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Construction industry
He thought that inspectors would be concentrating less on the physical aspects of premises but more on a company's organization to ensure safe and healthy working conditions. Because of this, the Accident Prevention Advisory Unit has been set up to examine why in the same industry and in similar premises one firm can operate with a low incidence of accidents and ill health while another has a distressingly high rate. It is hoped that those factors which produced a good record could be isolated and identified. The initial results tend to indicate that poor accident records may be seen as a sympton of ineffective management and that matters such as guarding are things which a firm takes in its stride if objectives have been clearly established and managements accept that health and safety is part of their overall responsibility. He also pointed out that there was now a clear need to develop new techniques for dealing with international companies which operate in more than one part of the world and very often in more than one industry.
Requirements of the Act Mr D.H. Farmer, Group Safety Advisor to the British Petroleum Group, then discussed plans for meeting the Act's requirements. He pointed out that about five million people never before covered by occupational health and safety law will now be subject to the requirements of the Act. He saw the primary objective of industry and commerce as being the creation of a new awareness on health and safety matters and thought that the impetus to achieve the objective must come from management at the most senior level. Much of the success hoped for from the Act would emerge from the work or informed and properly motivated safety committees on site liaising with enlightened management, trade unions and safety professionals. An important feature will be the provision of adequate information. For some years BP has published a quarterly safety bulletin aimed at keeping staff acquainted with incidents so that steps can be taken to prevent similar happenings in the future. An important aspect is the reporting of incidents that do not actually cause injury but could have easily done so. There is, however, difficulty in motivating people to report incidents which may tend to expose some carelessness on their part and invoke anger from the management to whom the facts are related. Many personal injury accidents are
caused by simple tripping, falling and mishandling. Valuable lessons may be learnt by a study of the recorded figures even if it only means an improvement in house-keeping procedures, better lighting, or improved training for the operators.
Construction industry Faced with an average annual death toll over the last ten years of 230, or with 5418 deaths in 23 years, the safety record of the construction industry could hardly be described as anything but poor by Mr D.H. ttolt, Deputy Chief Safety Officer of George Wimpey & Co Ltd, who considered the effect of the new Act on construction work. He commented on the special circumstances relating to this industry, including references to the self-employed, and thought that the effectiveness of the Act would largely depend on the degree of cooperation between the various employers concerned in a particular contract, on the amount of control exercised by the main contractor, and on the amount of information and knowledge made readily available and absorbed by those concerned.
Safety management Modern techniques of safety management were reviewed by Mr J.C. Shakespeare, European loss prevention manager of Massey Ferguson/Perkins, where the safety, security and fire aspects have been integrated into a single department. He evaluated his own company's injury prevention programme in terms of: training to employees and supervision; machine guarding; housekeeping; safety committees; protective equipment; rules; discipline ; competitions; evaluating lost time injuries; and information such as posters. He emphasised that efficient training and education programmes provide the basic ground work for the whole of the safety programme, and that safety committees are most effective and become an essential part of the programme. More importance should be given to the correct use and issuing of protective equipment. In his organization, for example, the very best quality industrial gloves were sold to the men through a reclaim system and it is noticable that gloves are no longer seen lying about the factory. Where there is an injury prevention programme alone, something like 80% of supervisor's time and the medical and safety department's time is spent on nothing but post-injury work, that is, the injury has to occur before any remedial action can be taken. In 1970,
Perkins introduced a total accident control programme which covered not only injury but accidental damage to facilities, equipment and material, etc. As a result of investigations in North America into property and equipment damage, two formulae have been developed. Either of these can be applied for general use. Bird's formula simply states that for every major injury there are 10 minor, 30 property damage accidents and 600 incidents without damage or injury. With Fletcher's formula there is one minor, 19 property damage accidents and 175 incidents without damage or injury for each major injury. Reviewing the injury frequency rate at Perkins, he showed that in 1951 there were some 13 lost time injuries for every million hours worked and this had reduced to 4'5 in 1972. In terms of first-aid frequency, there were 913 reports of injuries sustained on the job per million hours worked in 1968, and this had been reduced to 690 by 1973.
Common-law legislation Finally, Mr R.D. Engledew, Industrial Accident Inspector for Zurich Insurance, considered what effect the new Health and Safety Act would have upon common-law, giving as a short answer 'probably very little'. That little, however, did cover a number of significant areas such as safety appliances. All the thousands of goggles, visors, gloves, boots, ear defenders, etc, are supposed to do the job for which they are intended. Mr Engledew foresaw a large number of claims to indemnity being made by employers if it is shown that the safety appliance does not in fact perform in the manner declared by the maker. The use of ear protection devices has recently increased rapidly, probably because of a successful damages claim which was not based specifically upon a regulation. Mr Engledew commented on some of the inequalities that arise over compensation between say, a staff employee and an hourly paid worker who may, however, be able successfully to sue for damages, and he thought that this was where the hostility underlying many damages claims began. He pointed out, however, that damages must not be, and are not at law, regarded as a reward. The theory is that cash restores the s t a t u s q u o , but it is not difficult to see that a given amount of money does not equate with an amputated leg. In his view it was safety and security that must be fostered, not compensation as some seem to think.
Applied Ergonomics June
1975
113
Requirements of the Act Mr D.H. Farmer, Group Safety Advisor to the British Petroleum Group, then discussed plans for meeting the Act's requirements. He pointed out that about five million people never before covered by occupational health and safety law will now be subject to the requirements of the Act. He saw the primary objective of industry and commerce as being the creation of a new awareness on health and safety matters and thought that the impetus to achieve the objective must come from management at the most senior level. Much of the success hoped for from the Act would emerge from the work or informed and properly motivated safety committees on site liaising with enlightened management, trade unions and safety professionals. An important feature will be the provision of adequate information. For some years BP has published a quarterly safety bulletin aimed at keeping staff acquainted with incidents so that steps can be taken to prevent similar happenings in the future. An important aspect is the reporting of incidents that do not actually cause injury but could have easily done so. There is, however, difficulty in motivating people to report incidents which may tend to expose some carelessness on their part and invoke anger from the management to whom the facts are related. Many personal injury accidents are
caused by simple tripping, falling and mishandling. Valuable lessons may be learnt by a study of the recorded figures even if it only means an improvement in house-keeping procedures, better lighting, or improved training for the operators.
Construction industry Faced with an average annual death toll over the last ten years of 230, or with 5418 deaths in 23 years, the safety record of the construction industry could hardly be described as anything but poor by Mr D.H. ttolt, Deputy Chief Safety Officer of George Wimpey & Co Ltd, who considered the effect of the new Act on construction work. He commented on the special circumstances relating to this industry, including references to the self-employed, and thought that the effectiveness of the Act would largely depend on the degree of cooperation between the various employers concerned in a particular contract, on the amount of control exercised by the main contractor, and on the amount of information and knowledge made readily available and absorbed by those concerned.
Safety management Modern techniques of safety management were reviewed by Mr J.C. Shakespeare, European loss prevention manager of Massey Ferguson/Perkins, where the safety, security and fire aspects have been integrated into a single department. He evaluated his own company's injury prevention programme in terms of: training to employees and supervision; machine guarding; housekeeping; safety committees; protective equipment; rules; discipline ; competitions; evaluating lost time injuries; and information such as posters. He emphasised that efficient training and education programmes provide the basic ground work for the whole of the safety programme, and that safety committees are most effective and become an essential part of the programme. More importance should be given to the correct use and issuing of protective equipment. In his organization, for example, the very best quality industrial gloves were sold to the men through a reclaim system and it is noticable that gloves are no longer seen lying about the factory. Where there is an injury prevention programme alone, something like 80% of supervisor's time and the medical and safety department's time is spent on nothing but post-injury work, that is, the injury has to occur before any remedial action can be taken. In 1970,
Perkins introduced a total accident control programme which covered not only injury but accidental damage to facilities, equipment and material, etc. As a result of investigations in North America into property and equipment damage, two formulae have been developed. Either of these can be applied for general use. Bird's formula simply states that for every major injury there are 10 minor, 30 property damage accidents and 600 incidents without damage or injury. With Fletcher's formula there is one minor, 19 property damage accidents and 175 incidents without damage or injury for each major injury. Reviewing the injury frequency rate at Perkins, he showed that in 1951 there were some 13 lost time injuries for every million hours worked and this had reduced to 4'5 in 1972. In terms of first-aid frequency, there were 913 reports of injuries sustained on the job per million hours worked in 1968, and this had been reduced to 690 by 1973.
Common-law legislation Finally, Mr R.D. Engledew, Industrial Accident Inspector for Zurich Insurance, considered what effect the new Health and Safety Act would have upon common-law, giving as a short answer 'probably very little'. That little, however, did cover a number of significant areas such as safety appliances. All the thousands of goggles, visors, gloves, boots, ear defenders, etc, are supposed to do the job for which they are intended. Mr Engledew foresaw a large number of claims to indemnity being made by employers if it is shown that the safety appliance does not in fact perform in the manner declared by the maker. The use of ear protection devices has recently increased rapidly, probably because of a successful damages claim which was not based specifically upon a regulation. Mr Engledew commented on some of the inequalities that arise over compensation between say, a staff employee and an hourly paid worker who may, however, be able successfully to sue for damages, and he thought that this was where the hostility underlying many damages claims began. He pointed out, however, that damages must not be, and are not at law, regarded as a reward. The theory is that cash restores the s t a t u s q u o , but it is not difficult to see that a given amount of money does not equate with an amputated leg. In his view it was safety and security that must be fostered, not compensation as some seem to think.
Applied Ergonomics June
1975
113