The issue of Health and Safety has been a growing one over recent years, and at times it seems to rule the roost in the workplace. With the increasing compensation culture we seem to have in the UK, there is more and more pressure on employers and there is little wonder that many are fearful of a compensation claim. The only way to ensure that this is not the case is to have a strict and systematic procedure in place to cover health and safety law which an OHSAS 18001 certification can implement.
The primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety is the Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974 which was most recently updated in 2006. The Act outlines employers responsibilities towards their employees and covers a wide variety of topics from fire safety to control of asbestos, escape from mines and working at heights. The legislation is there to keep employees safe and to make sure any health and safety risks in the workplace are catered for.
The first point of the Health and Safety Act states that 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. There are a wide variety of ways in which an employer can fulfil this promise they must make and if it is a relatively small business the work involved in implementing a comprehensive system is simple. If however you have to cover many aspects of the law it is well worth-while investing in a little bit of help it will not only help you to reduce accidents in the workplace therefore reducing the possibility of a compensation claim against your company but also improve the morale of your workers because they know their safety is taken care of. An OHSAS 18001 certification will give you this help you need.
The certification implements a fully comprehensive system into your business which is designed to make sure all eventualities are taken care of. It works on a plan, do, check, act, system. This means that initially risks are explored and examined, secondly a plan of action is put into place to make sure these risks are covered for, the standard then checks that everything is covered and acts on the missed points if there are any. With a system like the OHSAS 18001 standard in place you can feel safe that your workplace will be a safe and happy one to work in.