“It’s Health and Safety gone mad!” “It’s all just common sense!”
As a health and safety lawyer, these are phrases I hear time and again and let me tell you, the former is plain unhelpful and the latter, frankly, is dangerous.
Let me try and explain why:
Winston was working in the warehouse at the rear of a high street shop. Winston was 17 and this was his first job since leaving school. He was tasked with collecting some items from a high shelf towards the rear of the warehouse. He noted that the shelf was at a bit of an angle but knew that his employer would be aware of that and therefore it was fine. Using his common sense and following his training, he knew he should not climb on the shelf, but could see that the items he needed were near enough to reach for without having to do so.
Janice, a supervisor, was working in the same warehouse. She had done so for 7 years. She saw the same piece of damaged shelving and, knowing that the particular shelf had come loose more than once before, she went off to report it to the warehouse manager, using her common sense.
Lorraine was the Operations Manager. She was aware that the shelf was not secure and had had it fixed a number of times. She was confident that nobody would be silly enough to climb on it and, using her common sense, instructed the warehouse manager to ensure that only light goods were placed upon it. There were signs in the warehouse which made it clear that climbing on the shelves was not permitted under any circumstances.
Lorraine came back from the manager’s office to find Winston lying on the floor beneath the broken shelf, which had collapsed on top of him. After checking he was OK, she said to him “for goodness sake Winston, use your common sense!”
“I was reaching for the items at the back of the shelf and I knew that I shouldn’t climb on it. I leaned on the front to reach the items at the back and before I knew it the whole thing had come down and I toppled off the steps.”
LESSON:
Not everybody’s version of common sense is the same. Common sense depends on experience, age, outlook, personality and a host of other factors.
It is the role of the employer to ENSURE the health, safety and welfare of its employees and others. This is an incredibly high bar to meet and one that leaves no room for chance or interpretation. The vast majority of organisations prosecuted by the HSE for breaches of workplace safety laws are not deliberately flouting the law or even being reckless. More often that not there is a safety system in place that has not been sufficiently implemented. In other cases, we often see an organisation whose managers have the best of intentions but have not thought processes through thoroughly enough. The question to ask yourself is: “could we do more?” and if the answer is yes, then you need to follow through and do it.
Remember that not everyone can be trusted to make sensible decisions and, even if they do, it is not their responsibility to do so. The principal duty rests with the employer.
The buck stops with you. It really is that simple.
However, building a positive culture is about mutual trust, respect and transparency.
The law requires you to do all these things but you will find that, if you give people agency, they are far more likely to buy in.
To discuss any of the matters raised in this article, please contact Bridget Sanger.
