How to manage health and safety in your company

An organised system will give you a broader view of your organisation and will enable you to improve your prevention and protection service, reaching your targets more easily.

Putting in place a management system will help you draw up clear operating instructions enabling all workers to act safely at work; it will also help you keep track of all the necessary documentation and will give added value to all the initiatives you take to prevent workplace accidents and occupational diseases.

The current legislation also requires you to keep paperwork which must be managed properly to avoid creating confusion and disorder.

 Legislative Decree No 81/2008 also suggests designing a management system enabling you to:

• assess risks and identify prevention and protection measures
• control risks by identifying prevention and protection measures
• establish targets and programmes
• establish the roles and responsibilities of the parties concerned
• prepare and organise the necessary documents
• handle emergencies
• review regularly the effectiveness of the safety system.

Implementing an effective, appropriate and well monitored management system will also exempt you from administrative liability for infringement of the rules on workplace accident prevention.

Ensure your system is not static but rather constantly evolving and that each cog making it work is cyclically:

• planned
• developed
• checked
• reviewed.

Risk assessment

Risk assessment is a responsibility of the employer that cannot be delegated to others. The employer makes the assessment with the support of the prevention and protection service officer (RSPP) and must consider the opinion of the competent doctor (where present) and consult with the workers' safety representative (Rappresentante dei Lavoratori per la Sicurezza - RLS).

The process must be started by the workers' safety representative, who must also record its results in a specific Risk Assessment Document (Documento di Valutazione dei Rischi - DVR).

Risk assessment is a scientific process which involves a high rate of error.

You can reduce the error in assessment by ensuring that:

• the assessment is made by a team
• the team includes people who are familiar with the activity examined
• the activity is broken down into steps
• each phase is analysed and the mechanisms associated with damage are identified
• information on past incidents is collected.

Assessing risks means assigning a value to the likelihood of an event occurring and to the severity of the damage if the event does occur. Warning: assessing risks does not simply mean assigning them a numerical score but, first and foremost, understanding the problem in terms of:

• severity of the possible consequences
• causes and dynamics which may produce the damage
• priority actions to minimise risks.

This is why you should beware of entrusting assessments completely to software!

Keep risk under control

Workplace risk cannot be completely eliminated, but your duty is to control it and minimise it.

To do this, you must take appropriate measures to protect workers' health and safety:

• minimise risks at source
• replace dangerous elements with less dangerous ones
• limit the number of exposed workers
• limit the use of chemical, physical and biological agents
• identify prevention measures
• identify protection measures
• put in place health surveillance
• provide information and training.

The following definitions are provided:

• prevention: the set of tools able to reduce the likelihood of harm to workers' health and physical integrity;
• protection measures: the tools able to reduce the severity of the damage which might result from an accident.

Establish safety objectives and programmes

After identifying risks and the associated prevention and protection measures for your workers, you must prepare a diary you can consult regularly to ensure you cover all requirements.

The diary must include the following topics:

• the healthcare plan, identifying those workers who must undergo medical examinations and the deadlines for performing them;
• the training plan, identifying those workers who must receive training, the type of training and the deadlines;
• compulsory periodic checks, identifying the plant, equipment and vehicles which must undergo compulsory checks by external agencies and the deadlines for performing the checks;
• meetings of the prevention and protection service: scheduling of an appropriate period for the annual meeting.

This information will help you plan your annual H&S expenditure.

Safety - assign roles and responsibilities

Responsibilities for workplace health and safety are divided among several individuals, who may belong to the company or not. For each, the law establishes a series of obligations and tasks they must be aware of.

Safety is the result of teamwork, where each must play his role well and at the same time know the role played by the other members and be aware of its importance.

So you must know which people hold the following roles in you company and which duties and responsibilities they have:

• The employer
• The manager
• The safety manager
• The worker
• The workers' safety representative (RLS/RLST)
• The prevention and protection service officer (RSPP)
• The competent doctor.

The manager and the safety manager do not need to be appointed formally, but may be de facto roles, i.e. be identified as such simply on the basis of the powers and duties they have in the company, without specific written appointments.

Prepare and organise all required safety documents

To manage your safety system properly you need to prepare and organise the documents listed below, grouped into categories.

Fulfil legislative requirements:

• The Risk Assessment Document (documento di valutazione dei rischi - DVR)
• The Single Interference Risk Assessment Document (Documento Unico di Valutazione dei Rischi delle Interferenze - DUVRI)
• The internal emergency plan (piano di emergenza interno - PEI)
• The safety operational plan (piano operativo di sicurezza - POS)
• The accident book.

 Provide information on operating procedures:

• job instructions and operating procedures

 Provide information on risks:

• the machinery user manuals
• the technical sheets of the equipment
• the safety sheets of hazardous substances.

 Record control activities:

• minutes of periodic meetings
• inspections of the competent doctor
• registers and training certificates
• the distribution of personal protection equipment.

 Communicate roles and responsibilities

• delegations, appointments and designations
• workers' fitness certificates.

 Ensure at all times that the documents are:

• immediately available
• regularly reviewed and updated
• deleted when no longer applicable
• kept on file appropriately.

Safety - prepare to manage emergencies

You need to anticipate possible emergency situations which may occur at your company and be ready to handle them appropriately.

Prepare to respond to emergencies:

• this will enable you to contain the damage and consequences of accidents
• it will help your workers act more safely and with greater awareness
• it will ensure that any persons affected receive immediate assistance.

To be sure you have anticipated and checked for any events which might pose risks to workers' health and safety and that you are ready to protect workers' safety and contain the consequences of any accidents, make sure you cover all of the following steps:

• prepare the emergency plan (prepare a list of possible accidents with the appropriate response procedures to each, to contain damage);
• Identify the individuals responsible for emergency response (establish who should respond to emergencies and provide those persons with the appropriate training on actions to be taken);
• organise first aid (ensure you have at your company's premises all the materials and equipment necessary to provide first aid to the victims of accidents, injuries or sickness);
• plan periodic safety drills(plan emergency simulations to train workers on what to do in emergencies).