To avoid serious or even fatal accidents, remember that any work undertaken on a roof needs to be carefully planned and then only undertaken by trained, competent workers.
5 Tips to Help Ensure Workers Are Kept Safe When Working on Roofs:
- Do a risk assessment to identify the hazards inherent in the work. This might include falling through holes or fragile parts of the roof, or falling from the edges. Always aim to prevent a fall off the edge by using guardrails and toe boards, and label any fragile roof areas and prevent people from walking on them.
- Work out how to minimise the distance and consequence if a fall was to occur, by considering both individual and collective controls to determine which one might be most appropriate or if a combination of both would be better. Individual measures relate to how one person might be protected, such as by using a suitable harness, and collective protection could include the use of guard rails or nets.
- Inform all workers of the plan for undertaking the work safely, and the way in which the job is to be carried out. Include information such as the correct access and egress points, the location of any fragile areas such as roof lights, and the equipment – for example a harness – that is to be used. Make sure this information is also given to subcontractors.
- Ensure that workers are competent to do the job, and have received appropriate work at height training.
- Determine how workers will access roofs safely by providing items such as access hatches, fixed scaffold towers and mobile access equipment for them to use.
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There are many accidents each year involving members of the public on workplace premises. Take action now to make sure your sites are safe for visitors to enter.
Tips to Ensure your Workplace is Safe for Members of the Public:
- Do a risk assessment to identify where your hazards are that could harm someone new or unfamiliar to the premises. Think about the layout of the site, and how someone could be run over or knocked into by workplace transport or machinery. Consider the work environment – are there trip hazards, pot holes or projecting objects that could injure someone? Remove these or draw attention to them with barriers and bright paint.
- Train workers in the dangers surrounding visitors on site – for example, make them aware of the speed limit in yards – and ensure that they know the safe system of work when undertaking activities. Induct visitors to site before they are allowed onto the premises, and give verbal information to short-term visitors such as customers on anything pertinent to their health and safety.
- Conduct regular site inspections to identify any hazards such as missing barriers and broken or loose floor tiles. Record these items and follow them up to ensure they have been rectified.
- Provide adequate signage to ensure visitors know where to go, and to highlight dangers such as ‘no go’ areas for non-employees.
- Ensure there is clear segregation for pedestrians from workplace transport at all times. Use designated walkways, barriers and lines painted on the floor as appropriate.
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The safety devices installed by manufacturers are there for a reason – it’s therefore vitally important that all of your employees know not to remove them or adapt them.
Tips to Ensure your Machinery Safety Measures Meet the Grade:
- Undertake a risk assessment to identify machinery that your workers use which could give rise to harm – for example items with rotating blades, moving chains or hot components. Check that all items have the necessary guarding in place to prevent access to these dangerous parts. Provide additional safety devices – preferably of the fixed variety – if guarding is not currently in place.
- Do not allow employees to remove safety devices installed by the manufacturer. Provide clear information for workers on what the device looks like, how it should be fitted, and why it is in place.
- Train workers on how to use equipment properly, and to replace any removed safety devices immediately, for example during specified work such as maintenance or the cleaning of machines.
- Supervise workers undertaking machinery tasks and ensure that checks are made on the presence of safety devices before work starts.
- Regularly inspect machinery to look for defects, and to check that guarding and other devices are in place and that they are in a good condition. Remove machinery from use until any defects have been remedied, and all safety devices have been put back on.
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Homeworking can present challenges to both employers and employees. For employers, this can include managing staff who work on their own and away from the main business base. For employees, it can include overcoming feelings of isolation and managing the boundaries between home and work life.
Employers have a duty of care for all their employees, and the requirements of the health and safety legislation apply to homeworkers. The employer is responsible for carrying out a risk assessment to check whether the proposed home workplace’s ventilation, temperature, lighting, space, chair, desk and computer, or any kind of workstation, and floor are suitable for the tasks the homeworker will be carrying out.
The employer is responsible for the equipment it supplies, but it is the employee’s responsibility to rectify any flaws in the home highlighted by the assessment. Once the home workplace has passed the assessment, it is the employee who is responsible for keeping it that way.
However, it is essential to keep in mind that you are responsible for the health, safety and welfare of your home workers, even though they are not working from your premises. You have an obligation to carry out a Health & Safety Risk Assessment on the home worker’s premises, and to ensure that any requirements of your Employers’ Liability Insurance are met.
Employers must also:
- ensure that the equipment the home worker uses is fit for purpose
- test, certify and maintain any electrical equipment you provide (such as a company laptop)
- ensure that lighting levels and computer glare are at appropriate levels – and don’t forget that home workers are also entitled to an eye test paid for by their employer
- reduce the risk of trips and falls by ensuring home workers tidy away loose cables
- provide adequate training to allow the employee to work safely
- create an emergency plan so that the alarm can be raised and medical attention sought without delay
- maintain appropriate records of serious accidents, illness or injuries.
It is also important to properly assess potential home workers to ensure that they don’t have a medical condition that would make it unsafe for them to work alone, and that they aren’t assigned tasks that should not be undertaken unaccompanied.
If you require advice or assistance, please contact us.
Falls from height through fragile roofs are all too common. Take steps today to ensure you employ competent contractors and make sure all parties on site work together safely.
Tips for Managing Contractors and Subcontractors
- Always check the credentials of contractors before employing them to ensure they are experienced, qualified and competent to do the work. Verify what checks they will carry out on any companies they subcontract work to, to ensure the same applies.
- Ensure a risk assessment has been carried out which covers all of the work activities to be undertaken by all parties on site. Make sure the contents are agreed, and that the necessary control measures have been identified.
- Make sure clear lines of responsibility are written down in the work plan. Check it states who is responsible for which safety measures, and how and when they will be used, inspected and maintained.
- Establish clear lines of communication between all parties from the outset. Make sure the main contractor organises inductions for all workers before they start work on site, and that they intend to hold regular site meetings to discuss safety and health matters.
- Provide training for your staff who will deal with contractors in relation to checking their competence and asking the right questions about how the job will be carried out safely.
Contact us, should you need assistance.
