Ladder Safety

References to Ladder Safety that may be of value

Hazard Management can sometimes include just looking at your use of basic equipment, and how  safety applies to the use of ladders. This excellent article on ladder safety is worth referring to if you use ladders in your workplace. In New Zealand the DoL issued an construction bulletin of ladder use, and while old (1998) the points are still valid.

Hazard Management techniques can analyse a workplace in a number of ways e.g. process, task, location. If the use of ladders is not obvious in your workplace, reviewing the process may discover that you do need a device to climb, and that a ladder may be required. You will then need to consider the safety points detailed in the safety ladder links on this page.

Safety Conferences have a place in Training

Conferences can be one of the most valuable ways to increase your safety performance. When you have a limited training budget for your staff there are a number of things you can do. But it’s a compromise between time and money. The more money you have, the shorter the time need to spend learning the safety trade. For example, at one extreme you could engage a consultant to review your business and find out what exactly you need to know, and set up an appropriate training program. Or at the other extreme your business can set about employing someone and sending them on courses to learn and become accredited.

You need safety CPD

Regardless, some kind of ongoing safety core professional development (CPD) is required. Conferences and seminars are a great way to send people onto safety shorter 'courses' to maintain a watching brief on best-practices in the safety industry. While the attendee may only learn enough to pique their interest, they can then spend time and energy after the safety conference researching what generally are the cutting edge and leading innovations. Some of the best results are the networks gained. You will find people having similar challenges who will be able to give you a steer, or at least tell you they found worked for them - and what didn't work.

Include safety seminars

Don't discount the value of safety conferences and seminars just because they are not giving the attendee a credit or certificate at the end. Build a balanced safety training program which includes attendance at seminars and safety conferences.

Safety Standards in New Zealand; The NZSC or NZISM?

Safety Standards in New Zealand; The NZSC or NZISM?

In New Zealand there are two main professional groups for safety managers and advisors to be a part of. There are many more for smaller professional bodies, which can be found under the OHSIG umbrella e.g. Occupational Health Nurses. But for general safety work, the New Zealand Safety Council (NZSC) and the New Zealand Institute of Safety Management (NZISM) both aim to set the standard for safety professionals. And yes, they are effectively set up in competition with each other.

Why 2 safety bodies?

A few years ago I started searching online to find a body to be registered to, and was surprised to discover these 2 groups. I decided to write to the heads of both and ask why. Why should I join your group, and why are you guys not working together? What I found was that the NZSC was set up out of frustration of where the NZISM was going, or not going. As a fledging to this industry I had no history or baggage about either group, so my only concern was to join the body that I believed had the most rigorous standards. My thinking was that if they ever amalgamated, I wouldn't have to redo the work. Interestingly, Australia are going through the same growing pains with the establishment of a newly formed SIWA Ltd, set up in competition and founded by some ex-leaders of SIA (Safety Institute of Australia). 

Which safety body is right for you

Recently though the NZISM have aligned themselves with IOSH. I like the international framework membership IOSH provides, and in addition the Department of Labour have committed all their staff to the NZISM/IOSH framework. Which can only help swing momentum back to the NZISM. This development is a threat to the NZSC, which is a shame. I believe the competition has stimulated both groups into finding innovative solutions to be the benchmark for the setting of a safety standard(s) in New Zealand. Personally, I am registered as a professional to both the NZSC and recently the NZISM in order to leverage off the good work from both groups. If you are looking at joining one of these safety bodies, why not give both a whirl?

ACC OSH Audit and Experience Rating System

As of April 2001 the ACC are changing the way they reward New Zealand businesses for having a working OSH system. The approach currently is to assess a business’s OSH system and then reward the company with a discount on their ACC levy, in the order of 10, 15 or 20%. However, what the ACC were finding is that 2 businesses in the same industry may both be receiving the maximum 20% discount, but 1 business may have a low accident rate compared to the other. That is, the results are completely different, which really was the aim of providing a discount - to encourage better outcomes. In theory, an approved OSH system in place would lower the accident and injury rate, but there was little financial incentive (from the ACC) to do more than pass the ACC audit.

OSH and the Experience Rating

So the ACC are halving the discount programs (now a max of 10%) and adding in an experience rating. The idea is to encourage a business to have an OSH system in place (passing the audit), but to further reward or even penalise a business if they have poor results. The actual detail behind the scheme can be found in this link, but in a nutshell if you are a business currently paying <$10k in annual levies, you will be assessed for a non-claims bonus. Just like you are for any other insurance product. If you are a big business paying more than $10k in annual levies, you will be compared to other business in your industry group, and the levy will be reduced OR increased by as much as 50%.

What to do with your OSH system then?

Whatever size your business it is clear then there are direct rewards and incentives for having an OSH system in place. And as the ACC have telegraphed the levies will steadily increase over the decade, it's important to get the OSH system reviewed, working and in place immediately.

Safety, NASA and Risk Management Lessons

NASA recently presented an safety award to a one of their own 30 year + employees, for being ‘ instrumental in reshaping NASA's safety and mission assurance program. He is a founding member of the agency's Office of Safety and Mission Assurance. He managed the major revision of the NASA Safety Manual, establishing the framework for new standards.’ In an earlier blog I have written about the benefits of engaging employees by acknowledging achievements. 

However, it is strange that at the same time NASA are giving an award, they are releasing the results of an internal safety investigation which concluded they got it so wrong over this same period. NASA has now admitted that they seriously underestimated the chances of a major safety accident (they say catastrophic, not major – but for a high risk industry like rocket launches, they are the same thing!). NASA managers thought this chance was 1 in a 100,000 and engineers thought it was closer to 1 in 100. The reality, looking back over the last 30 years, is that it was about a 1 in 10 of a major disaster.

There is no doubt there was major financial, political and social pressures to continue with the NASA program during the 80s. I can see a safety manager being stuck somewhere in the muck of getting the managers to listen to the engineers. In the managers mind, engineers would have been blowing up the significance of safety. The engineers would have wondered how managers can place the risk as a 1000 times less likely than their own calculations.

Perhaps the lesson here when statistics are used to make decisions in your own workplace is to choose the conservative option. NASA are now closing down the Shuttle program. Don’t allow the same thing happen within your business.  

OSH Prevention Better Than Emergency Response

Before OSH, for centuries people intuitively knew that it was better to stop things you don't want happening, than deal with the fallout. 'A stitch in time saves times' I can remember my mother saying. Or the famous ‘Preventions is better than cure' by Benjamin Franklin. I’m sure if we could go further back in time we'd find many such wise words of wisdom that were used in the home long before they applied to the OSH workplace.

So how do we apply OSH in the workplace today? Basically, we do so by having strict laws at a government level, or reward companies for better safety performance. The idea is if a business cannot see the OSH benefits themselves, then the government will use the carrot and the stick approach to ensure OSH is implemented.

Having got a business to this point, a point which has a system in place and an interest (vice a preferred passion!) for doing right by the workers, than something new is required. To improve OSH performance than we have to change the OSH culture within the business and one way to do that is get the employees involved. Here are some ideas on how to do that:

Give an award - People like positive recognition. I read a book called 'Whale Done' which was all about how businesses got motivated when their people were positively recognised. In the story a small whale on an office table was grabbed and given; the whale a the symbol of a ‘Well Done’. Give a person or a team an OSH award of some kind, remembering it’s the sentiment not the actual award which is important. It doesn’t even have to be a public award - give someone a handshake in your office, or quietly at the workplace as personal thanks.

Award an Dinner voucher. Maybe this can be picked from those that had received a ‘Whale Done’ type award over the year. Or month. Some companies give away a monthly $50 movie voucher or even a day off! Go ahead and ask your employees now; what reward or recognition would help them move your OSH safety performance now?

Ladder Safety

In your business, it can be the obvious things like ladder safety that catch you out. In the UK alone an average of 12 people die every year in workplaces, let alone what happens in the home. This example is one of many that occurs.

What you need to do when completing hazard identification is to include the good-old and trusted basic checklists, which include such things as basic housekeeping. Look at it from a new employees point of view walking into your workplace - what do they see. Because that is exactly how potential customers will view your company. Are you professional, with well maintained and clean equipment? Such practices may mean for example reducing oil lying around on concrete floors creating a slip hazard, or corrosive material on equipment damaging the safety properties of the equipment. For a ladder, you are looking to make sure the mechanical workings are still functioning.

Sometimes it just takes an outsider to see the obvious. I had a recent client describe a contractor in the building doing some maintenance work. They lent the builder their rickety ladder and when I pointed out they would be liable for any injury, they immediately recognised the ladder was sub-standard. Do yourself a favour now - go and make sure all your equipment is functioning correctly, starting with ladder safety.

ACC OSH Accident Data for 2009

In the US, OSHA released it's top 10 most cited violations for 2010. They were:

1. Scaffolding, General

2. Fall Protection

3. Hazard Communication

4. Respiratory Protection

5. Ladders

6. Lockout/Tagout

7. Electrical, Wiring Methods

8. Powered Industrial Trucks

9. Electrical, General

10. Machine Guarding

These violations make up nearly half of all violations.

In Oct 2010 the 2009 work-related OSH claims were released by the ACC.

In 2009 (all figures are provisional unless stated otherwise):

· Sprains and strains were the most common type of work-related injury claim.

· 94,400 claims were made for sprain and strain injuries (44 percent of all claims).

· 213,000 claims were made for work-related injuries.

· 71 percent of work-related injury claims were for males (an incidence rate of 142 claims per 1,000 FTEs), greater than that for females (73 claims per 1,000 FTEs).

· Workers aged 45–54 made more claims for work-related injuries than any other age group, with 50,100 claims (24 percent of all claims).

· Trades workers, plant and machine operators and assemblers, and agriculture and fishery workers made 48 percent of work-related injury claims.

If we could tie in the US with the NZ data, I am sure we would find NZ had a similar number of OSH violations to the US, and the US a similar injury category breakdown. New Zealand can learn a lot from leveraging off the OSH research of the larger countries.

Trench Safety

Figure 1 Trench Safety

I've heard a safety professional describe a trench as a grave without the ends. They were referring to the fact that unless the trench is shaped and shored (using wood etc to support the face of the trench walls) correctly then it can collapse on those working at the bottom of the trench. In the US alone, this accounts for 5000 injuries and 100 fatalities per year. Similarly, in the UK trench safety injuries are ongoing.

In New Zealand the Department of Labour has provided an excellent code on best practices for excavation and trenching. Please read it and apply it to your business. The following video shows an inspector stopping work until a trench can be made safe; watch and apply trench safety techniques to your business.

Wearing Safety Equipment (PPE)

New Zealand Safety law requires us to identify and then control hazards, which may mean wearing of personal protective equipment. Having determined the only control option available is use of PPE, then it is critical employers ensure PPE is used and worn by the individuals.

Once you have determined the types of safety equipment or PPE required, then it is up to the company to educate the person why they need to use the safety equipment. This is important to get their ‘buy in’. And then train them on how to use and fit/maintain the safety equipment. According to New Zealand’s Safety law (HSE Act), you can't just give money in a pay packet so that a person can buy their own safety equipment. You either have to supply the PPE, or if the person insists they want to use their own (might it’s more hi-tech with MP3 embedded in the ear defenders, comfortable, tailored, ‘cool’ etc), you still must ensure the PPE is up to spec and fit for purpose – and remains so.

The ideal is for the workplace culture of using safety equipment to transfer to the home. After all, if a person is injured at home it is still going to impact your business – even if that means their skills are no longer available while recovering. I heard of one Australian story which made the papers. It was the 2nd time in 2 weeks someone was admitted to a hospital with cuts to the arms. When asked how, he said he saw a neighbour cutting the hedge with the lawnmower and thought that was a good idea - and yes, they both ended up in hospital. Wearing safety equipment like boots and ear defenders may be a good idea for lawn mowing – but no safety equipment can protect the user from their own stupidity! 

What First Aid Do You Need To Provide in New Zealand Workplaces?

There is nothing specific in the Health and Safety Act detailing first aid requirements for New Zealand workplaces. But then that's the way the Act is written generally anyway, because it talks about meeting the intent of a safe workplace. 

However, there are regulations that provide more directed requirements of the first aid equipment that should be provided. Under the Health and Safety in Employment Regulations 1995 employers are required to take all practicable steps to ensure:

·         first aid facilities are provided at every place of work under the control of the employer

·         the facilities are suitable for the purpose for which they are used

·         the facilities are provided in sufficient numbers

·         the facilities are maintained in good order and condition

·         all employees have access to these facilities in a way that is convenient to them.

The relevant regulations are:

·         regulation 4(2)(d), to be read in conjunction with regulation 7.

So, you do need to provide some kind of first aid facilities and/or equipment, which need to be appropriate to your workplace. For example, first aid in an office environment is completely different to that on an Oil rig. So unfortunately I can't answer the question directly, other than provide this link for you to work through and determine the first aid requirements for your workplace. First aid should be included under emergency management of an integrated and complete OSH system.