COVID-19 numbers are at an all time high in the country. Remember the 3 Ws: Watch your distance, Wear your mask and Wash your hands. Hand Hygiene is vital in the fight against COVID-19, the following video shows you the right and the wrong way to hand wash – it’s worth a watch to make sure you’re doing it right!
Health & Safety News
Working from Home
Are you back working from home due to COVID-19 Level 5 lockdown? Do you know how to set up your workstation properly? Correct DSE/VDU set up is very important for good ergonomics and to maintain good posture.
In this video, you will get advice on how to set up at the kitchen table or home office. Stay safe, stay healthy!
HSA Changes in the First Aid Standard
The standard in relation to First Aid in the workplace is changing and it will impact on businesses in terms of cost of training. The Health and Safety Authority are the ones that are responsible for standards in relation to this. The standard is moving from QQI/FETAC to PHECC (Pre Hospital Emergency Care Council).
Currently training providers can take 10 participants on a 3 day Occupational First Aid Course (QQI) but this is now changing to 6 participants on a 3 day First Aid Responder Course (PHECC). The Occupational First Aid Refresher Course is currently 1 day (with 10 participants) but this is changing to a 2 day First Aid Responder Refresher (with 6 participants). This will impact on the cost of training, which will impact on the cost to businesses.
This change takes place on 1st September 2017. In the meantime the existing Occupational First Aid standard will be effective until 31st August 2017. Should anyone require any further information, please contact our office on 041-9822933.
HSA to begin inspection campaign to tackle vehicle risks at work
The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) will begin a nationwide work related vehicle safety inspection and information campaign on Monday (22 May). The campaign will last two weeks and will focus on four key sectors: Transport and Logistics; Wholesale and Retail; Waste and Recycling and Manufacturing.
The purpose of the campaign is to make sure that employers are aware of their legal responsibilities for managing vehicle risks, and to help them reduce the likelihood of accidents occurring.
Over the last 6 years, just under half (45%) of all workplace fatalities have involved vehicles. In the same period nearly one in five (18%) of all non-fatal accidents were vehicle related.
An analysis of HSA accident statistics indicates that the majority of these fatalities occurred during the manoeuvring, reversing or coupling and uncoupling of vehicles. Non-fatal injuries generally occurred during the manual handling of loads or as the result of falls from vehicles.Deirdre Sinnott, Senior Inspector with the HSA says that the risks can be reduced by focusing on four key areas.
“Firstly, employers should have a vehicle risk management policy that covers all vehicle related activities in the workplace. This includes not only vehicles operated by employees but also those visiting that need to be managed and controlled. It is also important that procedures are in place to eliminate and control known risks associated with: driving for work, loading and unloading, deliveries and collections, parking, reversing and manoeuvring. Then safety information, instruction and training should be provided for all employees and finally, a method to record and learn from all incidents or near misses and take corrective action where necessary.”There are free short on-line courses, aimed at helping employers to manage work related vehicle safety, on the HSA e-learning portal http://hsalearning.ie
Also, freely available guidance and resources can be found on the HSA website.
Fact or Fiction: Health & Safety Costs Money?
A common question we are asked is “How much is this going to cost?” Well, health and safety costs money doesn’t it? Installing safety devices, training, monitoring, checks and inspections, not to mention time spent on paperwork, it all adds up. So how can health and safety save you money?
Well yes, it is true to say that health and and safety management and measures cost money. But there is also a return on investment – the ROI, and of course, a cost to not having any health and safety measures in place.
Take this simple example, there is a cost of £50.00 to replace a guard on a piece of machinery. There is no other purpose for the guard except to stop the risk of entanglement or personal injury to an employee. £50.00 is the cost.
So why not save yourself money and not put the guard in place – there are 3 guiding principles in health and safety – the legal requirement, the economic requirement and the moral requirement. The question is always – “have you met your health and safety requirements?”. If you don’t put the guard in place and a person is injured then the person is off work for two weeks, you bear the costs involved of downtime, staff cover, equipment damage and investigation – not forgetting that you have to report this accident to the Health & Safety Authority. The total costs could be around £750.00. Now add in any possible payouts for fines and legal costs that may follow and the increase in insurance premiums.
Look at the £50.00 safety measure that could have prevented that accident, and automatically you have saved yourself €700.00.Penny wise and pound foolish! You are probably thinking that this makes sense but you might just see that £50 cost, and not really consider that you have just saved your business a whole lot of money and hassle.
This is just a simple example, but you can learn from other health and safety failings to appreciate the cost of failing to put in place good health and safety management.
With health and safety the return on investment is rarely immediate. There is a risk of much higher costs in the future, due to that health and safety failing.Health and safety measures might not just save you money against future costs. Health and safety measures might also save you money from costs that are already eating into your business profits.
For example, a business might identify a problem with manual handling within the workforce. Regular absences due to back issues, slips, trips and falls, and general accidents and ill health surrounding the movement of materials on site.
Adding up the costs of absences, loss of productivity, downtime, staff cover, staff turnover and recruitment costs, over a year period, is costing this fictional business in the region of £50,000 additional costs.
Once this has been identified, the business invests £10,000 in extra measures including new equipment, training, a campaign to raise awareness and better monitoring.
The results were that the company saved a staggering 50% of the costs they were experiencing due to poor manual handling practices.
| Cost: | Annual Saving: | Saving (5 Years): |
| -£10,000 | £25,000 | £115,000 |
The above might be a fictional example, but the potential cost savings are real.
When looking at the cost of health and safety, don’t just think about how much you will need to spend to put better health and safety practices and procedures in the place, but also the savings that you could make.
EMS & Associates proud sponsors of Facebook & Networking Seminar
On Wednesday July 22nd, Drogheda Chamber will be holding a Facebook workshop which will take place from 9.30 – 12 pm in The Westcourt Hotel. Colm Hanratty from sixtwo digital will be our guest speaker for this event. This workshop will cover best practices for sharing content, Facebook advertising, Facebook Insights, building a strategy and much more.
This event is kindly sponsored by EMS & Associates.EMS & Associates, who are based in East Coast Business Park in Drogheda, are Consultants, Auditors and Trainers specialising in Health & Safety and Business Management. They are a Quality Assured FETAC/QQI Training Centre, an Irish Heart Foundation Training Site and a Solas Approved Training Organisation and, this year, celebrated 20 years in business.
For more information and for booking details visit our website.