Do you have your Health & Safety in place to prevent workplace accidents? Know what the law says and the procedures followed during workplace accidents. Know why you will be in trouble – and what you can do to prevent this from happening to you.
Imagine this happening to you:
As a company director in a brickwork sub-contracting business, you get a call from site saying the scaffolding collapsed… And it does not look good.
Will you get ice cold with a hundred things rushing through your mind on what will happen to you? Or do you have confidence that your stuff was in place, the right people are on it, your paperwork is ready?
The law on Health & Safety
Before we continue to rush off to site to have a look at what happened, let’s first look into what the law says.
The law in this regard is the Occupational Health & Safety Act with the subsequent regulations, such as the construction regulations, machinery regulations, etc.
The essence of the law basically says that you must provide a safe place of work for your employees. You need to have a system in place to prevent workplace accidents, you need to provide training and PPE. You must have proof that you’ve done all this and everything reasonable to prevent accidents.
If found negligent on the above you are liable for a fine, imprisonment and compensation to the injured parties.
Are you feeling that you just don’t understand Health & Safety and don’t know what to do about it? Click here to ask one of our experts help you with a short presentation on it – for free.
What happens after the accident?
This depends on how well your stuff is in place. Do you have trained first aiders and first aid equipment? What is the emergency procedures?
Depending on how serious the accident was, you might soon find an inspector of the Department of Labour on your site – who closes the site until further notice! (I hope you don’t have penalties on being late with the project…)
If your stuff has been in place the accident was likely avoided. If the accident still happened, then it would probably not have been serious. Your site will be opened soon again.
The Department of Labour will set up a Section 32 inquiry to dig deeper as to the causes and who is to blame for the collapse. This is usually going back to the CEO of the company, unless things have been in place.
In this regard, the inspector will look at the following:
- If the scaffolding assembled according to safety standards?
- Did the contractor appoint a component person to erect, dismantle and sign off the scaffolding for safe use?
- What was the condition of the soil where it stood?
- Was the section where the scaffolding stood cordoned off?
Don’t let the inspector’s findings be the following:
- The contractor contravened the general safety/construction regulations in that the scaffolding was not adequately installed.
- That no person who is trained and experienced in scaffolding erecting has been appointed in writing as required by the regulations.
- And that regulations where contravened in not securing the site and fencing off the area of work around the scaffolding formwork.
- The investigator recommends prosecution of the contractor for contravening the OSH Act and Construction Regulations as well as general safety regulations sections xyz…
Don’t let Health & Safety be the reason you stop business!
You need to prove your innocence in court with paperwork showing that you have consistently had your stuff in place to prevent workplace accidents. To explain what this means will take a while.
Click here to let one of our consultants explain to you the basics of Health & Safety. We will also recommend what you can do to keep compliant in the most affordable way for your operations.
Have a look at our basic Health & Safety packages. We can either help you with a once-off Heath & Safety file and training – or we can manage your system for you!
