Why is Health and Safety Important in the Workplace?
Why is Health and Safety important to us? There are many reasons but importantly it’s about the welfare of our employees and customers.
Hazards at work
In a business working environment such as ours, there is always the potential of an accident or damage to someone’s health occurring. Our employees are exposed to hazards, be they slips, trips, falls, fire, hazardous substances, loads which have to be on occasions manually handled, equipment use, electricity, working with display screen equipment, or even psychological hazards such as stress.
We are aware and look to eliminate to the best of our abilities as a responsible Employer to provide a safe working environment as part of section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 https://www.legislation.gov.uk.
As pointed out and acknowledged by us, ‘It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.’
We likewise make our valued employees aware that their responsibility as an Employee is that they have general duties ‘To take reasonable care for the health and safety of himself and of other persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions at work’
COSHH Assessments
What is a COSHH Assessment
A COSHH assessment helps you to identify the hazards and risks from hazardous substances in your workplace. It is a thorough risk assessment that concentrates on a workplace’s exposure to hazardous substances. You only need to carry out a COSHH assessment if hazardous substances are likely to be present in your workplace.
Our commitment to our staff
As an employer, our legal duty is to reduce any potential risks to our employees’ health. Part of this duty involves carrying out a COSHH assessment if hazardous substances are likely to be present in the workplace. We assign a competent technical person to complete this process.
Our steps are:
- Collect information on the substances we use and our work practices.
- Evaluate the health risks.
- Select appropriate control measures to reduce or eliminate the risks.
- Record our findings and implement our control measures.
- Monitor performance and review our assessment.
We use and publish by making available to all parties detailed Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs) for all materials and manufactured products on site following the information set out to ensure that we comply with our legal responsibilities.
