Everyone in a local authority shares responsibility for health and safety. Employers have overall responsibility, while line managers are responsible for day-to-day safety of employees and the public. If safety laws are broken and injuries occur, the authority could face prosecution, fines, and other costs like lost productivity. A good health and safety program and workplace culture that encourages continuous improvement can help authorities avoid these costs while boosting morale and efficiency. The document provides guidance on developing policies, training employees at all levels, and getting expert advice to ensure health and safety is properly managed.

1. HEALTH AND SAFETY FOR
WORKERS
SHEBINA. A

2. Who is responsible for health and safety
in your local authority?
• EVERYONE!
• The employer – overall responsibility for health and
safety
• The chief executive – responsibility for
implementing and managing the health and safety
strategy and policy for the authority.
• Line managers – day to day responsibility for
themselves, their employees and others, including
members of the public.
• Employees – responsibility for themselves and
others.

3. When things go wrong – the law
• As an employer, your authority has a legal duty to
protect its workers and contractors as well as the
public
• If your authority breaks health and safety law, it
could be prosecuted or issued with an
improvement or prohibition notice.
• If someone is killed, injured or made ill by their
work, or a member of the public is harmed because
of your authority’s negligence, it could be taken to
court.

4. When things go wrong – the cost of
accidents
You may have insurance to cover the cost of accidents,
but you’ll have to pay the indirect costs. These are
often greater and include:
 Sick pay
 Extra wages or overtime
 Fines and legal costs
 Repairing damages to machines, equipment or
property.
 Increased insurance premiums.

5. When things go wrong – the cost of ill
health
Work related ill health caused by common illnesses
and medical conditions can:
Reduce productivity
Increase the cost of hiring new staff
Result in civil claims or retirements with
enhanced benefits
These will an have an impact on your budget.

6. Benefits Of A Safe And Healthy Workplace
Organizations can become more effective if they have safer and
healthy work places. Because:
•They can have fewer day lost. Therefore they have higher
productivity
•They can increase efficiency and quality. Because they have
healthier workforce.
•They can reduce medical and insurance costs.
•They can improve a good prestige. Everybody wants to work
with them.

7. Results Of An Unsafe And Unhealthy
Workplace
The important results are:
–Injury and Disease
–Mental Health
–Death and Violence
–Economic Costs

8. Workplace Safety Program
• Purpose- To reduce work-related injury & illness
• Content- The program should include any policy,
procedure, training that protects workers from workrelated injury and illness while on the job.
• Concerns- Promote & reward safe practices at work,
reducing injuries & illnesses at work and eliminating
lifeless at work.

9. Co-Workers Affect Each other’s Safety
• Employees’ health and safety are affected not
only by their own actions but by those of their
co-workers.
• Senior management must:
Help employees manage hazards associated
with their work (tasks or responsibilities).
They must determine that employees are fit
for work.

10. Allow for Continuous Improvement
•
•
•
•
Seeking better ways to work
Measuring performance
Reporting against set targets
Evaluating compliance with procedures, standards and
regulations
• Understanding the causes of incidents and injuries
• Openly acknowledging and promptly correcting
deficiencies.

11. What are your rights?
The most important of these rights are:
•as far as possible, to have any risks to your health and
safety properly controlled
•to be provided with any personal protective and safety
equipment free of charge
•to stop work and leave your work area, without being
disciplined if you have reasonable concerns about your safety
•to tell your employer about any health and safety
concerns you have
•to have rest breaks during the working day
•to have time off from work during the working week
•to have annual paid holiday.

12. Duties of care

13. Health and Safety Program
A Health & Safety Program consists of clearly
defined actions to implement the health and safety
policy. The numbers of elements depend on
organizational needs. Following are common
elements of a health and safety program:
Leadership and administration
Management training
Workplace inspections
Task analysis and procedures
Accident/incident investigation
Task observation

14. Emergency preparedness
Organizational rules
Accident/incident analysis Employee training
Personal protective equipment (PPE)
Program evaluation system
Engineering controls
Personal communications
Group meetings
General promotion
Hiring and placement
Purchasing controls
Off-the-job safety
Evaluation and continuous improvement

15. Selection of committee members
The employer appoints management members of the committee. In a
unionized workplace, the union selects employee members. If not
specified in the legislation, selection is to be made according to the
terms of reference established by your workplace. The health and
safety legislation generally states that a health and safety committee
must:
• Consist of at least one-half worker (employee) representatives who
have been elected or selected by the employees or their union;
• Meet regularly - consult your legislation about the frequency of
meetings. Some jurisdictions require committee meetings at least once
every three months while others require monthly meetings;
• Two co-chairpersons- a management chairperson and a employee
chairperson. In practice, most Health and Safety Committees have
equal numbers of management and worker members.

16. The chartered institute of personnel and
development estimates that for local
government sickness absence costs over £584
per worker per year.
The biggest single cause of absence in local
government is attributed to common mental
health problems including anxiety, stress and
depression, accounting for around 23% of all
days off work.

17. Getting health and safety right….
Saves lives
Keep people from harm
Improves morale among the workforce
Saves money
Improves efficiency
Sends out a positive message to others, including
employees, contractors and the electorale
Sets a good example

18. How can you help to get health and
safety right?
 Policy:Make sure your authority has a policy that:
 Defines the structure of health and safety risk management.
 Says how it should function
 Identifies the people who have specific roles and responsibilities.
 Is communicated to all employees
 Is reviewed periodically
 Management:Its recommended that your cabinet or executive should:
 Set targets for reducing injuries and ill health
 Get reports on specific incidents or accidents
 Get regular reports on health and safety performance
 Report publicly on health and safety performance.

19.  Advice:Make sure you and your authority get:
 The right advice from competent health and safety
professionals.
 Sound occupational health advice.
 Training: Training makes people safer and reduces accidents and
incidents
 Everyone needs some form of health and safety training:
• Elected members need to know their broad strategic
responsibilities and recognise the resources needed.
• Managers and supervisors need training to help them plan work
safely and understand the implications if they don’t
• ‘front line’ employees need basic training, example on safe system
of work