Bad weather toll

[noggin1969]

Well after nearly 2 weeks of the snow and ice the injury toll is rising in our office 3 lads off with broken wrists and 1 lass with a seriously broken leg ( broken in 3 places and will require pinning ) all from slipping. Luckily we've had no RTA's. This is in an office of less than 150 deliveries. The managers have been leaving it up to the staff to do the risk assessment on their walks , now we have heard a nasty rumor that if you have an accident/incident after you have " risk assessed " the situation you can be held responsible for your injury and this could affect any sick pay

[DGP1]

Where spikeys/snow chains issued? Where they being used?

[noggin1969]

spikeys can't be used by drivers , most walkers not using them as they fall apart after a day or two.

[Lincox]

Are those spikies the thing that our DO have ordered for the summer as they believe we should be aerating our customers lawns as we go. No sign of them arriving in our office after two weeks of snow.

[brunswick]

correct me if i'm wrong,surely a risk assessment should be carried out by a person or persons who have received training to do so,the whole idea of risk assessments is for an employer to have the confidence that he is not putting an employee in a dangerous position and so leaving himself open to prosecution should things go wrong

[andy2007]

Precisely! Unless you've all had training in performing Risk Assesments, they're not worth the paper they're written/printed on. The Managers have no right to be asking you to do them. What has your H&S Rep said about this?
More importantly. Why hasn't your H&S Rep put a stop to this?
He/she should know better than to allow this to happen!!!!!

[brothermagrew]

What is a Risk Assessment?
A Risk Assessment is a systematic method of looking at work activities, considering what could go wrong, and deciding on suitable control measures to prevent loss, damage or injury in the workplace. The Assessment should include the controls required to eliminate, reduce or minimise the risks.

Why conduct a Risk Assessment?
Risk Assessments are a fundamental requirement for businesses. If you don’t know, or appreciate where the risks are, you are putting yourself, your employees, your customers and your organisation in danger. Employers must look at all work activities that could cause harm in order to decide whether they are doing enough to meet their legal obligations. This is a minimum requirement. If it is reasonably practicable to do so, employers should consider doing more than the legal minimum. The aim should always be to reduce the risks as much as is 'reasonably practicable'.

'Reasonably practicable' is a legal term that means employers must balance the cost of steps that they could take to reduce a risk against the degree of risk presented.

What should a Risk Assessment cover?
This will depend on the organisation and may vary depending on the nature of the work. However, Assessments must consider everyone who could be affected by that activity. As well as employees, others who could be affected must also be considered. This includes contractors, temporary workers, volunteers and the general public. Some groups are considered more vulnerable, such as young persons under 18 and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. The legislation specifically asks employers to consider the risks posed to these groups and put in place additional controls if they are required.

Legal duties and obligations around Risk Assessment
The Management of Health and Safety at Work (MHSW) Regulations 1999. These regulations require all employers and the self-employed to assess the risks from their work on anyone who may be affected by their activities. The Regulations require employers to carry out a systematic examination of their work activities and record the significant findings of the Assessment. If an employer has five or more employees, the findings must be recorded in writing.

Other regulations
As well as the assessment of general work activities, there are a number of pieces of legislation that look for a specific Risk Assessment including:
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002
The Manual Handling Operations Regulations
The Control Of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002
The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992
The Display Screen Equipment Regulations

The above regulations require employers to look at specific matters in relation to the risks that are likely to be encountered.

Assessing risks in the workplace
There are no hard and fast rules as to how Risk Assessments should be carried out, as every organisation is different and may require a slightly different approach. It’s important that Risk Assessments are carried out systematically and all of the foreseeable risks considered. In order to assess risks it is important to be aware of the distinction between hazard and risk.

The following definitions are usually applied to these terms:

Hazard: Anything with the potential to cause harm, electricity, hazardous substances and noise are examples of typical hazards.

Risk: The likelihood that damage, loss or injury will be caused by a hazard and how severe the outcome may be.

The Health and Safety Executive recommend an approach where you carry out the process in five steps:

1.identify the hazards associated with work activities
2.identify who could be harmed by those hazards
3.identify how you manage the risks at present and what further steps might be required to reduce the risks further. These are your control measures.
4.record the findings of your assessment and inform those at risk of the controls
5.review the Risk Assessment on a regular basis, e.g. if the staff, the activity, or the equipment used change.
It is a good idea to review your Assessments at least annually.

Look at each activity as critically as possible, observing how it is carried out, and checking existing guidelines and information.

Check accident reports and inspection and maintenance records to see if anything can be learned from existing records.

Controlling risks
When deciding on control measures the following principles should be applied:

can the risk be avoided or eliminated?
can the risks be contained at source?
can the work be adapted to suit the individual? e.g. layout of workplace, choice of equipment and methods of working
can engineering or technical controls be used?
Information, instruction and training, and providing personal protective equipment should always be considered as a last resort after the above controls have been considered.

Employers should, wherever possible, give priority to those controls that best protect everyone exposed to the risk. Remember that additional controls may be required to protect vulnerable groups, such as young people or pregnant workers.

Involving employees and communicating findings
It is important to involve the people who carry out the activity in the Risk Assessment. They will be able to bring their knowledge, experience and understanding of the activity. They will have an understanding of exactly how the work is carried out and will look at it from a different perspective from their manager or supervisor. Carrying out the Assessment is just the first step. Once the Assessment has been carried out, make sure that everyone involved in the activity, or exposed to the risk, is made aware of the findings of the Assessment.

[andy2007]

Yes, you're right about it being neccessary to involve those who actually carry out the tasks. But there's a big difference, between including input from the workers, and actually expecting them to perform the complete Risk Assessment. There's nothing in what you've quoted, which justifies asking Delivery Posties to complete their own Risk Assessments. As I said earlier: The Risk Assessments performed by the Delivery Posties, aren't worth the paper they're written/printed on!

[noggin1969]

What has your H&S Rep said about this?
More importantly. Why hasn't your H&S Rep put a stop to this?
He/she should know better than to allow this to happen!!!!!

Th

[fishtank]

The Risk Assessments performed by the Delivery Posties, aren't worth the paper they're written/printed on!

They are to Royal Mail when you have an accident and you're told that you made the decision to enter the property therefore the blame lies with you.

[andy2007]

Noggin. It's good to hear that you have a good H&S Rep. But surely he's aware of the fact that these Risk Assessments are worthless, to everyone but RM. Who will only use them as an excuse to put the blame for any accidents firmly with the victims. Or if not, I strongly suggest that you tell him. So that he can put a stop to this practice, and get some proper Risk Assessments done.

Fishtank. You're right there! But my point is, that they're worthless to anyone outside of RM, INCLUDING the HSE. They are purely an attempt to put the blame for any accidents firmly with the victims. Instead of using them as a way to reduce the risk of accidents happening. Which is what they're supposed to be used for.

[noggin1969]

To clear it

[brothermagrew]

[Lincox]

The biggest problem for Royal Mail is that is it safe for a safety rep to go and make an assessment, and the facts are that it is physically impossible for every walk to have every address risk assessed. They must therefore make a blanket decision on the area based on the best and most up to date weather forecast available, and not play political games with us based on public outcries that they are not getting their mail. If they tell us to work then they must be responsible for any incident that occurs that can be proven not to be irresponsibility on behalf of the employee. If they opt for a closure on deliveries and collections in certain weather hit areas, then they should have the sense to make a public announcement in that area, pointing out the reasons for cessation and another one when that ban has been lifted, together with any instructions that they can give to the public on how they may or may not collect their mail during the period of cessation. In other words, act like a responsible and caring business not only for the public but for the employees as well.

[andy2007]

To clear it up when i said risk assessment i didn't mean the paper work legal stuff , managers have been saying only go were you feel safe to do so , unfortunately people have been hurt going to places they felt safe to deliver.

Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought that was exactly what you meant.

It actually makes a lot of sense, for the Managers to ask you for your opinions, on whether it's safe to deliver or not. In fact, it's the best way to do it (as Brothermagrew has already pointed out). But those opinions shouldn't be used against people who get hurt. Because they're just opinions, based on personal experience, and observations at the time. You're not trained to do a full assessment of the dangers. It's a very gray area, which frankly needs to be cleared up by the HSE.

Personally, I believe that the opinions of those who do the job, should carry a lot of weight, when performing Risk Assessments. But that they shouldn't be the ONLY source of information. There should also be a proper assessment, by someone who's properly trained. Obviously, it's impractical to do that with every delivery, every time. But a general assessment of the area, based on past records (not just of weather, but of accident rates), should be used too. But that's just my opinion.