Professional Documents
Culture Documents
(e) provided for participation of management and workers in the identification and
monitoring of workplace hazards by requiring the appointment of union safety
representatives from the workforce to carry out periodic inspections of the workplace,
and by requiring that changes and improvements in occupational health and safety be
discussed at meetings of safety committees consisting of management and union
representation.
Health And Safety Commission
One of the principal functions of the Health and Safety Commission is to
propose regulations on health and safety at work to the Secretary of State
for Employment.
(b) exclude or modify any of the 'existing statutory provisions'. An example of the power of
modification is the Employers' Health and Safety Policy Statements, which exempts
employers employing fewer than five employees from complying with HSWA, and having to
issue a written company safety policy, and revise it as often as necessary;
(c) make a specified authority responsible for the enforcement of any of the 'relevant
statutory provisions'. An example of the exercise of this power is the enforcement of some
of the 'relevant statutory provisions' by HSE and others by local authorities
HSC - Issue and approval of Codes of
Practice
The HSC is empowered to approve and issue codes of practice for the purpose of providing
guidance on health and safety duties laid down in statute or regulations.
In every case, any relevant government department, or other body, must be consulted
beforehand and the approval of the Secretary of State must be obtained. Any code of
practice approved in this way is an 'approved code of practice' .
HASAW Act 1974 The General
Duties
HSWA places broad General Duties upon five separate classes of persons,
(a) employers;
(b) employees;
(e) occupiers of buildings in which persons work, other than one's own
employees.
Duties of the Employers
It is the duty of every employer, so far as is reasonably practicable, to ensure the health,
safety and welfare at work of all his employees. More particularly, this includes
(a) the provision and maintenance of plant and systems of work that are safe and
without health risks
(b) arrangements for ensuring safety and absence of health risks in connection with
the use, handling, storage and transport of articles and substances
(d) the maintenance of any place of work under the employer's control in a condition
that is safe and without health risks, including means of access and egress.
(e) the provision and maintenance of a working environment for employees that is safe
and free from health risks, with adequate facilities and arrangements for employees'
welfare.
Duties of the Employers
Health and Safety Policy
Employers must prepare and, as often as is necessary, revise a written Statement of Health
and Safety Policy.
There is an exception to this requirement in the case of employers employing at any time
fewer than FIVE EMPLOYEES (Employer's Health and Safety Policy Statements
(Exception) Regulations 1975)
Legal Importance of Health and
Safety Policy Statements
Requirements detailed in the Statement of Health and Safety Policy (probably do not, constitute
terms of a contract of employment. Nevertheless the rule book may be construed as constituting
reasonable orders which an employer is entitled to give to an employee. Failure on the part of an
employee to obey such rules would amount to a breach of contract of employment.
The importance of the law relating to the contractual rights and duties of employers and
employees has been largely superseded by the law relating to unfair dismissal. The present
position would, therefore, seem to be that failure to carry out an order based on a rule or
procedure in a Statement of Health and Safety Policy (assuming that the employee was well
aware of it) could lead to the dismissal of the employee. Or, if an employer was in breach, to the
constructive dismissal of an employee.
This view is supported by the fact that it was always an implied term of an employment contract at
common law that an employee would carry out his duties honestly and with due care and skill
(Lister v. Romford Ice & Cold Storage Co. Ltd [19S7] 1 AER 125). A case confirming this approach
is Martin v. Yorkshire Imperial Metals Ltd, where an employee was held to have been fairly
dismissed for having removed a guard from a machine so that he might get his work done more
quickly.
Failure to bring the contents of a Statement of Health and Safety Policy to the attention of
employees can have serious consequences, as illustrated in the case of Armour v. Skeen1977
SLT 71. Here two painters employed under a direct labour contract by Strathclyde Regional
Council fell from scaffolding erected for the work. One was killed. Both the Regional Council and
its Director of Roads were prosecuted for having failed to comply with HSWA, sec 2(1) and (3)
Duty to Provide Information to
Employees
Under HASWA, employers have a duty to 'provide such information, instruction, training
and supervision as is necessary to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health
and safety at work of their employees'.
Similar provisions apply in the case of non-employees in situations where the way an
employer conducts his undertaking might affect the health and safety of non-employees,
e.g. contractors and sub-contractors.
Under HASWA ,inspectors are obliged to supply safety representatives with technical
information, i.e. factual information obtained during their visits, such as the results of any
noise measurements, tests, monitoring activities, together with notices of prosecution,
copies of correspondence and copies of any improvement or prohibition notices served on
their employer.
The Health and Safety Information
for Employees Regulations 1989
These Regulations require information relating to health, safety and welfare to be
furnished to employees by means of posters or leaflets in the form approved and
published for the purposes of the Regulations by the HSE.
The Regulations require the name and address of the enforcing authority and the address
of the Employment Medical Advisory Service to be written in the appropriate space on the
poster; and where the leaflet is given the same information should be specified in a written
notice accompanying it.
The Regulations provide for the issue of Certificates of Exemption by the HSE and a
defence for contravention of the Regulations. They repeal, revoke and modify various
enactments and instruments relating to the provision of information to employees.
Duty of Consultation and
Establishment of Safety
Committees
Employers are required, in the interests of making and maintaining arrangements to
enable them and their employees to co-operate in promoting and developing measures to
ensure the health and safety at work of employees and in monitoring the effectiveness of
such measures,
(a) take reasonable care for their own health and safety, and that of other persons
(including members of the public) who may foreseeable be affected by their acts or
omissions at work;
(b) co-operate with their employer so far as is necessary for him to comply with any duty
or requirement under any of the 'relevant statutory pro- visions.
(c) not intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything provided for the
purpose of health and safety at work in furtherance of a statutory requirement.
ln addition, employees owe employers a contractual duty to carry out their work with care
and skill. Failure to do this can lead to dismissal as being in breach of a term of their
contract of employment
Under Regulation 8 of the Health and Safety at Work Act is it an offence for anyone to
intentionally or recklessly interfere with, or misuse anything, provided in the interests of
health safety and welfare.
Consequences of breach of duties
in HASAW by employers and
employees
Breach By Employer
(a) prosecuted by an HSE inspector, and, if found guilty, made to pay a fine, or
possibly sent to prison
(b) sued for negligence at common law if the breach causes injury to an
employee.
(b) if his breach causes injury to himself or to other employees or to a member of the
public, involving his employer in vicarious liability, though, where the injury is to himself,
his damages will be reduced on the ground of his contributory negligence;
(c) be dismissed from his employment for being in breach of the term of his contract of
employment that he will carry out his work with proper care and skill. If the employer has
gone through the necessary procedures set out in the ACAS Code, 'Disciplinary Practice
and Procedures in Industry', an industrial tribunal may well declare such dismissal fair
Consequences of breach of duties
in HASAW by employers and
employees
Duties of employers to persons other than their employees
Every employer must conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is
reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment are not exposed to risks to
health or safety.
Health & Safety
Act 1974
Objectives