance with particular reference to estimating their potential to face new challenges. Development Programmes.

Efficient organisations will be constantly preparing for change by assisting managers to develop flexibility, new skills and the ability to cope with change. Management development is linked to OD in that they are both involved in change management. Organisational development is aimed at improving the whole organisation, whereas management




development stresses the improvement of the individual in terms of his ability to help to manage the organisation. Direct Action.

Change is often implemented by having a two-tiered structure, i.e. a steering group and a working party. This approach is often adopted where a major change is proposed in a complex organisation over a relatively short time-scale.

A steering group should consist of high-level personnel (e.g. directors and heads of departments) who give broad objectives and set time-scales. This group will meet infrequently and will give visible management support for the change programme. A working party will normally consist of a mixture of middle management, first-line supervisors, and union/worker representatives, with the power to co-opt any worker with specialist knowledge or skills where such expertise is necessary. The working party will carry the "message" to the workforce. It is most effective if both groups have a common secretary (a safety professional) who can act as the link. The chair of the working party should also be a member of the steering group, to provide a visible and clear link between the two groups. An important part of the role of the working party will be to give feedback to the steering group. Figure 2.1 shows this process diagrammatically.

Figure 2.1: Relationship between a Steering Group a nd a Working Party.

The pace of change should be dictated by the feedback which is given by the working party. If the feedback indicates that the changes are viewed positively, then progress can continue; however, if there is strong negative feedback then perhaps the process should be slowed or an alternative method tried. Some companies claim to have been undergoing this process for many years and still have room for further improvements.

Benefits of a Gradualist Approach. Sometimes, the implementation of the change will be forced on the organisation by external forces. The BSE crisis is a good example of this (see above) where immediate change was imperative. Rapid changes of this nature, however, are not well-received and it is much better if change can be introduced gradually to give organisations and individuals time to adapt to new conditions.

There is a body of evidence which shows that when implementing change, it is more acceptable if some degree of control can be exerted by those most affected by that change. This may not always be possible in all circumstances, but it is a principle worth striving for.

The impact of the "Six-Pack", a clutch of EU-inspired regulations enacted in 1992 and appended to the




HSWA, is a good example of this, where although an external influence, i.e. European legislation, brought about changes in UK legislation which then imposed new rules, regulations and huge costs on British industry, the method of implementation - consultation - directive - statutory instrument - with a time-scale of two years for compliance, in many cases allowed gradual change to be controlled by both legislators and industry.

On the other hand, changes implemented at high speed are always a high-risk strategy and often may not yield permanent results. If the change is phased in over a period of time, then there is time for adaptation and modification and for the change to become part of the established culture. In addition, by attempting change at too high a pace, trust in management may be lost and any further attempt at change may be strongly resisted. However, a good morale in the workforce, effective communication and management credibility will go far to mitigate these dangers.

7.8 Implementing the Change - Indirect Methods.

Risk Assessment.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 were a milestone in health and safety in that for the first time, they explicitly required risk assessment to be carried out in all workplaces. The risk assessment requirements specified or implied in the accompanying "European" legislation have become, in many instances, a catalyst for change.

By carrying out the risk assessments, existing deficiencies in the workplace are identified and corrective action put in place to eliminate them. This, in a sense, is a form of change programme, with the ultimate objective of reducing risk in the workplace. If it is treated in this way, then it can in itself be used to implement a broad range of changes required in the workplace.

Training

Management training courses and general training sessions can include discussions on new safety technology, and new or impending safety legislation, in order to pave the way for the introduction of change at some time in the future.

Joint Consultation

Effective consultation with managers at all levels and with trade union representatives, representatives of staff associations, and workers' representatives about proposals for change, as well as being a legal requirement in health and safety terms, are of paramount importance in dealing with change.

Incentive Schemes

Health and safety is usually viewed with a certain amount of indifference by most staff as being dull and uninteresting. Motivation towards greater interest and involvement in health and safety can be generated by incentive schemes, although they need to be carefully organised and monitored. It is important not to link them to incident/accident rates, as this can lead to under-reporting of incidents. They are an inexpensive means of promoting health and safety but need the support of management and unions to be completely successful.

Feedback

We have already referred to feedback a number of times in this study unit. It is a necessary component of the communication process and fundamental to managing change effectively.

New legislation, instructions, rules, regulations, plans, etc. may look marvellously efficient on paper but the proof of the pudding, we all know, is in the eating.



7.8 Implementing the Change - Indirect Methods.

Feedback from the worker or operator "at the sharp end" will enable management to evaluate the new processes and fine-tune them where necessary.


In many cases, the introduction of change is accompanied by conflict within an organisation. It is sometimes said that in order to introduce change, management must be able to resolve conflicts.

Organisational conflict may be defined as "any perceived clash of interests between individuals, groups or levels of authority in an organisation". The key element in the definition is "perceived". There may be differences of interest within an organisation, but it is when these surface and are perceived as important that problems arise. Change can act to magnify clashes of interest, as it shakes up existing relationships.

An Analysis of Conflict.

There are various types of conflict which can arise when change is introduced.

Horizontal Conflict. This refers to perceived disputes and clashes between approximate equals, e.g. when managers conflict with other managers or employees with other employees.

Vertical Conflict This refers to perceived clashes of interest between people at different levels of an organisation, e.g. conflicts between employees and managers, or supervisors and those below or above them.

Organised and Unorganised Conflict Organised conflict refers to action of one group against another, taken through the recognised channels for complaints or disputes. In contrast, unorganised conflict involves spontaneous eruptions of disputes.

Another distinction can be made between collective action in a conflict situation, where a whole group acts in unison to further its case in a dispute, and individual action, which arises when a single worker finds himself in conflict with other workers, or with management.

Origins of Conflict During Periods of Change.

There are a number of basic causes of conflict which may flare up when change is taking place in organisations. These include:

(a) Personality Clashes

Change often brings people of differing personalities into new relationships at work.

Differences of temperament are at their most abrasive when people are new to each other; a measure of tolerance may build up over time.

Personality clashes may take place with both horizontal and vertical conflict. New managers can face hostility both from existing managers and existing employees.

(b) Communications

Poor communications in periods of change can lead to misunderstandings and confusion, which can fuel conflict.

Absence of trust in communications is unsettling and demotivating. We previously saw how inconsistent management behaviour can bring about mistrust and uncertainty, leading to a complete breakdown in




relations between management and workforce.

(c) Conflicting Interests

This is at the root of the nature of conflict. Change can alter the power relationships within an organisation, e.g. many middle managers feel threatened by the extensive use of computers, while at the same time computer experts gain power and influence.

(d) Lack of Leadership and Control

Poor leadership and control can result in a lack of clear direction which, in turn, can lead to conflict as various people interpret the scenario for change in different ways.

Question 1.

____ This refers to perceived clashes of interest between people at different levels of an organisation, e.g. conflicts between employees and managers, or supervisors and those below or above them.

Question 2.

Competence of employees is achieved through: Question 3.

Co-operation is achieved through: Question 4.

According to Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, physiological needs are satisfied by: Question 5.

An indicator of a positive health and safety culture is: 7.10 Coping with Conflict.

All the guidelines suggested to assist management to cope with change are applicable to coping with conflict. However, these guidelines operate within two broad approaches to conflict, which are:

Unitary Approach This involves the notion of the common aims of the whole organisation. The argument here is that both workers and management really have the same basic interests and these are rooted in the well-being of the organisation.

According to this view, conflicts arise because workers do not fully appreciate where their true interests lie.

The unitary approach puts some blame on management when conflicts break out - management must have failed to communicate with, and convince, workers that their best interests lie in cooperation and not conflict.

Followers of this approach say that the way to tackle conflict at its roots is to generate team spirit, company loyalty and good working conditions.

Pluralist Approach This recognises that the organisation is made up of various groups whose interests and goals may differ. The unitary perspective is related to scientific management. Recognition of the pluralist goals in an organisation is more realistic, and conflicting parties will both benefit from identifying issues of compatibility.

The way to control conflict is to balance the various groups. It is argued that where strong management works alongside strong trade unions, each side respects the other and does not lightly enter into conflict.



7.10 Coping with Conflict.

The causes of conflict are brought out into the open and hard bargaining takes place, but serious disruption to the work of the organisation is avoided.

Generally, managers adopt the unitary approach to conflict and change, while trade unions favour the pluralist approach.

7.11 Video: Culture .

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Alternatively you can download the video to watch at your convenience.

Download Video 7.12 Summary .

In this study unit we have looked, in general terms, at the concept of culture within an organisation, and then shifted the focus onto safety culture.

We have examined how to identify and measure cultural indicators, and demonstrated the importance of motivation, communication and commitment in promoting and maintaining a positive safety culture.

We also considered how a negative safety culture could be induced by bad or indifferent management. Unless there is a clear commitment within the organisation, good communication, trust and shared common values, there will be resistance to change. However, with these in place, the organisation should be able to take most changes in its stride.



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IDIP UnitA Element6

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