ABSTRACT
This chapter is about managers in businesses, or other organisations, setting out clear responsibilities and lines of communication for everyone in the enterprise. The chapter also covers the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions and Recommendations, advises legal responsibilities that exist between people who control premises and those who use them, and between contractors and those who hire them; and the duties of suppliers, manufacturers and designers of articles and substances for use at work. The policy, described in Chapter 2, is an essential first step and sets the direction for health and safety within the enterprise and forms the written intentions of the principals or directors of the business. The organisation needs to be clearly communicated and people need to know what they are responsible for in the day-to-day operations. A vague statement that ‘everyone is responsible for health and safety’ is misleading and fudges the real issues. Everyone is responsible for health and safety (Figure
3.1), but this is particularly true for management. The policy will only remain as words on paper, however good the intentions, until there is an effective organisation set up to implement and monitor its requirements. Occupational health and safety management systems such as ILO-OSH 2001 and OHSAS 18001:2007 also require that an effective organisation is established to implement the policy. The policy sets the direction for health and safety within
the enterprise and forms the written intentions of the principals or directors of the business. The occupational health and safety policy of any organisation needs to be clearly communicated and staff need to know what they are responsible for in the day-to-day operations. There is generally no equality of responsibility under law between
those who provide direction and create policy and those who are employed to follow. Principals or employers, generally, have substantially more responsibility than employees. Some policies are written so that most of the word-
ing concerns strict requirements laid on employees and only a few vague words cover managers’ responsibilities. Generally, such policies do not meet the ILO Recommendations and the occupational health and safety law of many countries, which usually require an effective policy with a robust organisation and arrangements to be set up. See Chapter 14 for more details. In the UK in 1972, a Government Inquiry Report (known
as the Robens report) recognised that the introduction of health and safety management systems was essential if the ideal of self-regulation of health and safety by industry was to be realised. It further recognised that a more active involvement of the workforce in such systems was essential if self-regulation was to work. Self-regulation and the implicit need for health and safety management systems and employee involvement were incorporated into the Health and Safety at Work (HSW) Act. Since the introduction of the HSW Act, health and
safety standards have improved considerably in the UK but there have been some catastrophic failures. One of the worst was the fire on the off-shore oil platform, Piper Alpha, in 1988 when 167 people died. At the subsequent enquiry, the concept of a safety culture was defined by the Director General of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) at that time, J. R. Rimington. This definition has remained as one of the key points for a successful health and safety management system. The chapter discusses this application of a safety cul-
ture to an organisation and concludes with emergency procedures and the treatment of first-aid.
