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Safety first: BS OHSAS 18001 Occupational health and safety
26 Oct 2010
Topics: Health & safety, OHSAS 18001
Barely a month after he had moved into Downing Street for the first time, new British prime minister David Cameron revealed that the country's workplace health and safety legislation would be reviewed as a top priority.
Explicitly referring to "the rise of the compensation culture" as a "real concern", Cameron appointed former Trade and Industry Secretary, the Rt Hon Lord Young of Graffham, as a special adviser on the subject. Young has now published his review, suggesting changes to the current system that include reform of the personal injury legal market.1
"We need a sensible new approach that makes clear these laws are intended to protect people, not overwhelm business with red tape," Cameron said.
"We're going to end the unnecessary bureaucracy that drains creativity and innovation from our businesses,"2 he wrote in a foreword to the final report.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) also welcomed the review, but was clear that "workplace 'health and safety culture' is a good thing".3
"The problem is in its application," says its chief executive, Tom Mullarkey. "Good safety is all about good judgment - avoiding the intolerable, ignoring the trivial and, in between, getting the balance right between risk and the cost of precautions."
RoSPA estimates that there are currently around 13,500 deaths due to accidents every year in the UK, and the UK's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) - which has contributed to Lord Young's review - says 180 employees were killed at work in the year 2008/2009. Some 246,000 reportable injuries also occurred (870 per 100,000 workers, according to the Labour Force Survey), and approximately 1.2 million people claimed to be suffering from an illness either caused or exacerbated by their employment. As a result, around 29.3 million days of productivity were lost in the course of the year, either through work-related ill health or workplace injury.4
The range of potential accident scenarios is vast of course, varying across all sectors. Incidents that have made headlines in recent years include the devastating explosion at the UK's Buncefield Oil Storage Depot in 2005, injuring 43 people and entirely destroying nearby businesses. The HSE recently said this incident triggered "the most complex investigation" it has ever conducted. In July five companies were finally ordered to pay a total of £9.5bn for what Mr Justice Calvert-Smith summarized as "a slackness, inefficiency and more or less complacent attitude to safety".5
Then, more recently, the tragic explosion on BP's Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon rig in April killed 11 workers and caused the worst oil spill in US history. This incident led to weeks of diplomatic strain as well as severe reputation damage, and of course, the much publicized exit of BP's chief executive.
Human and financial cost
But these stories are only the tip of the health and safety iceberg. For example, the HSE says that almost a quarter of UK construction sites it visited in March 2010 failed key safety checks, with 359 of 2,014 cases severe enough for orders to stop all work immediately. In the year 2008/2009 there were 11,264 injuries and 53 deaths in the UK's construction sector.6
Even accidents in the office environment can carry a huge human and financial cost. HSE figures show that "slips, trips and falls " are the most common cause of serious workplace injury across the country, leading to 40 fatalities and 15,000 major injuries in 2009. An estimated 30,000 workers had to be off work for at least three days following such an injury, and their total combined cost to society is estimated at £800m.7
The HSE has therefore just launched a new campaign and website called "Shattered Lives". It offers advice on risk mitigation measures, as well as examples of how other businesses have addressed workplace safety. For example, it tells of how an internal safety review at supermarket Sainsbury's led to a recommendation for uniform buyers to introduce more slip-resistant footwear styles and to simplify policy in general.
"We wanted to make slip resistant footwear available to as many of our colleagues as possible and though the roll-out has only recently begun, there has already been a reduction in the number of slip accidents," said safety policy and systems specialist, Sharon Rackley.8
Safe and sound
This emphasis on effective consultation, competence and awareness is a key area addressed by BS OHSAS 18001 Occupational health and safety management systems, which is a standard that can be adopted by any organization looking to implement a formal and efficient procedure for effectively mitigating health and safety risks. The implementation of the standard will help to reduce the likelihood of accidents occurring, through detailed risk planning, mitigation and control and continual improvement of occupational health and safety performance. As a result those certified to the standard are well positioned to ensure compliance with national legislation.
"In some cases the standard is adopted in response to an incident. In many others the organization is simply looking to demonstrate good practice and reduce the cost associated with staff sickness and absenteeism," says Lorraine King, BSI product marketing manager for risk. "It continues to grow in popularity, with the most popular sectors for certification still the traditional areas of manufacturing, engineering and construction."
"However, BSI is now seeing uptake in other markets such as local government and service sectors, including finance," she adds.
"It provides a sound framework for a company to build a good health and safety management system and, if implemented properly, will help to improve health and safety performance," explains Trevor Dodd, BSI scheme manager for occupational health and safety certification.
"There is a requirement to identify all the legal requirements that are applicable, as well as a requirement for evaluation of compliance to ensure measures really do comply."
An organization would need to decide how to respond to first-aid rules, for example, based on its size and areas of activity. In October 2009 some changes to guidance were introduced in this area in the UK. There are new arrangements for the First aid at work (FAW) and Emergency first aid at work (EFAW) courses that some employees must complete for a workplace to be considered safe.
Fit for the future
Moreover, many aspects of BS OHSAS 18001 also seem ideally suited to the simplification of the UK's health and safety culture that Lord Young is calling for.
For example, the HSE is urged to create simpler risk assessment procedures for so-called "low hazard" workplaces such as offices and shops. This will involve the creation of "periodic checklists", which enable such businesses "to check and record their compliance with regulations" on an ongoing basis. The emphasis on continual monitoring and improvement in BS OHSAS 18001 already assists organizations to build the necessary procedures for this sort of oversight into their daily operations.
Another key recommendation in the summary suggests "raising standards", with a call to "professionalize health and safety consultants" by accreditation through a validation process. Through its own audit and certification processes, BSI has long stressed the value of this external recognition of standards, providing reassurance that compliance is fit for purpose. Young suggests that insurance companies should only use qualified health and safety consultants for their risk assessments.
Globally, meanwhile, there are signs that BS OHSAS 18001 is also growing in popularity in both India and China - the interest "perhaps representing the trade relations between these countries and the UK", King suggests.
"Demanding certification from your supply chain can also form a core part of a corporate social responsibility program, demonstrating that imported goods are manufactured ethically, with proper health and safety systems in place," she adds. "Product certification is another important element in making sure that the products used by a business do not contribute to accident or injury. Kitemark certification is the UK's premier symbol of quality, with 88 per cent of UK adults trusting Kitemark products and 93 per cent believing they are safer. The robustness of its testing and certification mean that organizations can demonstrate due diligence in their health and safety management by using products that meet the required standards, are regularly re-tested, are consistently produced to the standard and are safe. CE marking is a statement of conformity for products entering the European market, but Kitemark goes beyond this in offering proof that the product has been tested to quality and safety standards."
Healthy communications
As the HSE's campaign recognizes, effective communication is critical for managing health and safety. This is a cornerstone of BS OHSAS 18001. Employee engagement is seen as crucial to awareness and performance improvement filtering right through the organization as a whole. The HSE has also recently urged employers to involve their workforces in health and safety issues more thoroughly by offering both free and subsidized training courses.9
"Where businesses have good workforce involvement they also often achieve better performance in health and safety and experience better productivity because their staff are motivated," suggests HSE chair, Judith Hackett.
In a similar vein, BP's new chief executive, Bob Dudley, unveiled a new "Safety & Operational Risk" function in September. The company says that it will now conduct a "fundamental review" of how the group incentivizes business performance to give greater priority to "excellence in safety and risk management".10 Reward strategy is one area that is specifically being considered.
This structure will also see staff stationed on ongoing BP exploration projects and refineries. They will have the authority to intervene in any technical activities and conduct compliance audits, and Dudley disclosed that the company would be carrying out a further review of how it manages third-party contractors.
A healthy lead
Other areas covered by BS OHSAS 18001 include optimizing emergency preparedness and response and conducting risk assessments. Regular performance measurement, meanwhile, ensures improvements continue to be made and problems are addressed.
However, effective risk management also requires clear oversight from top-level management to ensure an organization is continually adjusting its risk profile in light of any changing circumstances. Recognizing this, another requirement of BS OHSAS 18001 is to consider a workplace's organizational structure with care. The HSE has also recently collaborated with the Institute of Directors (IoD) on this point, jointly publishing official guidance and a "leadership checklist" for board level action on health and safety.
This advice states that a formal boardroom review is required, including posing questions such as whether changes in working arrangements have been brought to the board's attention, what specific health and safety targets have been set, and whether sufficient advice has been sought on possible pitfalls.
It also follows the 2008 introduction of the UK's Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act, which sets out a new offence for convicting an organization in the case of a "gross breach" where there has been substantial failure at a senior level.
"Failure to include H&S as a key business risk in board decisions can have catastrophic results," the IoD explains, giving a number of scenarios to illustrate the severity. For example, a managing director of a manufacturing company was sentenced to a year in prison for manslaughter when an employee became caught in a piece of unguarded machinery.11 Another company was fined £245,000, in addition to costs, for failing to train employees in the safe removal of asbestos.
They are examples that should serve as a warning to senior management across all sectors that there are serious personal - as well as corporate - consequences of heath and safety negligence.
All organizations need to ensure that they are equipped with the tools and skills to manage workplace risk and ensure safety - and not just to avoid falling foul of health and safety legislation. Preserving a happy, healthy working environment also makes for a more motivated and productive workforce in the first place.
For more information on the occupational health and safety standard BS OHSAS 18001.
For more information on occupational health and safety certification.
1http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/latest-news/2010/06/pm-announces-review-of-health-and-safety-laws-51726
2http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/latest-news/2010/10/lord-young-report-55605
3http://www.rospa.com/news/releases/detail/default.aspx?id=858
4http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/index.htm
5http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2010/hse-buncefieldsentencing.htm
6http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2010/hse-constructionresults.htm
7http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2010/hse-1232010.htm
8http://www.hse.gov.uk/shatteredlives/industry-food-retail.htm
9http://www.hse.gov.uk/involvement/doyourbit/index.htm
10http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7065250
11http://www.iod.com/Home/Business-Information-and-Advice/Being-a-Director/Leading-Health-and-Safety-at-Work/Leadership-Checklist/
Business Standards © 2010. Editorial produced by Caspian Publishing in association with The British Standards Institution. Editorial opinions expressed on are not necessarily those of BSI Group or Caspian Publishing. Neither Caspian Publishing nor BSI Group accept responsibility for advertising or editorial content, nor for that appearing on linked third-party websites. Reproduction in whole or in part is forbidden without written permission from BSI Group or Caspian Publishing.
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