SAFETY PAYS IN THE CATERING INDUSTRY
Summary
This guidance has been produced by the Health and Safety in Catering Industry Liaison Committee consisting of trade and professional associations, unions and enforcement authorities. It is intended that it will be reproduced through the member associations and other avenues to reach catering establishments.
This information sheet is designed to save you money. It tells you all about a new committee which is working to help you comply with new and existing health and safety legislation. It explains how this can be done in a way which ensures that:
- you stand a better chance of preventing accidents in the workplace;
- you avoid substantial financial loss due to accidents, ill health, damage to property or equipment, and lost production;
- any money is spent wisely.
If you follow the advice here you should find that a visit from an inspector is no longer something to be feared.
REMEMBER - CATERING IS A HIGH RISK INDUSTRY!
THE MAIN CAUSES OF ACCIDENTS AND ILL HEALTH IN CATERING ARE:
- SLIPS, TRIPS AND FALLS;
- LIFTING AND MANUAL HANDLING;
- CONTACT WITH HOT SURFACES OR HARMFUL SUBSTANCES;
- DERMATITIS;
- WORK-RELATED UPPER LIMB DISORDERS.
PLEASE READ ON IF YOU WANT TO PREVENT ACCIDENTS AND FINANCIAL LOSS IN YOUR CATERING PREMISES.
Introduction
The hotel and catering industry is both large and diverse in character. It employs over two million full and part-time workers and embraces a wide range and scale of catering activities; from large scale food processing to individual cook to order catering.
Accident rates in the catering industry have shown a rising trend since the Reporting of Injuries Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) first came into force in 1986/87. Statistics show that the rate is high when compared with other parts of the services sector. Accidents give rise to unnecessary pain and suffering. They also place an enormous financial burden on the catering industry.
In addition to the worrying news about accident trends, the industry also needs to be aware of a range of health and safety legislation which came into force on 1 January 1993. Health and safety is an issue which the catering industry cannot afford to ignore.
The costs of accidents
Every working day in Great Britain two people are killed and over 6000 are injured at work. Every year three-quarters of a million people take time off work because of what they regard as work-related illness. Around 31 million work days are lost as a result; more than 30 times that lost through strikes. The catering industry is a significant contributor to these statistics.
Workplace accidents and ill health cause unnecessary misery to the individuals concerned and to their families. They can also cripple companies because, in addition to the direct costs of personal injuries, they may also incur other far greater costs such as damage to property or equipment and lost production. Only a small proportion of these are recoverable from insurance.
A recent HSE study costed 6000 accidents from a range of companies. All were considered to be preventable by improved management control. The costs were alarming:
- accidents cost one organisation 8.5% of turnover;
- in another, costs represented 37% of profits;
- in a third, costs were 5% of operating costs.
In all cases the losses were between eight and 36 times greater than the insured costs.
A key outcome of the study was the recognition that the investment needed to increase market share and generate extra profits to cover accidental losses could be much greater than the investment needed to reduce the losses.
The Committee
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the catering industry have established the Health and Safety in Catering Industry Liaison Committee as a direct response to these issues. The Committee comprises representatives of HSE and local authorities (LAs), together with employers, employees and trade associations from the catering industry. The committee will act as a network to develop and communicate information and guidance through the industry and will provide a forum where issues can be identified and resolved.
The new Regulations
Six sets of Health and Safety at Work Regulations came into force on 1 January 1993 in order to implement six European Community directives. The Regulations are written in such a way as to encourage proper health and safety management. They also require risk assessments to be carried out. It is good practice to ensure that money spent on health and safety matters is directed at the hazards presenting the greatest risk. The assessment requirements in the new Regulations seek to ensure that you identify such risks before moving down the path of providing adequate control. The key will be to make systems efficient and effective: mountains of paper will not impress inspectors, but assessment of risk conducted at a level appropriate to the nature of the business and its work activities, leading to effective risk control, should find favour.
The Regulations cover health and safety management, manual handling, safety in the workplace and with work equipment, personal protective equipment, and display screen equipment (VDUs). The existing Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 will remain almost totally unchanged. Most of the duties in the six sets of Regulations are not new: they clarify and make more explicit duties which were already legal requirements. Exceptions to this are new requirements concerning health and safety management, manual handling and the use of display screens. Each of the sets of Regulations are backed up by either an Approved Code of Practice or guidance, giving comprehensive advice on compliance (see references for details).
The catering industry should be in a particularly strong position to respond to the new Regulations because businesses will be able to draw on experience gained from operating within the requirements of the Food Safety Act. The systems needed to meet customers' quality assurance standards should also tie in well with the systems approach to health and safety management.
Initial action should be concentrated on the areas which experience has shown present the highest levels of risk. In the catering industry these are SLIPS, TRIPS AND FALLS; LIFTING AND MANUAL HANDLING; CONTACT WITH HOT SURFACES, HARMFUL SUBSTANCES ETC; BEING STRUCK BY AN OBJECT; DERMATITIS; AND WORK-RELATED UPPER LIMB DISORDERS.
The following paragraphs give further information on the new Regulations, how they are likely to be enforced and the priorities for the catering industry.
Priorities
The new Regulations introduce a number of requirements which deal specifically with the hazards responsible for most of the deaths, injuries and ill health in the catering industry. Employers will therefore need to concentrate on these high priority areas.
The key requirement to which all businesses will need to give priority is the management of health and safety. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992 ('The Management Regulations') require every employer and self-employed person to make a risk assessment. They also cover the need for health surveillance (which you should already be looking at under The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1994, better known as COSHH) and training. When looking at training needs, new recruits, part-timers and temporary staff will have to be considered. Additional information on managing health and safety and on risk assessment is given later.
The Management Regulations contain two other important items. Firstly, they require employers to appoint competent people to help the company to comply with the legislation. The Approved Code makes it clear that in most cases this can be done using existing staff, provided they are given the facilities to acquaint themselves with best practice etc. Secondly, the more detailed requirements for making arrangements for health and safety may mean it is necessary to revise any existing safety policy to expand on how it is proposed to plan, organise, control, monitor and review the arrangements.
Between them, slips, trips and falls and being struck by an object, account for over half of all reported injuries in the catering sector. The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 ('the Workplace Regulations') address these problems. They require floors to be of suitable construction, non-slip where appropriate, and to be kept free from any article or substance which might cause a person to slip.
The Workplace Regulations also require effective measures to be taken to prevent people falling any distance likely to cause injury (unlike the previous legislation, which was concerned with falls of 6 feet or more). Precautions have to be taken to prevent falling objects causing injury, including simple things like pots and pans falling from high shelves. A further specific duty aimed at preventing falls involves the design of windows, which must take account of those who use them normally and those who are required to clean them
Handling, lifting and carrying accidents account for 14% of all accidents in catering. The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 ('the Manual Handling Regulations') require employers to avoid the need for hazardous manual handling operations, so far as is reasonably practicable. Those hazardous operations which can't be avoided have to be assessed and the risk of injury reduced. It should be remembered that manual handling does not just mean lifting: pushing, pulling etc also need to be taken into account. Training in proper lifting techniques is important, but is not an alternative to reducing the risk in the first place.
The catering industry is unique in having a high level of accidents involving contact with hot surfaces and harmful substances. The Workplace Regulations contain a requirement for appropriate protection to be provided wherever there is a risk of contact with equipment or substances that are at high or low temperature.
The health problems prevalent in the catering industry are dermatitis and work-related upper limb disorders. Those caused by contact with harmful substances are covered by COSHH so little change may be required to comply with the new Regulations.
Think positively about this new legislation. Look at the work you do and try to foresee the major problem areas, then implement changes to reduce the risks. This approach will help you to meet your legal requirements and may prevent the tragedy of an accident or case of ill health at work.
Enforcing the Regulations
Responsibility for the enforcement of health and safety legislation in the industry is divided between HSE and local authorities, (usually through their Environmental Health Department). HSE is the enforcing authority for institutional catering, for example in prisons, hospitals and schools. Local authority enforcement officers have responsibility for retail catering establishments such as pubs, restaurants, hotels, fast food establishments and small catering firms.
HSE inspectors' approach to employers in the period immediately after the coming into force of the new Regulations will be to promote awareness of the Regulations and the duties they place on employers. They will point employers in the direction of sources of advice and guidance as necessary.
Consideration of formal enforcement is not likely unless:
- the risks to health and safety are evident and immediate; or
- what needs to be done is not new (ie existing duties transposed into new legislation); or
- employers appear deliberately obdurate and unwilling to recognise their responsibilities to ensure the long-term health, safety and welfare of employees and others affected by their activities.
Local authorities have yet to develop their own uniform enforcement policy. The joint Chairman and Local Authority Leader of the HSE/Local Authority Enforcement Liaison Committee (HELA) has, however, written to LAs saying that HELA recommendations on enforcement would be unlikely to differ significantly from the HSE approach.
Managing health and safety - more details
The most effective way of preventing accidents and ill health at work is to manage the business in such a way as to encourage all staff to develop a positive culture towards health and safety. The aim should be to control all accidental loss, because the mistakes that can cause injuries and illness can also lead to property damage and interrupt production.
Any company health and safety policy should be based on commitment at the very top. Where possible, it should be developed in consultation with staff, to give them a feeling of ownership. The policy should aim to ensure that commitment and accountability are shared by all staff, including supervisors and managers, and that they are aware of their health and safety responsibilities and have the competence and training necessary to carry them out.
Planning is the key to ensuring that your health and safety efforts really work. This means setting objectives; identifying hazards; assessing risks; implementing standards of performance for the protection of people, and safeguards for plant and production; and developing a positive culture. These are all management concepts which the catering industry has used to implement its general move towards improved standards of food safety and quality assurance.
In the catering industry there is a wealth of information on hazard identification and assessment of risk.
Once appropriate measures have been taken to try and reduce risks, you need to consider how to measure performance, just as you would for finance, production or sales. This should involve two types of monitoring. Firstly, regular inspections, which take place before things go wrong and show whether the standards you have set are being met. Secondly, reactive monitoring, after things go wrong. This includes investigating accidents, property damage and near misses.
The monitoring described above provides information to enable you to review your activities and improve performance. However, it is also recommended that health and safety is occasionally subjected to a more comprehensive review (audit), either by your own staff or outsiders. The audit should complement monitoring activities by looking to see if your policy, organisation and systems are achieving the right results. It should tell you about the reliability and effectiveness of your systems and enable you to learn from your experiences. Although not a legal requirement, audits are worthwhile, particularly in larger organisations, to ensure that money spent on health and safety is not being wasted.
Risk assessment - what it means
Risk assessment is a concept which is common to all of the new sets of Regulations. Confusion can arise because the term sounds more complicated than the process it describes. The underlying concept is, in fact, very simple. We all carry out risk assessments every day. When crossing the road the HAZARD of being knocked down by a car is always there. For this reason you assess the RISK of being run over before deciding to cross. If you think the risk is too great because the traffic is particularly heavy, then you may decide to eliminate it by not crossing, or to reduce it to an acceptable level by waiting until there is a gap, or walking to a pedestrian crossing.
The new health and safety laws work in a similar way. They require an employer to identify all the hazards in the premises eg mincers, slicers, slippery floors etc. Any associated risks must then be assessed, ie are the hazards likely to cause harm to the employees? If the answer for any hazard is yes, then the employer needs to think of ways of eliminating it or reducing the risk to an acceptable level. Failure to do this can have the most tragic consequences.
The main requirement to carry out a risk assessment is contained in the Management Regulations. The Approved Code of Practice, which gives advice on how to comply with the Regulations, clearly states that for small undertakings presenting few or simple hazards, a suitable and sufficient risk assessment can be a very straightforward process based on judgement and requiring no specialist skills or complicated techniques. In addition to looking at the risks and the people affected by them, it should consider existing precautions and how these can be improved.
In practice it may be easier to look at risk assessment as a two stage process, the first stage being an initial judgement which screens out those activities where a risk assessment is not needed.
Employers with five or more employees need to record the SIGNIFICANT findings of the risk assessment. For the catering industry this will most probably include those associated with slips, trips and falls, manual handling, contact with hot surfaces or harmful substances, dermatitis, and upper limb disorders.
Where risk assessments have already been done to meet the requirements of Regulations covering specific aspects of work, for example the Manual Handling Regulations, there is no need to duplicate the work when conducting the overall assessment required by the Management Regulations, but care should be taken to ensure that all significant risks are covered.
The requirement for a risk assessment should be regarded as a means of identifying the likely safety and health problems in a premise, and of putting them in some order of priority, so that the activities presenting the greatest risk can be dealt with first. THIS HELPS TO ENSURE THAT YOU GET MAXIMUM BENEFIT FROM ANY MONEY SPENT. The process is not meant to be complicated, and in the main it relies far more on common sense and good judgement than any complicated paper analysis.
This information is reproduced from a leaflet published by the Health and Safety Executive
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