News
May 2010
Trial date set for States Employment Board
On the 23rd April 2010, the States Employment Board (SEB) appeared before the Royal Court to answer to a charge under Article 3 of the Health and Safety at Work (Jersey) Law 1989, which places a duty on employers to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of their employees at work.
SEB’s appearance in court arose as a result of an investigation into an accident which occurred on the 22nd April 2008 where a Leading Deckhand working on the States Tug, the Duke of Normandy, sustained a serious crush injury to his right foot whilst working a rope on a hydraulic winch. The injury resulted in all the toes of his right foot having to be amputated.
SEB did not admit the charge so a trial date has been set for the 7-9 September 2010.
May 2010 - News from IOSH conference
War zone safety
How do you convince war-zone journalists that health and safety is relevant to them? Former reporter Alison Wright Reid, now health and safety manager for Ofcom, told IOSH delegates about her experience of this issue when working for the BBC. She observed that "health and safety started in war" - in fact, HMS Victory was riddled with health and safety measures, even down to the colour of the paintwork to prevent friendly fire. But until recently there was a sense of ’journalistic immunity’ that gave reporters a culture of risk-acceptance alongside their moral sense of a need to bear witness in the thick of battle.
The need for a safety culture intensified with the use of media as a weapon in places like Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, where journalists became as much of a target as the armed forces. Alison described the ’moral epithany’ of a BBC executive during the siege of Dubrovnik, which led to health and safety being priortised over everthing else - and how tapping into the ’tribal culture’ of news journalists meant that any safety measures that were adopted spread quickly - even among reporters from competing channels.
In conclusion she revealed that most war journalists are not actually killed in the ’fog of war’. Instead, they are targeted by people who want to silence them - so health and safety focuses heavily on how they can tell if they’re being stalked.
Festival safety
Tim Roberts spoke of managing health and safety at Glastonbury Festival - how to ensure 175,000 revellers come to no harm. Tim has been in charge of this operation for 10 years. In a ’city with no permanent infrastructure’ where people come to escape normality, his team need to ’make craziness happen safely’.
He spoke of how his work with local police and emergency serivices had paid dividends, in terms of festival safety and shared expertise, many local authorities are now recognised for their knowledge of handling this type of event. Preparation is a year-round process and each festival is reviewed as soon as it has been dismantled. Along with his team of 14 health and safety officers, the festivals 25,000 strong workforce are casual staff, including students, who work for the price of their ticket and who all need training to work safely in Glastonbury’s unique atmosphere.
Tim had plenty of examples to illustrate the success of his collaborative approach to health and safety. A photo of a van plastered with hand-painted health and safety signs, belonging to a Welsh anarchist who works at the festival every year, showed that Tim is getting his message across.
However, the most striking mark of success was that at last year’s festival, there were just four reportable injures.
Disasters - learning the lessons for a safer world
Many people gathered to meet author David Eves at the launch of the latest IOSH book, Disasters: learning the lessons for a safer world.
This book looks at more than 90 accidents, incidents and safety failures over the last 200 years. It gives background information on each incident, looking at what happened and why, befrore exploring wider consequences and implications.
David said "every inquiry into a major diaster demands that lessons should be learned, but all too often, they are soon forgotten and the same mistakes are repeated again and agaain. This book includes sotries of success as well as failure.
April 2010
WORLD HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK DAY APRIL 28TH
Despite the UK having one of the best health and safety records in the world, there were still 180 workplace fatalities in Britain in 2008/09. Many more die as a result of diseases incurred when they are working. Every year, for example, there are around 4,000 cancer deaths due to past exposure to asbestos. And every working day, over 400 people are seriously injured at work. Accidents and ill health are estimated to cost society £20 billion a year. But it’s virtually impossible, of course, to measure the human suffering involved.
UK Health and Safety Record
1.2 million people who worked during the last year 2008/9 were suffering from an illness (long standing as well as new cases) they believed was caused or made worse by their current or past work. 551 000 of these were new cases.
180 workers were killed at work, a rate of 0.6 per 100 000 workers.
131 895 other injuries to employees were reported under RIDDOR, a rate of 502.2 per 100 000 employees.
246 000 reportable injuries occurred, according to the Labour Force Survey, a rate of 870 per 100 000 workers.
29.3 million days were lost overall (1.24 days per worker), 24.6 million due to work-related ill health and 4.7 million due to workplace injury.
These figures do not include work road-related deaths and injuries.
March 2010
On the 5 March 2010, amendment No. 4 to the Health and Safety at Work (Jersey) Law, 1989, which was passed by the States on the 12th May 2009, was registered in the Royal Court after being sanctioned by Her Majesty.
This amendment, to Article 3 of the law, has clarified the need for employers to carry out risk assessments to ensure the health and safety of their employees.
It also requires the findings of the assessments of significant risks to be recorded and the written health and safety policy to be in a language which will be understood by all employees of an employer.
February 2010
PAT testing. To test or not to test. The Health and Safety Inspectorate have kindly agreed for us to add their guidance note on this subject to our site and is available under Links and Downloads.
December 2009
Blind daredevil back’s HSE campaign.
A disabled extreme sport enthusiast has lent his support to HSE’s common sense health and safety pledge.
He has abseiled down a 100 metre waterfall with an inspector from the HSE’s Adventure Activities Licensing Authority Management Group.
It’s part of the ongoing battle to stop the ’elf and safety’ stories that blame various activities being banned.
Dean Dunbar says ’If you really want to do something, the only thing holding you back is you - not non existent health and safety legislation’.
The website gives you further information about Dean, about the extreme sports he has undertaken, lists the companies he has used that have good health and safety committment, plus takes a look at some of the weirdest forms of ’extreme sports’.
Visit extreme dreams here
November 2009
The Jersey Fire & Rescue Services will be running the Fire training from next year.
The Fire Awareness course has been updated and anyone who has attended this cousrse in the last 3 years can automatcially book either of the other two.
New courses are - Fire Marhsal - Fire Extinguisher
Launching in April 2010, they will be run twice monthly, with the fire awareness a.m., then alternate afternoons for the marshal and extinguisher trianing.
To book a place call 01534 445933 or email communityfiresafety@gov.je
November 2009
ACAS, The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service in the UK, has released a booklet entitled ’Health, Work and wellbeingt’. It seeks to clarify the interaction between health and wellbeing at work, focusing on the relationships between the line managers and employees, importance of getting employees involved and job design, flexible working and the use of occupational health.
The six indicators of a healthy workplace they list as:
1. Line Managers are confident and trained in people skills
2. Employees feel valued and involved in the organisation
3. Managers use occupational health and other services where appropriate to help people get back to work
4. Managers promote an attendance culture by conducting return to work discussions
5. Jobs are flexible and well designed
6. Managers know how to manage common health problems such as mental health and musculoskeletal disorders
To read the booklet in full click here
July 2009
The States of Jersey were fined £10,000 in the Royal Court on Friday 31 July for putting two workers were exposed to asbestos during work on the redevelopment of the Clos de Roncier estate.
The court heard that the offence came to light after a resident, who had prior knowledge of asbestos removal, highlighted the danger in February (2008). Also in the dock was Coastline PVCu Products Ltd, contracted by the Housing Department to carry out the works.
Week 20 July
JSC urge firms to be more proactive in health and safety to avoid unwanted prosecution. To view the press release click here
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June 2009
Congratulations to the latest candidates taking the NEBOSH certificate in Jersey. 5 passes with credit.
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Stories seem to be coming thick and fast in the papers about health and safety bureaucracy and bans. Latest is risk assessment for the coastguard service prior to leaving on an emergency. The HSE has a good cartoon it calls ’Myth of the Month’ which is always good to check out. www.hse.gov.uk/myth
On the subject of bans, in actual fact little has been banned. It is about taking practical steps to manage real risk, the only thing banned is asbestos.