Safety Management

Safety Audit:

A health and safety audit is an expert assessment of an organisation’s health and safety policies, systems and procedures. Questions it answers include: Are they correct and delivering the expected outcomes? Are they protecting the well- being of the workforce and keeping the company compliant with the relevant regulations?

Regular health and safety audits are widely recognised as best practice for companies of every type and size. Much more than just a box ticking exercise or defensive measure, they can bring many positive benefits to the business.

Primarily, audits enable you to protect employees and customers from harm. But ultimately a correctly conducted audit can also safeguard the very existence of the company. That’s because a serious health and safety incident and resulting prosecution can bring severe reputational damage and massive financial penalties.

Risk Assessments:

As an employer, you’re required by law to protect your employees, and others, from harm.

Under the Management of the Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993, the minimum you must do is:

• Identify what could cause injury or illness in your business (hazards)
• Decide how likely it is that someone could be harmed and how seriously (the risk)
• Take action to eliminate the hazard, or if this isn’t possible, control the risk

Assessing risk is just one part of the overall process used to control risks in your workplace.

Contractor Management:

Use of contractors in itself does not result in poor health and safety standards, but poor management can lead to injuries, ill health, additional costs and delays. Working closely with the contractor will reduce the risks to your own employees and the contractors themselves.

Remember that contractors may be at particular risk – they may be strangers to your workplace and therefore unfamiliar with your organisation’s procedures, rules, hazards and risks. Even regular contractors may need reminding. The level of control needed will, of course, be proportionate to the complexity of the task.

Contractors will be pre-screened to ensure their health and safety management system is of appropriate standards and that all their employees are safe and trained within their jobs.

An injury to a contractors employee on your business site could have severe consequences on your company as well

Incident investigation:

What is an incident and why should it be investigated?

The term incident can be defined as an occurrence, condition, or situation arising in the course of work that resulted in or could have resulted in injuries, illnesses, damage to health, or fatalities.

The term “accident” is also commonly used, and can be defined as an unplanned event that interrupts the completion of an activity, and that may (or may not) include injury or property damage. Some make a distinction between accident and incident. They use the term incident to refer to an unexpected event that did not cause injury or damage that time but had the potential. “Near miss” or “dangerous occurrence” are also terms for an event that could have caused harm but did not.

 Please note: The term incident is used in some situations and jurisdictions to cover both an “accident” and “incident”. It is argued that the word “accident” implies that the event was related to fate or chance. When the root cause is determined, it is usually found that many events were predictable and could have been prevented if the right actions were taken – making the event not one of fate or chance (thus, the word incident is used). For simplicity, we will now use the term incident to mean all of the above events.

The information that follows is intended to be a general guide for employers, supervisors, health and safety committee members, or members of an incident investigation team. When incidents are investigated, the emphasis should be concentrated on finding the root cause of the incident so you can prevent the event from happening again. The purpose is to find facts that can lead to corrective actions, not to find fault. Always look for deeper causes. Do not simply record the steps of the event.

Reasons to investigate a workplace incident include:

• Most importantly, to find out the cause of incidents and to prevent similar incidents in the future
• To fulfill any legal requirements
• To determine the cost of an incident
• To determine compliance with applicable regulations (e.g., occupational health and safety, criminal, etc.)
• To process workers’ compensation claims

The same principles apply to an inquiry of a minor incident and to the more formal investigation of a serious event. Most importantly, these steps can be used to investigate any situation (e.g., where no incident has occurred … yet) as a way to prevent an incident.

Health & Safety Policy:

A health and safety policy sets out your general approach and commitment together with the arrangements you have put in place for managing health and safety in your business. It is a unique document that says who does what, when and how.

This document needs to be signed by the owner / CEO of the company to show his involvement and interest in this matter

Safe work procedures:

Safe work procedures (SWPs) are required when the risk of injury to workers performing a job task cannot be eliminated by effective work design, work process or equipment.

Employers must ensure SWPs are:

• based on information gathered by a risk assessment.
• developed in consultation with the safety and health committee or representative.
• approved by management.
• understood by workers, through training. This includes steps to be taken and equipment used in order to work safely.
• readily available for workers to reference.

There is no single required format for SWPs. However, SWPs should include the following information:

1. Name or description of the work task
2. Management approval
3. Date of creation
4. Date of review or revision
5. Any hazards that may cause harm to a worker
6. Equipment / devices, personal protective equipment (PPE), or other considerations necessary to perform the task safely

1. Required training and / or relevant documentation needed to perform the task
2. Common signs and symptoms of a musculoskeletal injury (MSI), if MSI risk is present
3. A statement indicating that workers must be trained on the SWPs, and employers must ensure that workers follow the procedures
4. Steps to perform the task safely

Fire & evacuation drills:

Fully recorded fire drills conducted at your premises twice annually

Safety meeting chair

We chair your safety meetings every three months or more regular as required (minutes recorded)

Safety files

Safety files designed specifically for your company

Site visits and safety checks

Regular monthly site visits, safety checklist completion and recording

Other services

Supplying of fire extinguishers and various safety signage & first aid equipment

Training

– Basic fire fighting and extinguisher handling (1 Day course, 2CPD Credits)

– SHE rep ‘Safety Representative’ (2 Day course, 5CPD Credits)

– Fire Warden ( 1 Day Course, 2 CPD Credits)

* All courses are verified by SAIOSH with CPD credits available

Construction safety files (SACPCMP)

Site specific construction safety file service.