Employees face many risks at their workplaces, a fact that has made it very necessary to have appropriate legislations to address the same. Like in other jurisdictions, various health and safety regulations are in force in the UK and all employers, regardless of nature of work, are required by law to put in place appropriate health and safety measures at their premises for the benefit of their employees. All the legislations are captured in the Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974, which is applicable throughout the UK including Wales.
The various legislations in force cover wide areas related to workplaces. They include Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations of 1999, Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations of 1998, Manual Handling Operations Regulations of 1992, Workplace Health, Safety and Welfare Regulations of 1992, Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations of 1992 and Health and Safety Regulations of 1992 that cover display screen equipments. While these are the major regulations, there are others also in force. Such include those covering chemicals, transportation of dangerous goods and electricity at work.
In order to implement the various regulations in specific work places, all employers re required under the Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974 to prepare and have a suitable Health And Safety Plan in place. The plan should ideally have the name of the company or organization responsible at a workplace. The plan should state the purpose for which it is prepared, which should be to establish mechanisms for implementing a company’s or organization’s safety program at the workplace.
A Health And Safety Plan is usually a component of a broad health and safety policy document that indicates a company’s or organization’s commitment to providing a safe and healthy working environment for all employees, recognizing their importance not only to the company but to their families as well. Through the policy, a company or organization shows its commitment to continuously improve the effectiveness of its health and safety systems through the establishment of appropriate health and safety programs.
A well designed Health And Safety Plan should ideally have such programs as provision of First Aid, Fire Prevention program, health and safety monitoring program, emergency program and incident/accident reporting mechanisms amongst others. Under the Act, all employers are also obligated to display approved Health and Safety Information for Employees Regulations (HSIER) poster n a prominent position. In addition, employers are obligated to issue all their employees with a copy of the poster.
Failure on part of employers to adhere to Health And Safety Plan regulations throughout the UK attracts varied penalties. Such include summary conviction with a fine and cancellation of business license. In addition, employees who suffer injuries because of breach of the regulations by employers have a cause of action under tort law against an employer.
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