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Safety Net Journal Issue 10 |
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European Health and Safety Week
The European Agency for Safety and Health has launched a major new campaign for better risk assessment to improve health and safety management.
The campaign will run for two years and will be the focus of activities during European Week for Safety and Health at Work from 20 to 24 October 2008 and European Week in 2009.
The Agency argues that risk assessment is the cornerstone to good health and safety management. If the risk assessment process is not done well or not done at all, the appropriate preventive measures are unlikely to be in place. As the Agency campaign leaflet explains 'What is needed is an integrated risk assessment approach that takes into account the different steps of risk assessment, the different needs of individual employers, the changing world of work, and a participatory approach involving everyone in the workplace.'
The campaign raises issues for Usdaw health and safety reps in the larger retailers. Typically these organisations rely on 'generic' risk assessments for many of the risks in their stores - for example on check-outs or on handling roll cages. These result in details of safe systems of work in training manuals and operating instructions. However as local managers and workers have not been involved in the initial risk assessment process, they may not understand the importance of the risks that lie behind the instructions they should follow. Where generic risk assessments are used, reps should use the European Week campaign to raise the importance of workers following the procedures laid down in the manuals by explaining that the safe systems of work are designed to protect them from risk.
As in previous years, the HSE is promoting the European campaign in the UK and wants all employers and trade unions to get involved. The HSE will be providing training courses on risk assessment for health and safety reps through the TUC.
For details of the HSE/TUC courses and for more information about the European campaign go to http://www.hse.gov.uk/campaigns/euroweek/resources.htm
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