Are you ensuring your employees safety?

Your employees safety is key to your business success. Failure to keep your employees safe can be expensive.

The general public is now savvy when it comes to health safety at work. For example, the general public will video, take images and send the footage to the HSE as they did in the case below.

Many small businesses sail close to the wind with regard to health and safety, but they don’t have to; with some essential support, we can ensure you run your business safely.

Director responsibilities

As a director, your first job should be to review your company’s health and safety policy document and ensure you are happy with it.

Legislation that covers the responsibilities of a director

• The Health and Safety at Work, etc Act 1974
• The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
• Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007

Learn more about directors’ health and safety responsibilities.

Employees safety case study

Tyldesley-based firm IQ Roofing Solutions was prosecuted after a member of the public snapped the worker on the roof.

A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector visited in the site the same day on June 6 last year and issued a prohibition notice, ordering the staff to come down until scaffolding or other safety measures had been introduced.

Boss Stuart Bell, managing director of the firm, had been at the site earlier that day and knew work would be carried out without scaffolding, a court heard.

The firm, of Nelson Street in Tyldesley, had previously been served with a prohibition notice in 2011 following unsafe working practices.

Trafford Magistrates Court heard that IQ Roofing Solutions was unable to provide proof that it held employers’ liability insurance — a legal requirement — which allows workers to claim compensation if they are injured at work.

The business pleaded guilty to two breaches of work-at-height regulations and to a breach of the Employers’ Liability Act.

The company was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay £2,000 court costs.
A fine of £1,000 was issued to Mr Bell along with £1,619 prosecution costs after he admitted two breaches of the work-at-height regulations.

Laura Moran, HSE Inspector, said: “Falls from height are responsible for about a third of workplace deaths every year, with 25 people losing their lives in 2012 and 2013 alone.

“I’d therefore like to thank the member of the public who alerted us to the work, as they may well have prevented a serious injury.

“Both IQ Roofing Solutions and Stuart Bell put workers’ lives in danger by allowing them onto a slippery roof without safety measures in place. This meant that workers could have been badly injured if they had slipped and fallen to the ground below.

“If workers had been injured, then they may not have been able to claim compensation as the firm also failed to provide us with any proof that it had employers’ liability insurance.” Employees safety is paramount to our work at HSE.

Competent safety advisor

One way to help yourself is to have your own health and safety advisor. You can delegate all health and safety responsibilities to this third-party person. Your safety advisor will educate you on what you need to do to keep your business safe.

If an accident does occur on-site, and the company has all health and safety requirements up to date, the safety advisor will deal with HSE for you.

A safety advisor can save you time and money for a basic monthly fee.

Request a chat and find out more about our safety advisor service